Health Information & Articles

German Wirehaired Pointers are a relatively healthy breed, however the GWPCA recommends all breeding stock be health tested following the Canine Health Information Center (CHIC) recommendations. Dogs who have had all recommended health tests completed and results made public will be issued a CHIC number which can be verified on the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA)‘s website.

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• For breeders the CHIC program provides a reliable source of information regarding dogs they may use, or wish to use, in their breeding programs. In the future, breeders can begin to analyze the pedigrees of a proposed breeding for health strengths and weaknesses as well as the traditional analysis of conformation, type, and performance strengths and weaknesses.
• For buyers the CHIC program provides accurate information about the results of a breeder’s health testing. For diseases that are limited to phenotypic evaluations, there are no guarantees. However, the probability that an animal will develop an inherited disease is reduced when its ancestry has been tested as normal. Further, as more DNA tests become available and the results are entered into CHIC, the CHIC database will be able to establish whether progeny will be clear, carriers, or affected.

CHIC Requirements for German Wirehaired Pointers

Click here to view the requirements on OFA’s website.

• Hip Dysplasia (one of the following)
  • OFA evaluation (minimum 24 months of age)
  • PennHIP evaluation (minimum 12 months of age)
• Elbow Dysplasia
  • OFA evaluation (minimum 24 months of age)
• Autoimmune Thyroiditis
  • OFA evaluation from an approved laboratory (minimum 2 years of age, prior to breeding, and yearly thereafter until 4 years of age)
• Eye Examination by a boarded ACVO Opthamologist
  • Results registered with OFA (any age yearly if in a breeding program)
• Cardiac Evaluation (one of the following)
  • Congenital cardiac exam, with exam by a cardiologist
  • Advanced cardiac exam
• von Willebrand’s Disease (vWD) – optional
  • DNA-based vWD test from an approved laboratory, results registered with OFA

Statistics

All statistics are as reported by OFA through December 2019, click here to view on OFA’s site

• Advanced Cardiac – 130 evaluations, 0.8% abnormal, 99.2% normal
• Cardiac – 316 evaluations, 0.6% abnormal, 98.7% normal, 0.6% equivocal.
• Degenerative Myelopathy – 15 evaluations, 0% abnormal, 100% normal
• Dentition Database – 7 evaluations, 0% abnormal, 100% normal
• Elbow – 1208 evaluations, 2.7% abnormal, 97.1% normal, 0.2% equivocal
• Exercise Induced Collapse – 13 evaluations, 0% abnormal, 100% normal
• Eyes – 368 evaluations, 1.1% abnormal, 98.9% normal
• Factor VII Deficiency- 3 evaluations, 0% abnormal, 100% normal
• Hips – 4927 evaluations, 9% abnormal, 89.9% normal, 1% equivocal
• Patella – 17 evaluations, 0% abnormal, 100% normal
• Shoulder – 6 evaluations, 16.7% abnormal, 83.3% normal
• Thyroid – 1033 evaluations, 8.9% abnormal, 80.3% normal, 10.7% equivocal
• Von Willebrands (vWD) – 121 evaluations, 99.2% normal, 0.8% carrier