Blue Merle Border Collie Genetic Problems

08102019 In fact the only health issues associated with merles are in the case of irresponsible merle to merle matings in which case the homozygous pups will likely have vision andor hearing problems.
Blue merle border collie genetic problems. And if it does why hasnt my vet said anything about it. In border collies it is generally a mild disease and rarely significantly impairs vision. A double merle can only be bred from two merles as it requires an M gene from each parent.
It is said to be the rarest color found in border collies. There is no color gene in collies for blue coat color only for black coat and brown coat. The merle gene turns some parts of a black coat to grey by not allowing the black color to come through completely.
Collie eye anomaly CEA and epilepsy are considered the primary genetic diseases of concern in the breed at this time. If two merle dogs are bred together each puppy in the litter has a 25 chance of being born a double merle. 18012011 The thing about the merle coloring though is that to get merle in a border collie one has to breed for that color.
The merle gene is known to cause a number of health problems mostly deafness and blindness and also sun sensitivity and higher rates of skin cancer. All dogs that are bred and cared for properly are generally healthy but they can. Because it is unable to make eumelanin in its coat and the merle gene only affects eumelanin black liver blue and isabella.
If you wish to own a blue Merle Border collie it is better that the puppy is only half-Merle so as to avoid promoting the in-breeding of homozygous. 27022019 The gene which causes merle coloring in Border Collies and all other dog breeds is the same one which causes the unusual eye colors. The dog will be a regular merle if merle if not merle it will not be genetically harlequin.
But it can also cause quite severe eye abnormalities as well. This does happen in border collies but is most common in Australian shepherds. A note on Natural Bob Tail Natural Bob Tail NBT is a mutation in the T box gene where a dog is born without a tail.