The Pitter
I purchased a 8 week old white German Shepherd puppy who is AKC Registered. The lady I bought him from only had him for 2 weeks before discovering she didn't have time for him. She bought him from the breeder.
Anyway, on to my question. I know German Shepherds are known for having hip problems later in life. My pup's back feet are turned out a bit, is this normal? Kind of like knock knee'd when looking at him from the back, minus the knee part. :-) He has an appointment at the vet next Tuesday for the shots he needs and an all over check up but I just wanted to see if I could get any answers now.
He is VERY active and seem's perfectly normal aside from being adorably clumsy (maybe that's normal at this age too).
Thanks!
Thank you to everyone for your answers.
Rsponding to King Les The Lofty comment, "I doubt that a pup sold at 6 weeks old went with a pedigree, let alone with registration papers."
I have papers. I'm planning on contacting the breeders this weekend and asking to meet with them. We'd like to see the parents and ask a few other questions.
Thanks again everyone!
Answer
Agreed that the previous owner should not have had the pup so young. The woman must have been a real ditz to last only 2 weeks!
I doubt that a pup sold at 6 weeks old went with a pedigree, let alone with registration papers. Without those you can have no idea whether your pup is from a "safe" lines or "risky" lines. So neutering is a "must". But there are both benefits & consequences possible, related to the age at which the pooch was neutered. Please study http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/The_GSD_Source/links/Neutering_001198315291/ for the most up-to-date research on those side-effects, so that you can choose the age intelligently.
All medium & large breeds include genes for hip dysplasia in the breed's gene pool (it has been detected in prehistoric fossils of such as dinosaurs!)
But how common HD is in a particular kennel depends on the intelligence of the kennel's owner, particularly how he/she uses the xray evidence available. Although a veterinary university in Hamburg claimed at the end of March to have identified one the DNA sequences responsible for HD, for a while yet we will have to rely on xray schemes.
The last litter in which I produced a dysplastic was born in 1983 - and it wasn't my idea, it was a "surprise gift" from a pup allowed to run unsupervised with his on-heat dam because he was too small to reach her "target" and anyway he was too young to be fertile. Yeah, right.....
Hip dysplasia and elbow dysplasia are the expression of RECESSIVE alleles, albeit modified by the environmental factors of diet & weight & fitness (or lack of) & type of activity.
A dog's OWN xray tells you only whether it personally displays the effects of HD (or ED). It tells you nothing about how many of the dysplasia recessives the pooch possesses, each blocked in that dog by its "good" dominant allele. Until DNA matching is available, breeders need to check the hips of the parents & siblings and grandparents of both the new stud & new brood they are considering using - and, if possible, uncles and aunts as well. After the stud has had several litters, a more reliable guide is a progeny analysis. Hence one of the reasons why having the "papers" is so important
Basically, now that you HAVE your pup it is too late to worry about HD or ED or Pano, unless you are prepared to return the pup to where you got it and start again, this time the right way.
If your pup is destined to develop a joint dysplasia it WILL develop it. But there are things you can do to minimise the speed & degree that it takes effect - and they are good things to do even if your pup isn't destined to develop a dysplasia.
(1) Keep it light in weight from now on. If your pup has the correct GSD coat, soon after 5 months old you should see every rib outlined by the muscles working over it while the dog gaits or pants, but never more than the edge of the last rib when it is rested - the GSD should be in the same condition as a human who is a champion marathon runner.
(2) Feed raw meat on small bones (skinned rabbits, chunks from lambs or young deer) - meat is the basic diet of carnivores; the gnawing exercises the cheek muscles that control their ears, clean the teeth, help dislodge the deciduous teeth, and help the permanent teeth break through the gums, and any bits that get digested contain the perfect calcium:phosphorus balance. Supplement that with cooked table scraps or dog bix a few times a week.
