A hemophiliac dog colony: genetic studies and coagulation findings in hemophiliac and normal dogs.

A colony of hemophiliac dogs was developed as descendants of a single affected Pomeranian. Over a 13 year period, a total of 29 hemophiliac dogs survived to the age of 6 months or longer. Eleven were female and 18 were male. All five of the possible matings in a sex-linked recessive inheritance pattern were accomplished and the offspring fell into the expected sex and disease groups. Twenty-one dogs died from untreated hemorrhages which usually occurred in loose tissues or body cavities during the night. Clinically, there were no hemarthroses but 22 other hemorrhages responded promptly to treatment with dog cryoprecipitate. Coagulation studies showed that the hemophiliac dogs averaged about 0.23 U/ml equivalents of human F VIII:C while normal dogs averaged 8.0 U/ml equivalents of human. F's V, VII, II, X, IX, XI and XII were higher than human in both normal and hemophiliac dogs. Dog fibrinogen fell within the human range and Fletcher F was very low.