Today the puppies and I made the long track to Clackamas where they had their BAER hearing tests done. I was very lucky to have Ann & Patty come help me wrangle puppies at the vet's office (Ann owns Jasper, a puppy from our last litter). We also had a wonderful surprise visit from Lisa, who will be taking Mickey home in a couple more days.
The test went well, everyone is bi-lateral hearing (meaning that they can hear with both ears) except for "Orange" (Black Diamond Fast Track), who is a uni (he is deaf in his right ear but hears fine with his left ear). There's nothing wrong with a uni and most people don't even notice that their dog can't hear in one ear. Uni's can be shown and some people even use them in their breeding program (although we personally choose to not use uni's in our breeding program).
While at the vet's office we also had blood drawn from each of the puppies. I brought the blood vials home with me in a cooler and will be shipping them to the OFA where they will be housed. In the future, when researchers are working on health studies involving Dalmatians, they will be able to obtain the blood samples from the OFA to use in their research. So someday this litter might help come up with a cure for an ailment effecting all Dalmatians - such as hearing issues or urinary stone formation.
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