Health

The health of the dog Lagotto Romagnolo. From Genesis, think mates only among certified reproducers as healthy.  The search for healthy puppies grown with the care and attention necessary to their proper development. Nutrition and health certificates. The dangers for the dog up to the hygiene of the puppies and Lagotto romagnolo adults.

How and when to wash the Lagotto Romagnolo

Come e quando lavare il Lagotto Romagnolo

When to bath the puppy

The first bath to the puppy of Lagotto should be done prophylactic vaccination ended. Sometimes it is not possible to wait until four months and we will start with some short washing of legs. With the beautiful season and with some attention you can anticipate the first washing of the puppy. There is no rush in washing the puppy, but sometimes it can become necessary for too much dirty on the pup.

The puppy must be dried deeply and with the Lagotto Romagnolo is never too easy.

The undercoat and the woolly curls stay damp and besides the towels we will have to introduce the hairdryer. Experience often not welcome to the puppy. Let’s also remember to well dry the ears.  Obviously without hairdryer.

We will not have to exceed with the use of shampoo even if it is specific for dogs..

How often should the dog be washed, the Lagotto Romagnolo.

Dogs should not be washed with too frequency.

The use of shampoo suitable for dogs, removes from the mantle the natural fat that is the defense of the hair and skin. The fat takes several days to recreate the right balance on the skin and on the hair. Too frequent baths may be the cause of dermatitis. To avoid unnecessary baths we will have to devote us to combing and grooming of the lagotto. Sometimes, back from a walk the Lagotto is filled with pellets of grass, its can be removed manually. If it is an activity that we do frequently we will evaluate a short coat for our Lagotto that avoids this annoying inconvenience for both. the owner and the dog.

Often a nice combed or the use of a moistened sponge is sufficient.

Even wipes or dry shampoo can help to remove any unpleasant odors. The brush should rarely be used, to avoid the typical curl of the breed would be smoothed hair.

The main grooming of the Lagotto Romagnolo mantle is done with the use of the comb.

With wider teeth to dissolve the knots and the felted hair. The typical areas where the hair is knotted resulting felting are behind the ears, between the tail and the trunk. With tighter teeth to restore tone and cleanliness. A regular combing, not too frequent is often enough to keep the dog clean and tidy. The combing action helps to distribute the natural fat along the whole mantle which will give more gloss and softness to the curl. The Lagotto Romagnolo does not make a wetsuit and with the combing we will remove much of the dead hair which of course is stranded in the thick and woolly clam of the lagotto. These operations have an invigorating and pleasing effect for the dog. For the Lagotto the final effect may not always be so pleasant. It depends on the delicacy and frequency with which we comb it. The fact that the comb can not slide well through the curls can create some discomfort.

How to bathe, practical advice.

Before bathing it is important to comb the dog thoroughly. In addition to having greater hygiene, the products that we are going to use will act more effectively, giving to the mantle of the Lagotto a beautiful curly hair soft and shiny. After washing with the shampoo we’re going to use a dog conditioner.

For the Lagotto Romagnolo, the use of a conditioner is decisive for the final result.

We will let the conditioner act well before proceeding to the last rinse. A nice wipe with a towel and we’ll pass the phono. Not to tire and heat up our dog every now and then we stop and will be the opportunity to pass the comb with fine teeth in the wet hair. The effect at the end will be astounding. The phone should never be pointed at the dog’s nose. If we feel like it and we will be glad we can also give a break to some longer tub or try to give a general fart grooming. A finish to reform the ride around the ears and a lowering to the neck never fails.

Quiet! We won’t do any big damage! The fur of the lagotto always grows and soon some inexperience error will no longer be evident!

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Cleaning the ears

La pulizia delle orecchie Lagotto Romagnolo

Ear cleaning

The Lagotto Romagnolo is a canine breed that requires particular attention to the cleanliness of the ears. The ears pendulous require a careful check for all dogs. The Lagotto Romagnolo does not lose its hair, also in the inner part of the ear. A periodic ears check is necessary and it is the opportunity to remove a few hair who will grow towards the ear canal.

The lack of aeration and the storage of moisture determine the ideal conditions for the development of microbes. Its produced dermatitis, otitis and Malassezia. If we notice that the dog is scratching his ear repeatedly is the first sign of a probable infection. The presence of dirt and bad odor require immediate intervention to avoid annoying as dangerous otites. Puppies will have to get used to be removed the hairs near the ear canal and in the inner part of the Auricular Pavilion. The first few times will do some verse but no pain. Growing up will be almost happy to undergo this practice a bit like for the bath. It depends a lot on how we practice this experience since puppy. After a bath or a refreshing summer, every time there is the possibility that the humidity remains around the ears we will have to dry them. A towel or a paper cloth are enough. Its are simple attentions we have to be taken for each dog in particular for the canine breeds with pendulous ears.

in addition Lagotto Romagnolo requires the eliminations of the internal hairs.

