I’m clear! I don’t have Degenerative Myelopathy!! Mother whooped for joy then stopped and said “Ok, so now you have a nameless genetic disorder that may or may not get worse. Hmm.” Mother’s happy that she can strike that one off the list tho’. At least now there is a possibility that she won’t need to get ramps for the house and wheels for me!
The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals sent a test result slip that said “This dog is homozygous N/N with two NORMAL copies of the gene associated with Degenerative Myelopathy (DM) susceptibility.” To which Mother went “Normal? What does that mean??” and proceeded to tear through the accompanying explanation of results. Of all the dogs OFFA has tested so far, dogs with test results of Normal have never been confirmed to have DM. Normal means I can only transmit normal (non-DM) genes to offspring and it’s unlikely I will ever develop DM. Woohoo!
Some dogs will get the result “Carriers” (meaning they may or may not have DM themselves but their offspring might, especially if they are paired with other Carriers I guess), others will get the result “At Risk” (meaning that they will most likely have DM, if no symptoms show, then as they age, and they will also pass the mutated gene to their offspring.
WOOHOO! CEEEE-LE-BRATE TONIGHT COME ON!
Woohoo! Brother Romeo! Congrats!! That’s awesome news!! Mummy tells me to send this message to you ‘Good news *cough cough* Romeo! Your mummy must be *sneeze* very very *sneeze* relieved! Let’s call for *cough* a celebration!’