Good  health in dachshunds comes from feeding a high quality dog food, proper vaccinations,  adequate parasite control , a good genetic background and proper veterinary care when health issues arise.  Health issues such as back, vision and arthritis (joint problems) could relate back to the dog's genetic background of which most responsible breeders try to address and avoid.

Genetic Defects -  Miniature dachshunds do not have a great deal of known genetic defects, but occasional a defect will appear, but may not evident at birth or a young age.  While most good breeders try to minimize these defects many do not show themselves until an older age and are often a recessive trait. 

Intervertebal disc disease  One of the more common geneitc problems assoicated with dachshunds which can cause temporary or permanent paralyzes of the rear legs most often occurring between the ages of 3-6.  At his time there are no viable genetic tests to determine is a dachshund is predisposed to this disease.

Progressive retinal atrophy PRA causes progressive vision loss ending in blindness.  At this time there are no reliable genetic tests to determine if a dachshund is a carrier or predisposed to this disease.  Work is being done to develop such a test.

Diseases associated with either coat color or pattern  Some coat colors or patterns can cause blindness or deafness.  The dappled coat pattern (merle) can cause vision and hearing problems, especially in the double dapple coat pattern achieved through breeding two dappled parents.  There is a high incidence of alopecia (severe hair loss)  in dilute coat colors such as blue (dilute black and tan), some light reds (dilute red and Isabella a dilute chocolate.

Poor tooth alignment  This involves incorrect bite with a number of issues such as over and under shot lower jaw caused poor teeth alignment..

Vaccinations and parasite control. Most common diseases affecting dachshunds like rabies, distemper and parvo can be prevented with a proper vaccination protocol.  Parasite infections such as roundworm, whipworm, coccidia and heartworm can be controlled using various medications.  

Proper nutrition.  Obliviously, a very important aspect to a health dachshund is good nutrition.  There are many ways to approach this aspect of good dog health, if you chose, like us, to use a packaged commercial dog food there is a good site on the Internet which has evaluated most of the commercial dog food available.  These ratings are based on what ingredients are used or not used.  The link to this site is www.dogfoodadvisor.com.

Currently, we are using both Canidae All life stages and Blue Buffalo Dog foods

Health and Nutrition

Health Guarantee.  We make every attempt to avoid genetic based diseases, but complex diseases such a intervertebral disc degeneration is vary difficult to total erase.  We do guarantee that are pups are in good health when purchased.  Most pups have had either one or two vaccinations for parvo and distemper by the time they leave.   We use several brand name vaccines which cover canine distemper, Adenovirus Type 2 and Parainfluenza-Parvovirus.  We do not use leptosprious vaccine and highly recommend against its use due to a high incidence of allergic reactions which can be fatal.   We also treat the pups for round worms at least once. We recommend that anyone purchasing a pup from us to take him or her to their own veterinarian as soon as possible. If a severe genetic disease, excluding back issues, is discovered in the first year after purchase, we will replace this pup.

Generally our pups are not allowed to leave until they are at least 8-10 weeks of age.