Devoted to the health and welfare of Irish Wolfhounds
News
Great news from the I W Club Championship Show - Sheena Evans' wonderful Wolfhound bed raised an amazing £90.00 for the Health Group and Lin Halford donated a delightful one-off picture of IW puppies which raised a further £20.00!!! Thank you to Sheena and Lin for donating your very generous and much coveted items, and congratulations to the lucky winning bidders!
EXCITING NEWS - FREE HEART TESTING FOR SUPER-VETERANS!!!
Calling all super-veterans - your breed needs you! This year, the IWHG has agreed to subsidise the cost of heart testing all veterans 8 years and over in order to meet the urgent needs of the breed specific research programmes. All dogs will be required to provide DNA samples for these projects as well as attend an IWHG Regional Heart Testing Session, all very simple and straightforward and at no cost to the owners. If you have a wolfhound aged 8 or more that you would like to include, please contact us urgently. Your Golden Oldie will be making an invaluable contribution. Thank you.
Heart testing dates: Please note that the sessions previously advertised for Wales on 1 May and Welsh Borders/West Midlands on 2 May have now been rescheduled for 17 July and 24 July respectively.
February 2011
Continuing our great start to the New Year, the IWHG is pleased to announce that we have now set up a Blood Repository in partnership with the Animal Health Trust (AHT). This is specifically for Irish Wolfhounds to establish a DNA database to help research into conditions affecting the breed.
This is a very exciting and important development for the future of our breed and we would urge breeders/owners to submit blood samples from their hounds in order that we may all benefit from this in the future.We have agreed the data derived from the use of the DNA samples in research is to be used for the benefit of dogs only and not commercial organisations seeking to use the information for other purposes. Please take a look and support this ground-breaking initiative.
Changes to Breed Code of Conduct:
Amendments agreed at the IWC, IWCNI and IWS AGMs
have now been approved and incorporated into our
Code of Conduct. Breeders and owners should be aware
of these changes, so please go to this page for updates.
May 2011 - Doing their bit for science!
Last Sunday saw two more heart testing sessions, the North East and the South East, with more super-veterans testing and being entered for the AHT Osteosarcoma and Imperial College AF Research Studies. The picture below shows the Golden Girls at the SE session - the dogs that is, not the owners! Thanks to all who are taking part.
April 2011
Girlie 10 years, Natchez 11 years 1 month, Anharad 8+ years, Orla 10 years 5 months.
We don't have a picture of Elphie who is 9 and did her bit at the NE session.
Change of IWHG officers
The IW Health Group held a meeting after the judging at Three
Counties. At this meeting the triennial election of officers took
place and our new Chairman is Tim Finney, our new Secretary is
Rebecca Peek and Jean Malley is the new Treasurer. As always
with the IWHG, each office is held by someone from each breed
body as this is very much an equal venture between the three.
Grateful thanks for all his hard work to our retiring Chairman,
Peter Pask, who is still a member of the Group.
Anyone with a query, problem or suggestion for the group can
contact Rebecca at milkwoodhounds@yahoo.co.uk
or on 07860 142867.
June 2011
Yee-hah!! Mission accomplished!
Irish Wolfhound owners Alan Lefley and Anne Wilson have now completed their sky dive - photos to follow!
They aim for raise £3,000 in sponsorship which will go towards research projects being conducted by the Animal Health Trust into osteosarcoma and Imperial College, London into heart disease – research which could be to the benefit of all breeds of dog and, Imperial College hopes, humans as well.
All sponsorship monies will go towards the research – Alan and Anne are covering the cost of the skydive (plus official photos and a CD to prove they really did it!). If you would like to donate towards this research, please either pledge by e-mail or make a direct Paypal payment to anne@thegingerpig.co.uk by clicking on the button. All donations will be acknowledged personally.
Free Breed Guide
We now have a free guide to help you care for your Irish Wolfhound,
available as a printed booklet or as a download.
Please click here for more information.
