Anomalies....

[Pascha]

I was wondering if any of the breeders here have experienced any really weird pups, such as conjoined twins, or missing or extra limbs, or pups with two heads, etc? If so, how would a breeder handle the situation?

[Spiritsmam]

I'm not a breeder but adopt GSD's with a very specific anomaly - namely hindlimb deformities that result in Hypoplastic acetabulums, coxa valga, luxation of coxofemoral joints, femoral and tibial rotation, medially luxating patellas, tarsal malformation, contracture of quadriceps and/or sartorius muscles.

It appears that this may be an as yet undocumented genetic disease in GSD's (motor neuron with secondary orthopedic anomalies). A friend who has another affected GSD wrote to a number of breeders, asking if they had seen such pups in their litters. She received several replies saying that yes, these pups appear from time to time. Some breeders euthanised, others surrendered to shelters. Interestingly, the numbers of these pups appears to be increasing - I know of about 30 and hear about 1 or 2 more a month. What I don't know is if breeders stop breeding dogs that produce these pups.

I am in the process of setting up a webpage about these guys and have vets at NC State and UT interested in collecting DNA and trying to identify the underlying gene mutation.

[darylehret]

A client from my latest litter took his 10 week old pup out for training on public school grounds (against our advice) in Colorado Springs, where parvo is currently running rampant. The pup wasn't eating and the owner called us, and my wife instructed him to go immediately to the vet, where he was tested positive for the virus. "That's the healthiest pup I've ever seen with parvo!" The pup was NOT treated and released, and my wife was furious that the vet did nothing. The pup was in fine health only a couple days afterward, with only one day of diarrhea, vomiting once, and no blood.

There were seven other cases of parvo in the vets office at the time, so perhaps there may have been a mix up in the test sample, but I wonder if some genetic tolerance/immunity is possible.

[Chris Wild]

We had one pup born missing several toes. This pup was also severely undersized and underdeveloped and died within a couple days.

And we had a pup born with the intestines on the outside. A rare, but not unheard of, developmental defect, where things aren't in the right place when the torso closes up. Even happens with humans sometimes. This pup was euthanized at birth.

[lhczth]

So far, no, but have seen lambs with hearts on the outside of their bodies. I have so far been pretty lucky with puppies, calves and foals.