This is a shame for he is such a lovely boy.
I took a 13 month old for a eye exam today. Sadly, it came back with the same result as it did 6 months ago. Retinal Dysplasia-retinal folds in one eye. I know that there is a DNA test that can screen for Retinal dysplasia. My concern is that he will never pass his annual eye exam even if I decide to do the DNA testing with Optigen. Or will he, how will that work?

What would you do in my shoes??

Why wouldn't these have shown up at the 8 week CERF exam ? Then you would not have kept this puppy at all ? I would not keep a boy like this , unless you need a pet .
Boys need clearances , lots of them, and this is a basic clearance that would have shown up at 8 weeks.

We don't live in the city, we have to travel 6 or 7 hours to have the test done.
Thank you for your input though. I agree, a male needs to have everything, & then some.

Contact Optigen or CERF or OFA if your ACVO can't answer the question. Would folds that pass the Optigen RD test become a "breeder option" then IF they pass? In other breeds, folds, but not geographic retinal dysplasia, are a breeder option. I am sure that this question must have come up before.

OKAY, you have to drive 6 or 7 hours for a CERF exam , tell me this , which is cheaper , the 6 or 7 hour drive or keeping a dog for 18 months ,[feeding, training, showing, vet bills], to find out what you should have found out at 8 weeks?

@ Contact - thank you for your help. :-)

OMG, when was the last time you took a litter of 8 wk olds on an 6 to 7 hour outing in your van?

Breeder/Breeder 30. How about help the person instead of preaching to them. If we have not had things happen in our breeding programs, most of the time it is all new to us. Everybody does not cerf test 8 week olds. Have there been time when we said, I wish I had, maybe. Just be nice and try to educate here. I would have to read but think there are puppy folds that are one thing, but Retinal Dysplasia can be another ?

I would get a second opinion. I am not an expert but, there are some folds that appear in a different spot that may not be the inherited type. I went through this about 12 years ago. Got a second opinion (on the 2 folds that were there) and was told they could be of the "other" type

How many are there ? Can you test both parents ?

What ever do you mean , "not everyone CERF tests their 8 weeks olds " ? They keep and or sell as Breeding Stock without an 8 week CERF ? What planet are you folks living on ?

I'm not preaching, I'm educating, this is common practice among all reputable breeders. How else do you know what is in the litter ? How else do you know which puppy to keep ? Someone has the cart before the horse here, and it's not me !

What this person has, is exactly what she should have when you breed blindly ,[ no pun intended], an affected older puppy , that she should have known about at 8 weeks. Is it a sad, sad story, yes it is, but IF one person learns from these posts, then so be it. Don't breed if you cannot get the best Vet care for your puppies. Now because she is attached to this puppy she wants to add it to the Labrador gene pool, nice ! Again, had she done the appropriate clearance at 8 weeks, [ or if she purchased and did not insist on ] then this is where Murphy's Law will take her.
Breeding dogs is NOT convienient , it is not easy, and it is not intended to be used to add inferior specimens to the gene pool, we are or should be trying to add superior specimens to the gene pool.

Breeder, that is wonderful that you want to educate, but first, you need to get your facts straight.

Contact CERF. Optigen offers the RD/OSD genetic test. If your boy passes this test, CERF will give him a breeder's option. There is absolutely no reason to through this boy out of the gene pool for a condition in one eye that does not cause pain or interfere with sight.

Want more info? Contact Dr. Lionel Rubin in PA.

Breeder - It appears that cost is more important to you.

Hurrah for Get the Facts! BTW, Dr. Aguirre told some of us, and published an article years ago, 1999, that retinal folds and GRD sometimes do not show up in puppies as a congenital, born with it eye issue. It is in the scientific literature, and was based on guide dog populations. The guide dog pups were checked before 10 weeks of age and later in life. I've been there with puppy folds that did go away, and frankly, the puppy check was not worth the stress on me or my breeder at the time, before the test. That being said, I did check her puppies's eyes, and was grateful that they were all clear.

Frankly, with the genetic test, even if this dog goes blind in old age, he could be used on the OP's clear girls and never ever produce an affected puppy. We are in the 21st century, and there have been genetic tests in Labs for a long time now, so it is important to understand the concepts of not throwing out the baby with the bathwater, or of swatting flies with a shovel, or following the golden rule. No need to be mean to the OP, who at least is asking and trying to do the right thing.

There are those who adhere to high standards, and there are those who do not, but have endless criticism for those who do. In my judgment, actions speak louder than words.

Someone is really judgemental. No you are no better a breeder than most of us who do not take pups in a 8 weeks. Its a nice thought but be high and mighty if you want, but the rest of us, good breeders, are doing tons of other testing. Talking down to someone will get you no where. We all do different things. Live with it.

RD/OSD carrier/folds are not a progressive disease, so if the dog is not blind now from it he probably never will be.

Also, some info from the Optigen website:

"Suggestions for Implementation of the RD/OSD Test: If a Labrador retriever or Samoyed is identified with Focal or Multi-focal retinal dysplasia (retinal folds) during an eye examination by an ACVO diplomate, currently the dog is not eligible for certification within the CERF registry. In this case, the OptiGen DNA test will determine if the folds are caused by the mutation responsible for OSD. A NORMAL OSD result will indicate that the retinal folds are not caused by the OSD mutation and represent the frequent benign Focal/Multi-focal retinal folds found in these and other breeds. If the presence of Focal or Multi-focal retinal dysplasia (retinal folds) is not associated with the RD/OSD mutation, then the dog is considered free of a major inherited eye disease. Please note that these comments refer only to Focal/Multi-focal reitnal dysplasia (retinal folds). Geographic retinal dysplasia may represent a different, possibly inherited, disease."