The formation of wax is mainly due to the lack of air. Sometimes the wax is not easily visible, but its presence is detectable by the bad odor Malassezia.

Even a bad diet can cause inflammation and formations of dirt in the ears.

If we do not solve with an intense cleaning and the use of soluble specifications for ears it is necessaryu consult your veterinary surgeon.

How to clean the ears

Once the internal hairs are removed, the procedure to follow is rather simple. We will use specific ear solutions for cleaning the dog’s ears. The PH of the dog’s skin is different from human. Often VETs recommend otodine to remove of wax.

  • Remove the tufts of hairs
  • Wipe the exterior of the pavilion with cotton moistened with the chosen detergent product or oxygenated water.
  • We will pour the product without exaggerating inside the duct. The anatomical beak allows the detergent liquid to be introduced to the right depth.
  • We massage from behind the dog’s ear in order to make the detergent act well.
  • With cotton or gauze we will clean and dry your dog’s ear.

Parties and cuddles to our Lagotto who lent himself to this practice. The next time it will be easier!

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The Confidence Veterinarian and the Breeding Referent Veterinarian

The Confidence Veterinarian

The choice of the veterinarian who will follow the puppy is an important choice. The fact that he is near home is a valid criterion of choice. Managing emergencies quickly can sometimes save your dog’s life. Of course it is not the only criterion. A 24-hour clinic will certainly provide additional benefits, but it should not be a factory. Competence and experience are essential.

The trusted veterinarian, together with the breeder, can solve useless mental disorders or vice versa help not to underestimate serious problems.

For us it is important that the Confidence Veterinarian knows how to recognize the seriousness and completeness of information that we provide together with the puppy and can transmit peace of mind to those who have never had a dog.

Unfortunately, however, we find that this is not always the case. We understand of course that the number of unwise litters, especially in breeds of dogs in great demand, is high and therefore lead some veterinarians to depart from the dog in a prejudiced way.

We are here! We and our referring veterinarians to give any information that may be necessary.

In other articles, we have explained how important the choice of breeding is. Equally important is the choice of the Confidence Veterinarian.

An experienced and competent doctor, used to work with breed puppies and if you know the Lagotto Romagnolo.

Our Breeding Veterinarians

For a farm the figure of the veterinarian is of primary importance. Only the vet can give you indications on how to deal with the various situations that we have in the breeding. Our luck is that we have a vet in our family. When she visits us she is automatically on the farm.

The possibilities of comparison and the number of information we can have are so high.

That’s not why it was an obligatory choice. For a veterinarian to follow a breeding even if small is very tiring. We insisted that Camilla and Laura were our references.

Besides Camilla and Laura we use other veterinarians, trusted orthopedists and clinics for night emergencies.

Doctors expert in working with breeders that often give us valuable information. They guide and support us in all matters relating to joint problems, dysplasia and official certifications of our dogs. Sometimes they take care of our puppies even when they are no longer with us.

Dr. Cammelli and Dr. Corti follow our dogs always and especially pregnant females and puppies in the first two months of life.

They are therefore also available for the family’s trusted veterinarian with useful information about our little Lagotto Romagnolo.

Here are their references:

Ambulatorio veterinario Borgo San Lorenzo (FI) Medico Veterinario C. Cammelli e Medico Veterinario L. Corti

Ospedale Veterinario I Portoni Rossi via Roma, 57/a – 40069 Zola Predosa (BO) T: 051 755233

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The teething of Lagotto Romagnolo’s puppy

Teething time of the puppy

Starting from the second to third week we can observe how the teeth begin to appear from Milk. The first in general are the canines and almost at the same time the incisors will come out. A process that will end around the sixth week of the puppy’s life.

There are 28 milk teeth and soon they will begin to give way to the final teeth. The Dog has 42 definitive teeth, in fact, 10 molars will be added and 4 premolars.

We have reached the sixth week with all milk teeth.

Only two more weeks pass and the first definitive incisors begin to appear. The puppy is about 2 months old and the definitive dentition begins.

This is a fairly long process from now on which will reach the seventh month of the dog’s life, and sometimes even a little longer.

The changes in the puppy’s mouth are considerable and even the closures can vary from week to week. We check the mouths of our puppy’s ponds and find this phenomenon.

