Study information for owners

Please contact Dr. Friedenberg (or have your veterinarian contact him) at [email protected] if you are interested in having your dog donate a blood sample. Dr. Friedenberg will discuss with you whether your dog is a candidate for the study, and obtain the necessary medical records from either you or your dog’s veterinarian.

If your dog meets the criteria for the study, we will send your veterinarian a prepaid shipping label to send us a blood sample from your dog. You can then schedule a brief appointment with your veterinarian for a blood draw. After the visit, your veterinarian will send the blood sample to us, along with a consent form and any relevant medical records.

Please also bring a copy of your dog’s pedigree to your veterinarian if you have a copy, however this is not strictly necessary. You can also e-mail it to Dr. Friedenberg directly.

Thank you very much for your interest in our genetic study – we genuinely appreciate your assistance with this important research!

Study information for veterinarians

If you have any clients who you think would be interested in participating in our study, or if your client has approached you about this study, the following information should be helpful.

We are soliciting DNA samples from English Cocker Spaniels and other breeds that you are currently treating or have treated in the past for primary IMHA.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria for the study are as follows:

Inclusion criteria

• CBC documenting HCT < 30%
• Positive results on one of the following tests:
  • Slide autoagglutination test (macro or micro)
  • Pathologist-reviewed blood smear documenting spherocytosis
  • Coombs test with a titer of 1:64 or greater
  • Flow cytometry documenting erythrocyte surface-bound IgG or IgM

Exclusion criteria

• Thoracic radiographs showing evidence of disease consistent with neoplasia (at the time of diagnosis)
• Abdominal radiographs showing evidence of disease consistent with neoplasia or a foreign metallic object (at the time of diagnosis)
• Abdominal ultrasound showing evidence of systemic disease at the time of diagnosis
• Evidence of true infection with any erythrocyte-borne pathogen or rickettsial disease based upon blood smear, culture, convalescent IFA, or PCR

At a minimum, patients must meet (or have met) both inclusion criteria concurrently. It is not necessary to have evaluated patients for all of the exclusion criteria. However, if you did perform any of the listed exclusion criteria tests and your patient meets one of them, unfortunately we cannot include that patient in the study.

If you have any clients meeting the above criteria who might be interested in donating a blood sample for genetics research, please e-mail Dr. Steven Friedenberg at [email protected] with your contact details and we will arrange a time to discuss the case. If your patient qualifies, we will send you a prepaid shipping label to send us the sample at our expense. The study requires the following to be shipped:

• 4-5 mL of blood in 1 or 2 EDTA/purple top tubes
• Relevant medical records to confirm the diagnosis
• A filled out consent form
• A copy of the dog’s pedigree, if provided by the owner

We will provide you with further shipping details once we ensure that your patient is a good candidate for the study.

Thank you very much for your interest in our genetic study – we genuinely appreciate your assistance with this important research!