Puppy down on pasterns - Page 2

This is a web site with some good info and pics of the condition... http://www.geocities.com/voy56514/index4.htm

Some puppies are down in their pasturns during a "growing" stage....not all stay that way. I have never taken a puppy off of puppy food and placed them on adult food before the proper time. Some blood lines have a "longer" pasturn...not a great trait, but it is there....that will also give the "down or weak look". Proper excercise does help...they should have good "grounding" also to walk on... It is also improper to have a "straight" pasturn. The pasturn should "bend" ever so slightly. The "flat" pasturn is horrible....that is where they look like they are walking on their wrists. ALL these types of pasturns exist.

I usually recommend feeding and watering from a raised dish, no long walks on pavement, lift the puppy down from vehicles- but honestly only time will tell. These things may not help, but they sure wont hurt.

I misspelled PASTERNS......DUH!!!!!! Spell check...spell check...where are you..spell check?!

Do a search there are several good puppy pastern threads here at the DB. Here are links to 2, one I started. My puppies pasterns have improved much since I posted. Here is what I think helped. Started walking at least a mile or more a day, with lots of pace changes (walk, trot, run), started supplimenting with raw chicken legs and did the "sand box" thing for her kennel run. Be careful with the sandbox - my puppy injested a lot of sand and also took a few pees & poos which I wasn't crazy about since I didn't want to teach her to soil her kennel. The key was to get her out frequently, but there were still a few accidents, that didn't happen prior to the sand. I phased the sand out after 3 weeks - but I think it helped when I needed it. Read the threads and what I'm talking about will make sense. http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/bulletins_read/76587.html http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/bulletins_read/36437.html -Calvin

Puppies are very often temporary down on their pasterns. This can occur anytime during the active growing phase. The length of the pasterns should be about a third of the leg and is supposed to have an angle of 20 to 22 degrees. Less than 20 degrees would be way too steep and more than 22 degrees is considered weak. But this is for an adult dog, not a puppy. Chris

Please keep us posted on the progress of your puppy's pasterns. I personally have never had this problem with any of my puppies, and I find it hard to imagine how weak pasterns could fix themselves over time, so naturally I'm curious to learn if this is possible. Every day is a learning experience with dogs! Yvette

It is genetic. But it often goes away if one decreases the amount of protein in the diet. (a high protein diet often brings this on and increases it substantially. I suggest you feed your dog a quality premier dg food for overweight or adult dogs (very low protein and low fat) and limit the dog's exercise until it goes away. Don't supplement with calcium.