July 2011
DNA Storage Programme
We would like to remind breeders that they can now very easily submit bloods to the breed's DNA Storage programme at the AHT when they have liver shunt tests done. The forms are available here and are simple to use but if anyone needs help with paperwork email Jean Timmins and she will be pleased to help.
Heart testing
We have now confirmed the date for the South West heart testing session: Barnstaple, Devon on Saturday 15th October. Please book early as spaces are limited and this venue is already booking fast.
Sky dive update
Unfortunately, the sponsored sky dive (see below) had to be postponed due to adverse weather conditions. The new date will be announced as soon as possible, but meanwhile it allows plenty of time for you to sign up to sponsor Anne and Alan if you haven't already done so!
September 2011
Heart testing
In addition to the usual Spring and Autumn heart testing sessions in Guildford there will also be one in March 2012.
November 2011
Following the success of our very first Breed Health Seminar, the Group will be producing a DVD of the day, which will be available soon. If you would like a copy, please make sure you order from the Group's Treasurer, Mrs Jean Malley. It will cost £10.00 for those who couldn't attend and £5.00 for those who did attend. We hope you'll agree, great value and all profits go straight back into the IWHG.
October 2011
Heart testing in Ireland - change of date
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the dates of the Dublin and Belfast heart testing sessions have been changed. The Dublin session will take place on Saturday 26th November (not the 5th as previously announced) and the Belfast on on 27th November (not the 6th). The deadline for booking is 1st November. If you are interested, please contact Marion Finney directly.
Open letter re longevity
Many people in the UK will be aware that in Dog World Sept 30th 2011, the following statement was reported: ‘BVA past president Nicky Paull said she had learnt that the average lifespan of the Irish Wolfhound was four years, when Irish dogs of the same breed had an average of seven years. Why not use those dogs, she asked, or was the answer because they were not of show type?’ The IWHG and the Irish Wolfhound Club, Irish Wolfhound Society and Irish Wolfhound Club of Northern Ireland have sent a combined response to the Dog Press, the BVA, the KC and various other opinion and policy forming bodies refuting this. We would like to stress that there is no evidence, scientific or otherwise, to support this, as far as we are aware, and we shall be investigating this further. This is yet further evidence of an extremely one-sided anti pedigree dogs debate that pedigree dog breeders and owners have very little voice in and are under-represented and often misrepresented. Please click here to see the full letter.
Heart testing in Ireland
The Irish Wolfhound Club of Northern Ireland in conjunction with the Irish Wolfhound Health Group are organising heart testing sessions on November 26th North in Co Dublin and 27th in South Belfast. These sessions are part of the regional heart testing session initiative by the IWHG which has been operating throughout the UK for some years. The fee per hound is €45/£40 ( a fraction of the fee for a one-off similar examination by a veterinary cardiologist). Golden Oldies (IWs 8+ years) will be heart-tested free. They will be required to submit a blood sample that will go to the Animal Health Trust osteosarcoma research project, and the Imperial College AF Research, where such samples are urgently needed.
January 2012
New heart-testing dates added.
Fibrocartilaginous Embolism
Our thanks to Ellen Kroll for kindly allowing us to reproduce her 2001 paper on FCE. Ellen reviewed the article in 2005, at which time it was still current.
Imperial College London Research into Atrial Fibrillation
We are very fortunate that Imperial College London has asked Dr Serena Brownlie, the breed's heart research specialist, to join forces and collaborate in a study that aims to identify the gene marker for atrial fibrillation (AF) in humans through identifying it in the Irish Wolfhound first. The breed's small gene pool, longstanding pedigree information and ongoing heart testing and research programme makes it well placed to help with this research and may provide a quicker route to identifying the gene or genes that are associated with AF. Full details here.
Updated version of the free Breed Guide which includes the latest health guide to dealing with heart problems in the Irish Wolfhound and also the Pneumonia Guide.
Guide to dealing with heart problems in Irish Wolfhounds available to download.
December 2011
Heart testing
We are setting up new dates for the 2012 heart testing sessions so please keep checking the website for sessions near you. Don't forget, spaces are very limited so please contact Rebecca Peek as soon as possible if you would like to reserve a space, even if the session date hasn't yet been set.