Pedigree Breed Health Survey 2014 - Great Dane, The Kennel Club (UK)

Source: http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/

 

 

Forms were received representing 182 living dogs & 47 deceased dogs.

Mortality results

A total of 47 deaths were reported, representing 0.84% of all deaths reported in the Pedigree Breed Health survey. The median longevity for the Great Dane was 7 years. Table 1 shows the causes of death for the breed.

Table 1 The twenty most common causes of death/reasons for euthanasia (N = 47 deceased dogs). 

 

Cause of death	Number od cases	Proportion, %
Cardiomyopathy	11	23.40
Gastric dilation-volvulus syndrome GDV Bloat	7	14.89
Old Age	4	8.51
Bone tumour	3	6.38
Cardiac heart Failure	3	6.38
Stroke	3	6.38
Myelopathy	2	4.26
Old Age combinations	2	4.26
Aggression	1	2.13
Autoimmune condition - unspecified	1	2.13
Bladder tumour	1	2.13
Cancer - unspecified	1	2.13
Herniated vertebrae	1	2.13
Mast cell tumour	1	2.13
Neurological condtion - unspecified	1	2.13
Oral mouth tumour	1	2.13
Pulmonary infection	1	2.13
Road Traffic Accident	1	2.13
Temperament - unspecified	1	2.13
Traumatic Injury	1	2.13

 

 

 

Figure 1: Histogram of the longevity for 47 reported deaths: overall median age at death was 7 years (minimum= 0 year, maximum= 12 years); mean age at death was 6.83 years 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2: Box and whisker plot of age at death in years for the most twenty common causes of death (N=47). The solid line within each box represents the median age of death from the condition. The box represents 50% of the dogs and the whiskers represent 95% of the dogs for each condition. The circles (ο) represent possible outliers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morbidity results

The 182 live Great Danes represented 0.42% of total dogs in the survey. The median age of live dogs for the breed was 3 years (Table 2). Of the 182 Great Danes which the survey covers, 107 had reported no conditions and 75 reported affected by at least one condition (min = 1 condition(s), max = 13 conditions), giving a total of 158 incidents of conditions.

The gender, neuter status and age of neutering summary statistics for Great Danes are shown in Table 3. There were 156 dogs with responses for Body Condition displayed in Table 4.

The median age the dogs were first affected by a condition was 2 years (min = 0 years, max= 9 years, Figure 3). The ages for the most common conditions is displayed in Figure 4. Table 5 shows the frequency of occurrence of all reported disease conditions for the Great Dane.

Table 2: The summary statistics for the dogs’ current age when survey was completed  

Number of dogs	Mean age (years)	Median age (years)	Min age (years)	Max age (years)
182	3.89	3	0	15

 

Table 3: Gender, neuter status and age summary statistics for dogs where gender and neuter status was reported

Sex	Neuter Status	Age known	Count	Mean age neutered (years)	Median age neutered (years)	Min age neutered (years)	Max age neutered (years)
Female	Neutered	Yes	56	1.38	1	0	7
Female	Not neutered	No	40	NA	NA	NA	NA
Female	Unknown	No	2	NA	NA	NA	NA
Male	Neutered	Yes	37	1.19	1	0	4
Male	Not Neutered	No	47	NA	NA	NA	NA

 

Table 4: The body condition comment and the age of the dog when this comment was made 

Body condition	Count	Mean age (years)	Median age (years)	Min age (years)	Max age (years)
No comment was made by vet	9	3.78	2	1	11
Normal	137	3.22	2	0	10
Somewhat overweight	4	5.00	5	2	8
Somewhat underweight	5	1.40	1	0	4
Very underweight	1	4.00	4	4	4

 

 

 

Figure 3: Histogram showing frequency of known age at diagnosis for the disease conditions reported 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 4: Box and whisker plot of age at diagnosis in years for the most common disease conditions in descending order. The solid line within each box represents the median age at diagnosis from the condition. The box represents 50% of the dogs and the whiskers represent 95% of the dogs for each condition. The circles (ο) represent possible outliers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 5: The most commonly reported disease conditions in descending order for the breed (N = 182 live dogs) 

Condition	Number of cases of disease	Proportion (%)	Prevalence (%)
Skin (cutaneous) cyst	13	8.23	7.14
Entropion	8	5.06	4.40
Skin lump	8	5.06	4.40
Food allergy	7	4.43	3.85
Gastric dilation-volvulus syndrome (GDV) / Bloat	7	4.43	3.85
Hypersensitivity (allergic) skin disorder	6	3.80	3.30
Prolapsed third eyelid gland (Cherry eye)	6	3.80	3.30
Lipoma	5	3.16	2.75
Urinary tract infection (UTI)	5	3.16	2.75
Nail/Claw injury	4	2.53	2.20
Chronic Itching	3	1.90	1.65
Cruciate disease	3	1.90	1.65
Demodex infestation	3	1.90	1.65
Seizure/Fitting	3	1.90	1.65
Skin cancer/tumour	3	1.90	1.65
Spondylosis	3	1.90	1.65
Anal gland/sac impaction/blockage	2	1.27	1.10
Anal gland/sac infection	2	1.27	1.10
Arthritis	2	1.27	1.10
Bone cancer/tumour	2	1.27	1.10

Proportion of morbidity as %= N/158 disease conditions, prevalence %= N/182 live dogs

 

Summary

From the dogs surveyed, most Great Danes were not affected by a disease condition (58.79%). The most commonly reported disease condition in live dogs was skin (cutaneous) cyst. The most commonly reported cause of death was cardiomyopathy.