Teething signals

That the final teething process has begun we often notice from the puppy’s behaviour. He will insistently bite into any object within his reach.  This is his attempt to alleviate the discomfort.

We should not be alarmed. Some bleeding of the gums, a few yelps and episodes of diarrhoea are quite normal.

If the situation is clearly abnormal, you should consult your vet.

Milk teeth that fall out very often are not found. Nothing to worry about if your puppy has swallowed a tooth.

The vet should always check the teeth during the vaccination check-up. This comes back well. The puppy is three months old at the first booster and four months old at the second booster.

Each breed then has its own standard for permitted closures. It is normal for a boxer to have a longer jaw (prognathism) and would be inadmissible for a Labrador.

For information, the Lagotto Romagnolo standard admits three types of closures. Scissor toothing, Pincer toothing (lower and upper incisors touch each other) and Teething with a slight prognatism.

How to help your puppy

Teething is a natural process and there is little we can do. Monitor the situation and provide your puppy with some games that can help alleviate the pain.

A game with the right consistency. Never as hard as skin bones or vegetable bones, for example.

A soft object used for this function, kong for example, helps to prevent other objects from being targeted. Slippers or shoes are a classic and we would like to keep them in case.

In commerce there are specific objects to give to the puppy to relieve the annoyance of the birth of teeth.

We were saying how there are many mutations and movements of the closure in the mouth of dogs during the teething process.

You can rest between the jaw and jaw that change constantly up to seven months but often up to a year.

Hard objects to bite are to be avoided during this period. They can compromise the correct growth of the teeth.

In particular the incisors may move in the wrong direction.

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Lagotto Romagnolo dysplasia

Dysplasia in the dog

Hip dysplasia (HD) is a pathology borne by the COXO-femoral joint that affects many dog breeds and may have often severe arthrosic evolution. It was the first skeletal and hereditary pathology studied in the dog.

Elbow dysplasia (ED) is one of the most important causes of anterior limb lameness of the Young and elderly dog (taken from the site of the official central reading radiographs Celemasche)

Dysplasia in the Lagotto Romagnolo

The Lagotto Romagnolo passes for being a breed that is not afflicted by dysplasia. The reality is very different!

Its light weight well supports light grades of dysplasia. And this is a very positive fact. The difference between withstanding dysplasia well to be free of dysplasia is so much, even too much!

For those who breed, dysplasia puts important stakes. It represents costs, it discards some easy couplings, it forces to remove some dogs from the reproduction. It means dealing with problems and situations.

In some cases even vets do not help. Where there is money there is always someone ready to take advantage. In all categories. And even dysplasia for someone can only be a business.

For those who buy a puppy Lagotto is often “not knowing” that pushes to buy puppies without controls. Just looking at the price can lead to wrong choices. Even worse to pay puppies as selected because the Lagotto Romagnolo passes for being a breed not afflicted by dysplasia.

Our choice is to have litters exclusively from Lagotto Romagnolo whose degree of dysplasia is ascertained by official radiography on hips and elbows.

Only with this information we can determine the right pairings, think of healthy puppies and pursue the improvement of the breed.

The Lagotto Romagnolo dysplasia in the institutions

Enci does not limit the degree of dysplasia within which the reproducers must stand. The limit is on the recognition of selected reproducers.

Only Lagotto Romagnolo with a degree of hip dysplasia A, B, C are recognized as selected breeders.

The breed clubs, all, each for the related breed, have self-limiting.

The Italian Club Lagotto Romagnolo admits only dogs with hip dysplasia degree A, B, C to the list of male breeding males.

For the dysplasia of the elbows the Club does not set limits.

Many Lagotto Romagnolo farms, attentive to the health of their puppies, verify the degree of dysplasia of the elbow of their mares and stallions. Already from these few lines we understand how:

It is ETHICAL to proceed with the reproduction and breeding of the Lagotto Romagnolo with X-rays of dogs whose degree of dysplasia is ascertained OFFICIALMALLY.

These are the reading stations that establish the degree of dysplasia and report it on the pedigree. They issue official certificates such as those reported in all the cards of our Lagotti Romagnoli. All of them!

There are no puppies free from dysplasia

No one can give guarantees of exemption from dysplasia for puppies.

Since polygenic diplasia is a disease, there is no genetic test for it. In order to claim that the genetic heritage of parents is free from dysplasia, they must not be dysplastic, all siblings, grandparents and uncles.

The genetic patrimony of the Lagotto Romagnolo is not so vast.

Pedigree and X-ray dogs also serve this purpose, to qualify the relationship to go in the right direction.

Dogs with dysplasia degree C can give birth to puppies with dysplasia degree A and vice versa.

