Thromboembolism is the process of blood clots forming in the cardiovascular system. These can remain stationary or can break loose and travel throughout the blood vessels eventually lodging in smaller capillary beds located in the lungs, liver, spleen, and kidneys. Worse case scenarios involve clots ending up in the brain and heart which can rapidly lead to life threatening consequences. I have seen a syndrome of thromboembolism in Chinese Shar-Pei especially leading to splenic infarction or thromboembolism. In fact, the only breed I’ve seen this in during the last 26 years have been in Shar-Pei and only those suffering with...

Introduction: Since the elucidation of the human and canine genomes our understanding of the genetic mechanisms underlying the inflammatory response has progressed at an exponential rate. We now realize that genes encode for proteins that serve as enzymes in biochemical pathways, as receptors on cell membranes, as chemical messengers in the body such as cytokines/chemokines and regulatory proteins which control various processes in the body — primarily the inflammatory response and the innate and adaptive immune responses. It is even more complex as some proteins (chemokine receptors) have a role as ‘silent’ (non-signaling) receptors which regulate inflammatory and immune reactions...

Amyloidosis is the deposition of an abnormal substance called amyloid in the tissues of the body. Amyloidosis is not a disease as much as it is a specific biochemical arrangement in which a precursor protein or protein fragment accumulates and forms filaments. These filaments align and stack themselves in a beta-sheet conformation forming fibrils that twist around each other and are deposited in the tissues as amyloid deposits. Amyloid deposits differ due to the nature of the protein precursors that form there. Due to this structure amyloid is insoluble and can be thought of as “wax”. There are currently at...

Report of the Health Committee – 2010 While it did not occur in 2010 the big news has been the release of the long awaited research report on the association of the “meatmouth” mutation copy number with FSF. Validation studies are currently underway to verify the usefulness of a genetic blood test to (1) predict the potential risk for FSF in a particular individual and (2) to help breed away from the “meatmouth” mutation. The article, “A Novel Unstable Duplication Upstream of HAS2 Predisposes to a Breed-Defining Skin Phenotype and a Periodic Fever Syndrome in Chinese Shar-Pei Dogs” was published...