Abstract
BackgroundThe Chihuahua, the world’s smallest dog breed, is a popular breed in the UK today. The VetCompass™ Programme collates de-identified clinical records from primary-care veterinary practices in the UK for epidemiological research. This study aimed to characterise the demography, age at death and common disorders of Chihuahuas under primary veterinary care during 2016 in the UK.ResultsChihuahuas comprised 11,647/336,865 (3.46%) dogs under veterinary care during 2016. The annual proportional birth rate for Chihuahuas rose from 1.01% in 2005 to 5.35% in 2016. Median adult bodyweight was 3.4 kg (interquartile range [IQR]: 2.7–4.3, range 0.8–9.8).).Median age was 2.8 years (interquartile range [IQR] 1.6–4.9). Median age at death from this young expanding population was 8.2 years (IQR 3.5–12.1). Females (10.2 years) outlived males (6.9 years) (Mann-Whitney U test: P = 0.005). The most common grouped causes of death were heart disease (18.8%, 95% CI: 10.9–29.0), lower respiratory tract disorder (16.3%, 95% CI: 8.9–26.2) and traumatic injury (13.8%, 95% CI: 7.1–23.3). The most common specific disorders were periodontal disease (13.5%, 95% CI: 12.6–14.4), obesity (5.9%, 95% CI: 5.3–6.5), retained deciduous dentition (5.7%, 95% CI: 5.1–6.4), anal sac impaction (4.9%, 95% CI: 4.4–5.5) and aggression (4.2%, 95% CI: 3.7–4.8). Among the 28 most common fine-level disorders, males had statistically (P < 0.005) higher probability than females for 5 disorders (aggression, heart murmur, otitis externa, conjunctivitis and upper respiratory tract infection). There were no disorders with statistically (P < 0.005) higher prevalence in females.ConclusionsThis study documented rising ownership and a currently youthful population of Chihuahuas in the UK. These results suggest that the Chihuahua is currently undergoing a popularity boom but veterinarians need to be watchful for welfare issues related to impulse purchase of Chihuahua puppies by owners with limited experience of dog care. Periodontal disease, obesity, retained deciduous dentition, anal sac impaction and aggression were identified as common health issues within the breed. The unique veterinary care needs of this popular miniature breed suggest that veterinarians should consider the value of advanced training in anesthesia and dentistry in small-sized dogs.
Highlights
The Chihuahua, the world’s smallest dog breed, is a popular breed in the UK today
This study aimed to report the demography, age at death and common disorders of Chihuahuas under primary veterinary care in the UK based on anonymised veterinary clinical data derived from the VetCompassTM Programme [14]
Male Chihuahuas were significantly more likely to be neutered than female Chihuahuas (31.8% versus 22.0%). This contrasts to the findings of many other breedrelated studies that reported higher proportional neutering in females [13, 27, 34, 35, 43, 44] male French Bulldogs were more likely to be neutered than females [28]
Summary
The Chihuahua, the world’s smallest dog breed, is a popular breed in the UK today. Kennel Club breed registration data identified a gradual rise in Chihuahua (smooth coat and long coat considered together) registration numbers in the UK from 1955 until the mid-1970s. Analysis of UK primary-care veterinary records contrastingly reported a median age at death of 7.1 years derived from the ages at death recorded in the clinical records but this low age at death may be biased downwards by a relatively youthful UK population [4]. A UK pedigree dog breed health survey in 2014 included data on 131 smooth coat Chihuahuas and 124 long coat Chihuahuas and reported youthful median ages for smooth coat Chihuahuas at 2 years and for long coat Chihuahuas at 3 years that suggested the breed was growing in popularity [5, 6]
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