If your dog has torsed and is already in the CHIC DNA bank, all you have to do is make sure that your dog’s health history has been updated to include the torsion.
If your dog’s DNA is not banked at CHIC but your dog has survived torsion, the Tufts study would really like to have a simple blood sample from your dog. Here are the instructions:
Email Claire.Sharp “at” tufts “dot” edu your mailing address and phone number. She will send you a shipping kit that will contain everything that you need to have a blood sample collected and returned to Tufts for DNA extraction. Although the study cannot pay for any vet fees that may be involved, the shipping kits are complete, so all other cost should be covered. The kits include
– a consent form for owners to complete and sign (to allow Tufts to use their dog’s DNA in the study)
– a questionnaire for owners to fill out about their dog’s health
– a shipping container and icepack (the samples need to be shipped with frozen icepacks to ensure that the DNA is preserved).
– sample collection instructions
– blood collection tubes, needles and syringes for their vet to use to collect the blood sample; and
– shipping instructions and a return FedEx label.
We are very excited to be included in this study and look forward to updates as the study progresses.
My deerhound torsioned twice, 3 months apart. The first time when she was only 9 months old. The second time they attached her stomach to the abdominal wall, wish they had done that the first time. She is now 9 1/2 years old. She has always had food issues, difficult to get to eat, not sure if that is related to the torsions.