Deaf White Boxers

[2whtbabies]

My Buster (my deaf one) has color around one eye, a small brown spot on one ear and all the usual spots all over his fat body. The vet said his deafness was probably due to the fact that this person wasn't giving them enough time in between litters; more chance of defects, especially in whites. Riddick has just a little more color on one ear and he's fine. The person who had Riddick had been using him for breeding since before he was even 6 months old. :( There are some real wacko's out there!!! MONEY MONEY MONEY$$$
I just don't understand some people.

 

[LuVsHeRBoXeR]

No, it isn't true. The main ancestor of the boxer is the brabant bullenbeiser, which was brown or brindle. It is generally accepted that the white colour was introduced by breeding an early english bulldog into the emerging boxer breed.

Wow, I knew it was an english bulldog, but I was told she was the bitch and that is why white is so prominent in the breed. Good to know the truth, thank you.

My Buster (my deaf one) has color around one eye, a small brown spot on one ear and all the usual spots all over his fat body. The vet said his deafness was probably due to the fact that this person wasn't giving them enough time in between litters; more chance of defects, especially in whites.

I am shocked that I got the wrong information from my very first vet with Tomi. That just boggles my mind when people will give the wrong information for the sake of giving. Especially when I always want to know the root of things with the boxer. Doesn't make any sense to me. Thanks for your information as well

 

[nmsis]

I found this website, which explains deafness in whites.http://www.boxerbuddies.org/Boxer Info/white_boxers.htm

 

[gmacleod]

No, you didn't get the wrong information from your vet. Deafness is indeed linked to colour. More accurately, it is linked to lack of colour. The white coat colour in boxers isn't a colour, per se, it is an extreme lack of pigmentation. Not albinoism, but lack of pigment.

That lack of pigment in the inner ear is what leads to deafness. Lack of pigment leads to suppression of blood supply to the cochlea, which results in deafness. Same as in dalmations, only more so

A 'white' boxer with patches of colour around the ears is less likely to be deaf than one that is fully white because the inner ear is more likely to have normal pigment. So your vet was quite correct.

Here is a very useful thread which discusses this in some detail. Read the information posted by Marimat - it is an excellent and easily understood account of the issues. Technically the thread is about why white boxers should never be bred (because that deafness is actually hereditary) but it will give you a very good overview of deafness in whites, and in the boxer breed as a whole. http://www.boxerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34760

If you'd like more scientific information, then this article by Dr Bruce Cattanach (boxer breeder and geneticist) also gives some excellent information. It is actually about Dalmations, but the information is factual irrespective of breed The white colour in boxers, incidentally is also caused by the extreme white spotting allele (sw). http://www.steynmere.com/DALM_DEAFNESS.html

Incidentally, the early bulldog was just one of many "contributors" to the creation of the boxer. You can read a very brief account of the development of the breed (concentrating on those that are the ancestors of boxer in the US) on the American Boxer Club's site http://americanboxerclub.org/boxer_history.html

 

[2whtbabies]

Thank you all for the info. apparently my vet needs to do some research. next time I'm in there I'll print off some of these web pages to give him some more accurate info.
Thanks again!!

 

[LuVsHeRBoXeR]

*phew* I always thought he was super knowledgeable about boxers. Glad to know I wasn't given the wrong information. It makes sense though, so that's why I always believed it Thank you so much for posting those links, I always like to read up on the breed and learn all I can.

 

[BoxerMom12]

white boxers

We had 3 white boxers in our litter. Neither of the parents are white. The momma dogs mother was white, which I had forgotten about. All three are able to hear. ONe has a slight hearing problem, but I think his first owner may have hit on him and that could have caused it. I was lucky enough to be able to buy the dog back because I thought his homelife was terrible. It took awhile and I was heartbroken for him. The good side of the story is-I got him back, trained him, had him neutered and homed him with one of his white brothers and now is so spoiled he thinks he is in Heaven. I have the other white one and he is fine. Now all three are neutered so we don't have to worry about passing the gene on. We are happy to have our little whitie-he is such a smart dog as were his other white brothers.
The father of the white dogs looks more like an English bulldog and one of the other threads stated that earlier the boxers and the English had been bred together so maybe that is why he looks so much like the English bulldog.