PRA testing

[twibstix]

Hi All

I have a working Cocker dog, Rupert.  He is currently chemically castrated so he can enjoy his agility season and shoot season without becoming distracted by the ladies BUT I would like to put him to stud at the beginning of next year, with the intention of keeping one of his progeny. 

All of this however is subject to him having his PRA test and passing as PRA clear.

Our vets do not do this test so I am on here asking does anyone know of anywhere who does?  I was told at the weekend that sometimes breed clubs offer a group test which would mean the tests worked out cheaper, other than that I can expect to pay upwards of £200.

Thank you in advance.

[Nicola]

Your vet should be able to do it, all they have to do is draw a tube or two of blood or take a cheek swab and sign a form, you can do the rest yourself. I recently had my youngest working Cocker Optigen tested and although my vet had never done it before it was no problem other than making sure they had the correct tubes in for collecting the blood. I ordered and paid for the test on the Optigen website, printed out the paperwork which the vet signed when they took the blood and then I posted it all off to the US. The cost of the test was about £120 at the exchange rate at the time plus the vet cost for drawing the blood and postage to the States, it probably cost about £150 all in.

All the info is on the Optigen website here http://www.optigen.com/opt9_info.html  You can also do it as part of a 'clinic', it's just a matter of finding one near to you at the right time, I had my male dog done as part of a distance clinic where I ordered and paid for the test online in the same way (but used the group discount code) and had the bloods taken by my vet but I then posted them down to the clinic organiser in England who dealt with the onward sending to Optigen.