(3a) Allow the pup freedom to exercise whenever it wants - lying in a crate doesn't develop muscle (nor does it develop intelligence & self-confidence). When a pooch cannot have the run of the house it should be in a roofed escape-proof run outside where it can experience the sounds & smells & movements of the environment or snooze in a raised box or bounce from end to end of the run and go toilet whenever it wants to.
(3b) Avoid high impact exercise; avoid exhausting exercise - exhausting for the pup, not for you.
The condition of the muscles & ligaments is crucial - they have to be tight, to hold the bones in the correct relationship to each other so that the knobs and sockets and balls all work properly.
Ignore any "advice" to "prelim" your pup.
Less than 16% of HD is detected by xrays taken at or before 6 months old!
By 12-13 months old 70% gets detected, and only OFA deems that too young to certify; the rest of the world considers that if HD hasn't shown up by 12-13 months it is going to be very mild and not prevent dogs from having a normal life-span (the exception being the ones that REALLY work their joints hard for up to 14 hours a day).
Your pup probably has weak muscles - people who "get rid of" their pups at 6 weeks old are unlikely to have allowed them to run all around the section, developing muscles and awareness of the environment. It is also very likely to have stifles that are too long - that is a characteristic of NAmerican-bred GSDs. Either makes it hard for the muscles to control the hocks; both together are certain to produce "cow-hocks" aka "pin-hocks".
You cannot diagnose HD just by looking. My first bit.ch, back when my country still had no HD scheme, produced a very dysplastic pup, so our vet sent us to the veterinary university where the profs were testing out possible ways to diagnose HD. Our bit.ch flew through all the physical tests, and then came the xray - it revealed that she had almost no hip sockets. She was a VERY fit bit.ch, and that muscle fitness was keeping each femur head tightly aligned with the little socket she had left, even when waltzing on her hind legs with the prof.
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/The_GSD_Source/links/Diseases_001198817153/Hip_Dysplasia_001198817326/ tells you about Hip Dysplasia.
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/The_GSD_Source/links/Diseases_001198817153/Elbow_Dysplasia_and_U_A_P__001198817464/ tells you about Elbow Dysplasia.
As he is obviously NOT breeding stock, the only reason for xraying him is to confirm your suspicion that he has HD or ED, if that situation ever arises. Or, if you will be putting an expensive amount of time into training him for a specific task, xray at or after 12 months to see whether his joints look likely to give him 10+ years of working life. Otherwise, if you find out who his parents are and that they have KC registration, you might care to have him officially certificated to add to the knowledge about his parents' genes for dysplasia.
The proper place to ask questions about GSDs is in a couple of the 300+ YahooGroups dedicated to various aspects of our breed. Each group's Home Page will have a "mission statement" telling you which aspects they want to talk about, and below that will be a Monthly Activity "calendar" so you can tell whether the group is "dead" or manageably active or so over-active that you couldn't cope with all that traffic.
Les P, owner of GSD_Friendly: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/GSD_Friendly
"In GSDs" as of 1967
What is the difference between ein and eine in German?
Corvin
Is it that ones masculine and feminine? If so, which is which?
Answer
-Ein is masculine (der Junge = the boy; ein Junge = a boy)
-Ein can also be neuter (das Geschenk = the gift; ein Geschenk = a gift)
-Eine is feminine (die Frau = the woman; eine Frau = a woman)
All of these examples are in a case we call Nominative (this means that "ein Junge," "ein Geschenk" and "eine Frau" are all the SUBJECTS of the sentence.)
When something is the subject, it performs the action:
--A boy ate the cake.
--A girl stole the bicycle.
--The woman told us to leave.
--Sarah is my sister.
--Katelyn and Jonathon are my friends.
--He sold the car.
--We gave him the money.
--They borrow my clothes all the time.
+Later in German, you'll learn about the Accusative case, Dative case, and (the awkward) Genitive case. In these other cases, the noun is not the subject (like above examples).
+In these cases, the "der, die, das, die" articles will change.
+Also, the "ein, eine, ein" articles will change, but not much.
Viel Glueck!
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