Good points! Thanks, Laurel!

Many thanks.

I had several puppies in a litter with the localized "puppy" folds at eight weeks about 15 years ago and chose to keep a boy to do a test breeding with a related female who also had had folds. I did so because my very experienced ACVO vet told me they were nothing to worry about, but CERF disagreed. I had purchased the dam of the litter, so they weren't closely related to my other dogs. I eventually was able to do two folds to folds breedings. I got several pups with folds but no RD-OSD. Then the DNA test became available, and I could have two of the folds dogs tested - they were clear. The type of folds I had were in the lower part of the retina, just a few in one or both eyes, not geographic. They were not visible at 6 months even when the same vet examined the eyes with the record of the first visit available. Actually, over the course of the study, 6 ACVO vets examined one or more of the puppies with folds and agreed that they could tell them from the folds of RD-OSD. I believe that these folds are now breeder option if you get the Optigen test for RD-OSD, but I haven't had any folds except in the study, so I don't know for sure.

At the time, I had a number of breeders contact me about folds. From these conversations I think there may be three types of folds in Labs, the RD-OSD folds that are geographic. the puppy folds (non-geographic), and another type that are geographic but not RD-OSD, as I was contacted by a breeder who had a dog with geographic folds on a dog that was clear for RD-OSD by the DNA test. The puppy folds appear to be completely benign, as some of my pups lived to be 14 with no problems. I don't know much about the non-RD-OSD geographic folds.

My personal way of coping with folds is that I have the litter examined at eight weeks and if there are no folds in any of the puppies' eyes, that's the end of it. If I should have a pup with the non-geographic folds I would have it Optigen tested. If clear, I would probably disregard that in my decision of which pup to keep. I used only one pup descended from the folds pups in my breeding program, as the DNA test wasn't available. An entire litter was free of folds, and one pup from that litter was bred. He is CHIC and sired over 30 litters for his co-owner with no eye problems. I used him twice, and in 15 puppies examined at eight weeks, there were no folds at all.

To the OP - get your dog DNA tested and determine if the folds are geographic or localized in the lower part of the retina. If he is RD-OSD clear by the test AND the folds are localized, you can probably breed him on a breeder's option. You should inform anyone who wants to use him of the condition, and you are welcome to send them to me for an account of my experiences. I have done research in molecular biology and used to teach genetics on the college level.

Really? Since when are puppy CERFs not a normal recommended thing to do? I see I've been torturing myself for nothing for ~15 yrs then?????

As a friend once said, we do all this to avoid "the issue" in the breed. I think the OP is the one hurting here. Give him/her a little courtesy before you jump on judgment. Anne

I think there must have been some areas of the country that had a stud dog or two widely used by them that made breeders in these areas to the testing at 8 weeks. You have got to realize that alot of the country did not get on this same bandwagon since we never came across the problem. You can try to teach for an educational reason, but don't talk down to breeders who don't do the same as you.

We have always tested our litters at 7-8 weeks - whether it was a CERF exam or not. We don't do it to be high and mighty, or any of that. We do it for two reasons, primarily: to rule out any issues that SHOULD eliminate a "keeper", and to provide another piece of information about what is coming out of our breeding program. I consider it just another tool. Having said that, if one of my bitches goes back 6 generations, and nothing has ever come up on a CERF exam out of that line, and the same for the sire, and I lived 6-7 hours from where I could get an exam done on a litter of 8-10 puppies..... well, that might be a different story. So, I don't think I'm ready to judge this particular person just based on this situation. It's a pretty crappy place to find yourself, but not everything is black or white.

Thank you all for your advise and guidance. I have decided to place this sweet boy in a loving pet home.

He is the only one from the 3 we kept that showed problems. His siblings passed CERF & Optigen. Both parents have a clean bill of health too.

Thanks Laura. Yes, that is a big help. Never thought of it like that.

If he has only a few folds in the lower part of the retina, I'd say the chances are very good that he is clear of RD-OSD. The RD-OSD folds are usually geographic - found throughout the retina. Read my post above, if you haven't already.

What to Do wrote, "True - But that is only IF he passes the DNA test. That is one big 'IF'."

If that is your attitude, then don't keep anything or make them all your pets and stop breeding. You aren't getting it. Without the genetic test, you don't know if your line (YOUR OTHER LABS, his dam and his sibs and all their relatives on both sides of the pedigree), carries for
*just innocent folds, a mere blemish on his retinas
OR
*if the CERF'd ones and he carry for the horror of skeletal dysplasia with blindness, dwarfism, retinal dysplasia, bad knees, bad hips, bad overall body in a dwarf that always looks as though it is walking downhill to crooked legs.

Not everyone is doing this Optigen test, true. Your situation is the perfect one in which to use it. If you choose not to test him, then you had darn well test anything else that you are even dreaming of breeding before you do so, or you will quite possibly have a Lab who is blind and dwarf next time. If you instead test him and he tests clear of this disorder, he will CERF, right?

That being said, if this was the final straw in a string of faults that he has, place him. Just genetically test whatever you think of breeding, please. A blind dwarf Labrador is a sad thing, not usually wanted.

Please, please test. Thanks.