PhD Student Royal Veterinary College St Albans, England, United Kingdom
Abstract: Background Veterinary epidemiological studies have demonstrated high prevalence of particular health conditions in the Miniature Schnauzer (MS), however previous work has not evaluated owner-reported conditions in this breed. Hypothesis/Objectives Owner-reported survey data will reveal novel insights into conditions affecting MS from the owner perspective. Animals An online survey with specific health-related questions and opportunity for free-text reporting was open to owners of UK MS for 1 month in 2023. Methods Data from 4786 respondents to 21 questions of a MS health survey were analysed. Results are reported as median [range]. Data were cleaned, parsed, and visualised using R through RStudio. Results Results are illustrated in Figure 1. Dermatological, mass-associated and allergic disease were the most highly-reported conditions in free-text responses. For questions related to specific conditions, the highest prevalence and youngest age-of-onset conditions (Figure 2) were heart murmur 5y [1m-14y] and pancreatitis 4y [5m-14y], reported in 4.0% and 4.6% MS respectively. In contrast to pancreatitis, onset of hyperlipidaemia (reported in 0.6%), was significantly later at 7.5y [1y-12y] (P=1.93e-05). Nephroliths/uroliths were reported in 1.2% with age of onset 5y [5m-11y]. Body Condition Score was most commonly reported as 3/5 (72.9%). Conclusions and clinical importance MS owners report a relatively high prevalence of pancreatitis and heart murmurs. Recognition of pancreatitis typically precedes hyperlipidaemia diagnosis, where the two diseases are both present. Owner-reporting of nephrolithiasis/urolithiasis is lower than expected from previous studies. In contrast to previous studies indicating a high obesity prevalence in MS, owners do not commonly self-report obesity in the breed.
