White Boxer Question

[JulieM]

In addition to the above:

He's as healthy as he could possibly be. No deafness, no ANYTHING. Granted, he's only 7 and a half months old, but he's amazingly perfect in every way.

It's great that he's healthy so far, but at 7.5 months old that's entirely meaningless as far as any genetic condition other than deafness is concerned. Health problems in the breed are typically later-onset; clearances can't be done until 2 years for hips and AS screening, and thyroid/ARVC problems can appear at any time - with ARVC, the most typical ages being 3, 5, and 8 years of age.

I read that while they are more prone to health problems, they're not at much more risk than colored boxers. Any boxer can be deaf, or go deaf.

Whites are more prone to deafness than colored Boxers, plain and simple. Any Boxer can be deaf or go deaf, yes, but congenital sensorineural deafness - the kind that occurs shortly after birth and is related to white markings - is about 20x more prevalent in white Boxers than in colored Boxers.

Harley's litter consisted of FIVE white puppies and four fawn. I talked to the breeder (we keep in touch) yesterday, and all of them are doing great. No problems whatsoever.

Yes, but they're seven months old - again, basically meaningless. Your vet is correct that at this age you don't have to worry about congenital sensorineural deafness, and blindness is not associated with white markings in Boxers in any case - but you do still have to worry about all the other genetic and non-genetic health conditions that every other Boxer owner has to worry about; and as was mentioned, if you bred your dog, deafness would be a much higher concern in any color puppy of his than it is for most puppies from colored Boxers.

I encourage people to own white Boxers, too, as companions, performance or service or therapy dogs; but until and unless they can be safely bred without increasing the occurrence of a genetic health issue in the breed I can not begin to support breeding them. We have enough genetic problems in the breed as it is - why on earth would someone want to add to them?

 

[Joe Beam]

Tula is a 4yr old white boxer (not deaf) and she's allergic to poultry and many other foods. We have her on a venison & potatoes diet.

Does anyone know if food allergies are more of an issue in white boxers?

 

[gmacleod]

No, food allergies do not appear to be any more common in white boxers than in coloured ones (and I can think of no reason relating to their genetics why it should be so either). Food allergies, sadly, are not uncommon in this breed - as a scan of the thousands of allergy-related posts in the feeding and health forums would indicate. Certainly whites do not appear to be overly represented there (and whilst boxerworld isn't the entire boxer population, it IS pretty big - so if there were an unusually large number of whites versus coloureds with any particular problem, it would probably be fairly apparent).

 

[keriberry]

I've heard all the same oohs and ahs over Hudson. I'm just not impressed by some backyard breeder thinking I have a nice looking dog. I know he's hot stuff, he knows he's hot stuff. But, that's as far as it goes.

My fear is that breeding whites could also cause them to alter their position on whites. Taking away their limited registration, or worse..."weeding" them out again.

 

[SherylM]

White boxers have a higher tendendancy than coloured boxers to have a disease called Canine Autoimmune Thyroid Disease. Can cause severe aggression issues. I have a friend with a white boxer who suffers from this disease. Fortunately for her dog she is in a loving family who are doing everything they can to let her live a healthy life. They are dealing with a vet and I think her name is Dr. Dodds who is an expert on this disease and Dr. Dodds has advised my friends that white boxers are more prone to this than coloured boxers.

 

[WeasleRocky]

WOW, I have found a lot of helpful info in this thread, thanks so much to all the well informed boxer lovers and the patience to share your knowledge...

much appreciated

(would love to be a white boxer owner along side my brindle boy Rocky)

 

[ehayes21]

My fear is that breeding whites could also cause them to alter their position on whites. Taking away their limited registration, or worse..."weeding" them out again.

Not quite sure what you mean by this, can you explain your statement?

White boxers have a higher tendendancy than coloured boxers to have a disease called Canine Autoimmune Thyroid Disease. Can cause severe aggression issues. I have a friend with a white boxer who suffers from this disease. Fortunately for her dog she is in a loving family who are doing everything they can to let her live a healthy life. They are dealing with a vet and I think her name is Dr. Dodds who is an expert on this disease and Dr. Dodds has advised my friends that white boxers are more prone to this than coloured boxers.

I haven't seen anything in my research that indicates white boxers are more prone to thyroid problems. Do you have any links you could share? Boxers in general have the genetic predisposition to thyroid diseases, that's why it's so important to screen breeding stock.
http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/ThyroidDisease.htm

 

[SherylM]

Sorry, I do not have any links indicating such, but this is an exert from a post on another board where I am a member. The owner has a white boxer with agression issues (and subsequently diagnosed with Canine Autoimmune Thyroiditis) and has been dealing with Dr. Jean Dodds in California, this is what Dr. Dodds told her

(I have deleted forum name and dog's name for privacy reasons)

quote..

Belonging to a forum I posted about problems, at this point I didn't know what I was looking for, it certainly wasn't answers anymore because there didn't seem to be any. A member from the forum(a former 10yr vet tech) sent me a private message, at this point I was feeling as though people were going to think we were crazy for keeping and not having her put to sleep. I was sure there had to be a way to help her and a reason for this aggression that was spiralling out of control and seemed to be escalating with each passing day. She helped me search for info, we came across one article researched by Dr. Dodds and the whole time I'm reading it I'm thinking in my head, omg this is !!!!!!


As a last resort I didn't just email, I called directly to Dr. Jean Dodds home office in California and lucked right out by getting her on the phone.
I explained everything that was happening and how no matter what we tried things keep escalating.
Dr. Dodds told me that she's heard the same scenario described to her over and over and behavior could very possibly be Canine Autoimmune Thyroiditis.


She started to explain to me that in the extensive studies that have been done Boxers are in the top 10 to have problems with this. being white(the recessive gene) increases the risk over 5x higher than a fawn or brindle boxer. So this may be where all the stories of white boxers have more health problems comes into play

..unquote

this is a link to an article she has written

http://www.victoriabenda.com/articles/jDodds/thyroid.shtml

http://www.malamutehealth.org/articles/hypothyroidism_behavior2.htm

 

[ZOE*BOXER]

(would love to be a white boxer owner along side my brindle boy Rocky)

I would love to have a brindle with my white, Catalina. ........someday

 

[sarah_bailey]

I think Bailey is gorgeous, and looks wise (which unexperienced breeders may look at initially) could see him as a stud (although don't we think that about all our babies?!)

I know that breeding whites is not an option, even if I was offered a million pounds I would not agree to it as it's the health that is more important.

Bailey's not deaf, yes he has colitius, and had a hystocitoma before the age of 2 years - but reading other people experiences this can happen in any colour boxer - not just whites.

I think all boxers are wonderful creatures, Calimomma, get a white one - they're great!!