Five minutes after coming through the door, Buster collapsed. The kids waited while their parents rushed Buster to the veterinarian. Buster died of congestive heart failure. I believe that she thought she was selling us a healthy dog. However, Anne does wish that someone had caught it sooner.
Some dogs have bad genes that cause blindness, arthritis, and even death.
Genes such as these can be tested for by using one sample of the dog's D.N.A. Issuing the test is quite simple. Swab the inside of the dog's mouth, pop the swab back in a package, and mail it off to a lab. At present, doctors are trying to develop similar tests for cats, and every year they learn to detect more diseases in dogs. Eventually, they hope owners can breed the defects out of the animals. Breeders can perform the D.N.A. tests on puppies at any age.