It also depends on the kinship. It makes no sense to ignore this pathology for those who breed or even for those who buy a puppy of Lagotto Romagnolo.

Welcoming a puppy of Lagotto Romagnolo son of parents and in case tested grandparents, shifts the odds of having a healthy puppy heavily on our side.

Classification of dysplasia

The F.C.I. Fédération Cynologique Internationale classifies hip dysplasia in 5 degrees, whose medical definition is described in Italian on the FSA Foundation Animal Health Website:

  • Grade A-no sign of dysplasia
  •  Grade B-almost normal hip joint
  • Grade C-Light hip dysplasia
  • Grade D-Medium hip dysplasia
  • Grade E-Severe hip dysplasia

The F.C.I. Fédération Cynologique Internationale classifies elbow dysplasia in 5 degrees.

  • Grade 0 – no alterations found
  • BL grade – (borderline, transition): minimal joint changes
  • Grade 1 – presence of osteophytes with an amplitude < 2 mm, and/or subtroclear sclerosis of the ulna and/or joint incongruence < 2 mm
  • Grade 2 – presence of osteophytes with a width of 2 to 5 mm
  • Grade 3 – presence of osteophytes with an amplitude > 5 mm
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Genetic testing in the Lagotto Romagnolo

Genetic tests in the Lagotto Romagnolo breed

The genetic tests allow to verify the inheritance of certain pathologies. The pathologies for which the responsible gene has been identified. The puppies children of tested parents will not suffer from such pathologies. With selection and recently recovery of the breed have been fixed some pathologies in the Lagotto Romagnolo breed too. By examining the DNA of parents it is possible to understand the impact on the litter of the most common pathologies of each breed.

The DNA test is carried out with a blood sample.

The result of the DNA examination can give three possible outcomes for each individual pathology.

  • Free both alleles of the gene responsible for the disease are healthy. Healthy homozygous Gene.
  • Carrier The two alleles of the gene responsible for the disease are different. heterozygous carrier Gene.
  • Affect both alleles of the gene responsible for the disease are recessive. homozygous recessive Gene.

A dog carrier a certain pathology is a healthy dog for that pathology.

In other words, He will have no symptoms or manifestations. If he coupled with a Lagotto Romagnolo carrier too, the problem come out tangible on his offspring.

For those who couple Lagotto Romagnolo not tested the unknown is just that. The two carrier dogs candidates for coupling do not manifest the pathology, they are healthy, unfortunly in their litter the pathology will be present. Some  puppies will result AFFECTED. We can know if a dog is carrier or free only through genetic testing.

Why do we performe genetic tests?

Genetics makes available a tool to proceed with safety in the direction of the health of the puppies.

We have important certainty about the health of our puppies.

The Lagotto Romagnolo has a natural dowry as hunting-truffle, that submit the Lagotto Romagnolo breed to litters with little or even without criterion . They are mainly private or some animated by interest or alleged love of their Lagotto Romagnolo who decide to start to breed litters no criteria.

The Lagotto Romagnolo has a natural dowry as hunting-truffle, that submit the Lagotto Romagnolo breed to litters with little or even without criterion . They are mainly private or some animated by interest or alleged love of their Lagotto Romagnolo who decide to start to breed litters no criteria.

The information that gives genetic tests are not anoptional but a health guarantee for puppies. The breed pathologies and the genetic tests of the Lagotto Romagnolo are not a bogeyman. Just going to the breeding sites to see how many healthy dogs are carrier of one or another pathology. I suppose the same incidence is even in dogs not tested who have litters without this information. The real question is that genetic tests are decisive to decide the coupling of reproducers. At the end we can be sure about the health of the puppies in relationship to each genetic pathology of the breed.

Genetic tests fot the hereditary pathologies of the Lagotto Romagnolo.

  • JE Juvenile epilepsy: it manifests itself during the life of the dog with episodes ranging from agitation to paralysis.
  • LSD Lagotto Storage disease: The disease begins between 4 months and 4 years. The movement is completely uncoordinated. The disease also affects the character. Lagotto develops progressive aggression and statistics said that the carriers are 11% of Lagotto.
  • Furnishing: The pathology is presented with a mutation of the coat. It has no character or health repercussions. A Lagotto Romagnolo affected by Furnishing is not in the Standard of Lagotto Romagnolo and can not participate in show.

The cost of genetic testis and selection influence the price of the puppy. Often those who decide to adopt a puppy of Lagotto Romagnolo do not know these aspects. Especially if you are looking for the first pet dog. Once given the informations present in this article, everyone appreciates to have a puppy of Lagotto Romagnolo son of parents with genetic tests.

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