Old English Mastiff Health Care & Feeding

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Old English Mastiff Health Problems

Or check out my advice for raising a healthy English Mastiff puppy or adult dog:

Complete list of Old English Mastiff health problems

The Mastiff Club conducted a health survey that included 570 dogs.

The club reports that half of the deceased Mastiffs in their survey died before age 7, and three-quarters of them died before age 10. So this is a short-lived breed.

Most common causes of death

• The most common cause of death in Old Engish Mastiffs, by far, is cancer – especially bone cancer (osteosarcoma), but also lymphosarcoma.
• The second major cause of deaths in Mastiffs is bloat, an emergency gastrointestinal syndrome that can kill in a matter of hours.
• Finally, heart disease is a major cause of death, especially sub-aortic stenosis, cardiomyopathy, mitral valve disease, and occasionally pulmonic stenosis.

Orthopedic diseases in Mastiffs

As you might expect from their size, orthopedic problems are extremely common in Mastiffs, especially hip dysplasia and elbow dysplasia.

The Orthopedic Foundation of America evaluated the hip X-rays of 12,000 Mastiffs and found 21% dysplastic. That's bad. Elbows are bad, too: of 6900 elbow X-rays, 15% were dysplastic.

Old English Mastiffs are prone to tearing the cruciate ligament in their hind legs, which is a nasty injury that can require expensive surgery.

Young  Mastiffs are susceptible to two syndromes that cause pain and lameness. The most common and milder one is called panosteitis  and is usually self-limiting. The less common one is hypertrophic osteodystrophy (HOD), which ranges from moderate to severe.

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a serious concern in Old English Mastiffs, especially since it's so difficult to treat in this breed. Most epileptic Mastiffs die by age three.

Urinary problems

Urinary infections are common in English Mastiffs, and a serious urinary disease called cystinuria  is more common in English Mastiffs than in any other breed.

Eye diseases

The most serious eye disease in Mastiffs is progressive retinal atrophy (PRA), which can occur as early as 6 months old or as late as 3.5 years old, and which progresses slowly to complete blindness in middle age.

A simple DNA test is available for PRA in Mastiffs, so you can find out at any time whether your dog has the disease, carries the disease, or is completely clear of it.

Other eye diseases in Old English Mastiffs include cataracts, eyelid abnormalities (ectropion and entropion), eyelash abnormalities, cherry eye, persistent pupillary membranes, and retinal dysplasia.

That's a lot of eye diseases...

Thyroid disease

Hypothyroidism is common in all giant breeds. According to the Michigan State University Thyroid Database, up to 15% of Mastiffs have low thyroid levels.

Skin problems

Skin problems include allergies (which cause itchy skin and "hot spots"), non-tumorous growths (sebaceous cysts), and chronic bacterial infections, including severe pyoderma.

All of the mastiff breeds, when young, are prone to demodectic mange.

Older mastiffs, because of their great weight, are prone to developing elbow hygroma, a fluid-filled lump that develops over the bony elbow that acts as a pressure point whenever they lie on hard surfaces. Provide your Mastiff with a soft cushy bed that protects his elbows.

Miscellaneous

Colitis (inflammatory bowel disease) results in chronic diarrhea – not a happy prospect in a giant dog!

Myasthenia gravis is an autoimmune neuromuscular disease that causes extreme weakness in English Mastiffs. A blood-clotting disease (von Willebrand's) also occurs in this breed.

Preventing health problems

Some health problems are inherited. For example, if your dog inherits from his parents the genes for an eye disease called PRA, he will go blind and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

But most health problems can be prevented by the ways you raise your dog.

FREE eBOOK! My free online health care program, 11 Things You Must Do Right To Keep Your Dog Healthy and Happy shows you how to raise your Old English Mastiff in all the right ways that help prevent health problems. Become your dog's health care champion!