First of all, a sincere “thank you” to those of you who have taken the time to complete the MBTCA Health Questionnaire and mailed it to Lisa Byrd.

Although the response is better than the response to the very detailed 1998 AKC Canine Health Foundation questionnaire, there are still many, many Mini Bull owners who have no responded. This is very disappointing because the validity of the results depends on having a large number of dogs in the survey. So, if you have not yet sent in the questionnaire on your own dogs, please do so. We put a deadline on it in order to have people return it promptly, but if it will help to get more of you to return the questionnaire, consider the deadline extended indefinitely at this point. And if you know of anyone, who has or has had a Mini but has not returned a questionnaire, please give one to this person.

Briefly, here are the general results to date as compiled by Lisa Byrd.

Total number of people responding 41

Total number of living dogs 111

Total number of deceased dogs 34

Total number of dog breeding history 0

Total number of bitch breeding history 23

Frequency of health problems

Eye problems 19

Heart Disease 9

Temperament problems 8

Deafness 5

Kidney Disease 3

Of the living dogs in the study so far, 40% have one or more health issues. This means that 60% appear to be quite healthy. This is very encouraging!!

As for causes of death in the 35 deceased dogs, unfortunately only 21 were given as follows:

Old age(?) Actual cause should be given 3 (ages 13,13.5,14)

Heart 7

Kidney 3

Bloat (?), Autoimmune problem, Lymphosarcoma 1 each

Neurological or temperament 5 put down before the age of 3

This is very sad. Causes listed were spinning, rage and dog aggression.