Akbash Health: What The Parent Club Tracks And What To Screen For

The Akbash Dog Association of America tracks three conditions through its breed health surveys: entropion, epilepsy, and demodectic mange. That short list is the best breed-specific health information available, because nobody has published prevalence figures for the Akbash. The registry is small, and the breed does not appear in the large screening databases that produce the percentages quoted for Labradors and German Shepherds.

Any website giving you a hip dysplasia rate for this breed borrowed the number from another guardian breed.

Entropion

Entropion is an eyelid that rolls inward, so lashes and hair rub the surface of the eye. It hurts, and left alone it damages the cornea. The signs are squinting, watery or mucus discharge, redness, and a dog that paws at its face.

The United Kennel Club standard lists loose eye rims as a serious fault in the Akbash, which fits with the parent club tracking eyelid problems. Entropion runs in families and is corrected surgically. When you visit a litter, look at the parents’ eyes and ask whether any dog in the line has needed eyelid surgery.

Epilepsy

Epilepsy means recurring seizures with no other cause a vet can find. Many dogs are managed for years on daily medication. VCA notes that treatment, once started, usually continues for life and needs periodic blood tests, and the drugs are dosed by weight, which makes them expensive in a 120-pound dog.

There is no way to screen a puppy for it. The only protection a buyer has is a direct question about seizures in the parents, grandparents, and previous litters, and a breeder willing to answer it in detail.

Demodectic mange

Demodex mites live in the hair follicles of most dogs without causing trouble. Mange develops when the mites multiply faster than the immune system controls them. The localized form appears as a few bald, scaly patches, most often on the face and front legs. The generalized form covers large areas, often with skin infection, and VCA warns that treating it can take a long time.

It is not contagious to other animals or to people. A white double coat hides early patches, so part your dog’s coat and look at the skin when you groom, and have a vet look at any bald or crusted area.

Bloat

Gastric dilatation-volvulus, usually called bloat, kills large, deep-chested dogs, and the Akbash standard describes a deep chest. The stomach fills with gas and twists, cutting off its own blood supply. Without surgery the dog dies, often within hours.

The signs are retching that brings nothing up, a swollen and tight abdomen, drooling, pacing, and collapse. A dog showing them needs an emergency vet immediately, at any hour. Waiting until morning is how dogs are lost to bloat.

A preventive surgery called gastropexy tacks the stomach to the body wall. It does not stop the stomach filling with gas, but it stops the twist. VCA and Cornell’s veterinary college both describe it as commonly done alongside a spay or neuter in at-risk breeds, and in dogs that have already bloated once it cuts the chance of recurrence from as high as 80 percent to around 3 to 5 percent. Raise it with your vet before the spay or neuter is booked.

Hips, elbows, and growth

Joint disease is a reasonable concern in any slow-growing giant breed, and hip and elbow evaluations on both parents are a fair thing to ask any Akbash breeder for.

You do control how the puppy grows. An Akbash takes two to three years to mature, and a puppy headed for 120 pounds should stay lean the whole way. Let it set its own pace on soft, varied ground, and skip the long runs and repetitive jumping until it has finished growing. There is more on this in exercise needs.

Lifespan

Ten to 12 years is the figure usually given, which is typical for a guardian breed of this size.

Texas A&M AgriLife’s research on working guardian dogs found that only 52 percent live to age six, and 57 percent of deaths happen after the dog has left the property. Leaving home is behind more of those deaths than every other cause combined. For this breed the most effective health measure you can buy is a fence.

What to ask a breeder

Ask for hip and elbow evaluations on both parents, on paper, and whether any puppies from previous litters developed generalized mange. Then ask how long the grandparents lived and what they died of. A breeder who knows the answers has been paying attention to the line for years, and one who has never thought about it has told you something too. The breeders page covers the rest of that conversation.