Now don’t start reaching for the Sunscreen and Boogie boards, instead look up your nearest Veterinary
Ophthalmologist to schedule your Icelandic Sheepdog’s annual eye exam. CERF or Canine Eye Registration Foundation, was
founded in 1974 by a group of concerned purebred dog owners who found that their breeds were plagued by heritable eye disease.
In co-operation with the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists (ACVO), they have begun a national database of dogs
and breeds with hopes that Canine eye disease will be a thing of the past. This database provides breeders and breed clubs
the information needed to make good breeding choices in regards to inherited eye disease.
A CERF exam is a quick and painless process for you and your dog, not to mention it’s just one more place
to show off your fabulous Icelandic Sheepdog. The dog’s eyes are dilated by the administering of eye drops, and the
eyes examined. Your Ophthalmologist will be looking for eye disease affecting one of seven categories: A. The Eyelids B. The
Third Eyelid C. The Cornea D. The Iris E. The Lens F. The Vitreous G. The Fundus .
You’ll receive your exam results right then and there, no chewing your fingernails for weeks wondering
about your Icelandic Sheepdogs eye health with these guys. If your dog shows no sign of eye disease then just fill out the
back of the exam form, enclose $10.50 for CERF’s registration fee and mail it off to the address printed on the form
for your CERF number. If eye disease is detected you’ll receive counseling from the Veterinary Ophthalmologist and CERF
on how to proceed in the future. In both cases the information provided by your exam will go to CERF’s anonymous national
database to track eye disease occurrence and frequency in our breed.
In compliance with the Breeding Guidelines set down by the ISAA all Icelandic Sheepdogs in a breeding program
are required to be CERF tested. This will insure that appropriate mates can be found in an attempt to prevent any new occurrences
of heritable eye disease in our breed. As eye disease can develop at anytime during a dog's life, your CERF number is good
for only one year, and covers any matings which occur within that year.
Those with Retirees, spayed or neutered pets should also go for periodic CERF exams as well. Your lovely Retiree
at age 6 may have developed a heritable form of cataract even though her CERF exams done during her breeding career had been
clean. This can help to shape the breeding plans for her breeding age offspring.
Your spayed or neutered pet may never have had offspring but they can still contribute valuable information
about the breed by getting tested. It may be found that they have a heritable condition that their littermates are unaffected
by but are possibly carrying the gene for, This information could go into the ISAA’s BreedMate profiles to help their
owners make better breeding choices.
For more information about CERF or American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologist exam locations visit online
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