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Dates & News

ZimDog News, which can be accessed from: www.vanerp.net.
Since the last WTA News in August there have been two breed shows which can be viewed for results also on the above website. There were no Midlands breed shows, but they will again have their Championship shows next year and I believe they will be held in Harare. CC's will count as outside CC's as one CC always has to be won outside your town to become a Champion Breed dog. There were two Obedience shows on 21 & 22 September. I had just come back and so only have the result of Ray Folcarrelli, who won both Novice classes and qualified. This pushes his dog into A test. We also had one more DJ Show on 5 October. Great fun by all, but only one dog qualified: John with his Cozac, while Gladys had a clear round with her Pippa.

Condolences: Ems Wallman brought up Zilletal Hanno and trained this lovely dog for the breed ring, see his various wins in previous shows on this website. He went back to Bulawayo and had to be operated on and died suddenly from a viral disease? What a shame as he had such a lovely temperament and a lovely looking dog with a great future.

Get well

Judy Grierson of the von Brinson Kennels, has to go to S Africa for a check up and we wish her a speedy recovery. She also is taking Misha, their dog for a check up as well.

For the first time in 80 years, a human variety of Rabies has appeared in France. The patient is a three-year-old boy, which contacted the deadly disease this summer, while on holiday in Gabon. He was bitten by a dog and is now in hospital in Lyon and is very ill. The French authorities are looking for people who have been in contact with the child. This is not easy as the schools were closed for a holiday. Rabies can be passed on from human to human, which seldom occurs. With a vaccination on time this can be prevented, but when a person has got the disease, vaccinating does not help anymore and is it often fatal.

Some impressions of the German World Sieger Show in Ulm 

I had not seen this show for three years and it was again an experience not to forget. First to be able to get there and stay in a hotel. All hotels were fully booked in a radius of 20 km, so my Internet link told me, but then another one could provide me with one in New Ulm and see when I got there it was only a 20 minute walk to the stadium, how wonderful as this took me, twice a day, all along the Danube river with plenty pleasure boats, rowing teams and lots of birds as well. The show itself was again big, plenty people and beautiful dogs. There are so many classes and you could run from one ring to another and then get confused, really too many to see, to take it all in. I concentrated on the Schutzdienst and looked at as many males as possible. Many failed the test and more so in the bitch section. Looked at all the progeny classes with some lovely groups with beautiful males. I did notice that this time all the ears were firm and apparently 'fixed' since the last time I was at the Siegershow. The Sieger was a small dog, much smaller than the ones presented in the progeny groups and so I would think this is the next step to get the Shepherds back to the standard size they should be as now most of them are on the border of the 65 cm or even above that. The weather was excellent all those days except on Sunday morning when a light drizzle fell.

Two impressions of the Sieger in Ulm’s Stadium

The last part about the ‘Pink’ noses in dogs. First part was in the August newsletter also on the web to read.

DOG'S NOSE : ORIGIN OF ACQUIRED DEPIGMENTATION

4) Idiopathic depigmentation of the nose
The most frequent case however, remains incomplete and/or cyclic depigmentation that occurs in adult dogs with black nose: unhappily, the origin is still unknown. All these hypothesis can be confirmed through histologic examinations: depigmented nose-tissue has to be sampled [biopsy] and microscopically observed. There is not much to do in those cases: the most important thing is to protect depigmented areas from the sun with protective creams [total screen], when sun radiations are specially aggressive.

B) Depigmentation with other clinical signs
Diseases dépigmentation characteristics. Other clinical signs auto-immune dermatosis lupus, pemphigus nose + bridge of the nose, lips, eyelids ulceration fever, polyarthritis Leishmaniasis ailes du nez, coussinets ulcération atteinte de l'état général, augmentation du volume des gaénglions uveo-cutaneous syndrom nose + other mucosa ocular symptoms Mycosis nose + bridge of the nose, face…- Aspergillosis wings of the nostril +/- érosion chronic sinusitis fongoid mycosis delayed ulcération lesions in plagues on the whole body epidermoide carcinoma destruction of the nose tissue-

In case of persistent lesion on the nose, a veterinary examination is necessary. All these affections can be diagnosed by collecting the case history, clinical examination, and complementary examinations [biopsy, serology, mycology]. On a nutritional aspect, pigmentation mechanism requires the following nutrients:
Amino-acids: tyrosine, tryptophane
Trace-elements: iron, copper
Vitamins: folic acid, pantothenic acid.

Royal Canin products contain a large amount of these nutrients and no deficiency is to fear. On the contrary, secondary copper deficiency has been described in dogs who received zinc in excess: the ratio zinc: copper must stay under 10:1, even if zinc supplementation is distributed.

Even if sometimes, pigmentation comes back after a change of food, it does not mean anything: depigmentation is a cyclic phenomenon, likely to appear and disappear at any time.

The next Newsletter will come shortly as I am behind and will make sure it will be ready within the next week or so.