General Health Survey on Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers
Margaret Slater DVM PHD with assistance from Jacque Harbison
Department of Veterinary Anatomy & Public Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, Texas A&M University, College Station TX
Survey conducted 1999-2000.

Introduction
The Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier Club of America's Health Issues Committee contacted us about conducting a general health survey for Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers (Wheatens). The purpose was to determine the frequency of specific health problems affecting the breed, and whether there was a relationship between sex of the Wheaten and the frequency of any health problems.

Materials and Methods
The questionnaire was designed to survey common health problems in Wheatens. Respondents were asked to complete the survey for any dogs they currently owned, co-owned, or who had died while living with them since 1994. The survey was divided into three main sections. The first section asked for general information on the number of Wheatens currently owned, the number of years respondents had owned Wheatens, and what activities owners were involved in with their Wheatens. The second section asked for information on all Wheatens owned or co-owned since 1994 including current age or age at time of death, sex, and cause of death if applicable. The last section addressed specific categories of health problems in Wheatens. Respondents were to indicate how many of their Wheatens had a particular disease as well as the sex of those Wheatens. Also included in this section was an area for respondent comments and/or questions.

The Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier Club of America, Inc. provided the names and addresses of Wheaten owners from a current and former club membership list, the Benchmark magazine subscription list, and a list of Canadian Wheaten owners. A systematic random sample of 50% of the list was selected. An initial mailing of the survey was sent out in November of 1999 (delayed from the expected September start date). Postcard reminders were sent out in December of 1999 to all participants. A second mailing of the survey was performed in February of 2000 to non-respondents. A graph of responses across time is included in Appendix 1.

A chi-squared test was used to analyze the data from this health survey. A p-value less than or equal to 0.05 was considered statistically significant and indicated a difference between males and females in the frequency of these health problems.

Results
Questionnaires were sent to 699 Wheaten owners from the United States and Canada. Five hundred and twenty-one people returned their forms giving an overall response rate of 74.5%. Seven surveys were returned unopened due to a change of address and one survey was returned unopened due to the death of the owner. Information regarding the number of respondents is shown in Table 1.

Table 1: General survey information for the Wheatens in this study

The average number of Wheatens currently owned by respondents was two, the median number of Wheatens currently owned was one, and the number of Wheatens currently owned ranged from zero to fourteen. In completing this survey, respondents were to include any Wheatens they currently owned, co-owned, and those who died under their ownership since 1994. The 1,246 Wheaten sample size of this study is comprised of the 997 Wheatens currently owned plus the 249 deceased Wheatens. Table 2 shows the information for Wheatens included in this study. The "no data" column is for those Wheatens whose owners did not provide a response for that question.

Table 2: General information on the Wheatens included in this study

For those Wheatens that were deceased, respondents were asked to give the cause of their deaths. Table 3 lists the most common causes of death in Wheatens from this health survey, which includes 75% of all causes of death.

Table 3: Common causes of death in the Wheatens of this study

Respondents were also asked about the types of activities they participated in with their Wheatens. Respondents could choose more than one activity. Table 4 shows their responses.

Table 4: Wheaten/Owner activities in this study

Table 5 shows the health problems listed in the survey and the number of male and female Wheatens along with the percentage of total Wheatens with the problem. The values for percentage of total males or total females with a particular health problem was small due to the large population of total male Wheatens (499) and total female Wheatens (747).

Table 5: Descriptive statistics for health problems in the Wheaten survey

The most common health problems were non-malignant tumors (including sebaceous cysts), dog-dog aggression, phobias, arthritis, flea and food allergies, and chronic ear infections. The median age of onset of cataracts was 11 years in males and 10.5 in females. The most common phobias for males and females were thunder and loud noises. Information concerning type and location for non-malignant tumors or cysts and malignant tumors, specific drug and reaction, and specific vaccine and reaction was also collected by this survey. Results appear in tables Appendix 2.

In order to determine whether there were any associations between sex and occurrence of a particular health problem, a chi-squared test was used. This test was performed for health problems where there was about a 2% difference between the sexes. Two percent was chosen as a level that may be of clinical importance as a difference of about 24 dogs would be involved. These health problems included arthritis, luxating knee cap, sebaceous cysts, pyoderma, flea allergies, other allergies, other gastrointestinal problems, fear aggression, dog-dog aggression, phobias, non-malignant tumors or cysts, and drug reactions. A p-value of 0.05 or less was considered significant in determining an association. There was an association between sex and occurrence of arthritis, neck pain, other gastrointestinal problems, fear aggression and dog-dog aggression. A significantly higher percentage of males than females developed all of the above health problems based on these results.

The overall response rate of 74.5% for this survey was very high. This is most likely due to self-explanatory and simple to complete survey format and the interest level of the participants. The major cause of death for Wheatens in this study was cancer, old age, and protein-losing enteropathy.

The most common activity that owners were involved in with their Wheatens in this study was pet/companionship. Other common activities included conformation and obedience.

The most common health problems in the male Wheatens of this study were arthritis, sebaceous cysts, flea allergies, dog-dog aggression, phobias, and non-malignant tumors or cysts. The most common health problems in the female Wheatens of this study were sebaceous cysts, phobias, and non-malignant tumors or cysts. Please note that non-malignant tumors may have included the very common sebaceous cysts so that the numbers of these two problems overlap. PLE and PLN occurred in just over 5% of dogs. Renal dysplasia was reported in 0.8% of dogs.