Rickets in my GSD puppy - Page 2

 Tanmoy,

It might take some time before the leg is better. IF the leg is not strong, because there are not the right vitamins and minerals in the body, it takes time to make the pup better. Also, the leg could have an injury just because it was not strong. Be careful with the pup, make sure it gets good food, sunlight and the medicine. Also, do not try to do too many things with the pup until it is much, much better.

I am glad to hear the pup is doing better. Best wishes.

Tanmoy, it could be the pictures are too large.  Do you know how to resize them (make them smaller)?

If not, try sending them one at a time. To find out the size of the picture, right-click on it with  your mouse, then click on 'Properties" A large picture is one that is 1 MB (megabyte) or bigger. Some e-mail programs will not send pictures that large.

Dear Tanmoy,

I have the pictures now, from both my e-mail accounts. Could you please remove my e-mail address from your post? I like to keep it private, so I don't get spam! Thank you.

As I suspected your pictures were HUGE!! Some were over 3 MB! That is why you had trouble sending them. I hope someone can teach you how to make them smaller for sending in e-mails and posting on websites.

Anyway here they are, with my comments:









In my opinion, your dog does not have rickets. If she does, it is not severe enough to affect the bone structure and make the legs bow outwards. What she has is weak conformation. Her pasterns are too long, and she is severely cowhocked. The hocks point in when she is standing, instead of being parallel to each other.   She is also underweight, but not suffering from malnutrition, as her coat has a nice shine to it. She has poor muscle tone as a result of being in her kennel so much and her nails need to be trimmed.

She would benefit from exercise to improve her muscle tone, and strengthen her weak conformation, but with her legs being sore, I don't know just how you are going to do this. Maybe you can start with short walks on a leash, and see how she tolerates them. If she's okay with that, gradually increase how long you walk her. If it makes her limp worse, you will have to wait until the limp is better.

You also need to get her on a solid kennel floor instead of a wire floor. Wire is very bad for the feet and joints.

Did the x-ray of her leg show any injury? Did they x-ray the hip?

I would like to comment on the injections she has been getting,  but I am not familiar with those medications, and don't have time to look them up right now. The Megaflex powder certainly can't hurt, but in my opinion, rubbing vitamin oil on her joints is a waste of money and time.

By the way, it is REAR leg, not rare leg. A 'rare' leg is something you eat, e.g. "I like my meat rare (means it has not been cooked very much.)

It is difficult to say for certain without proper tests whether your dog has ricketts or not, but from the photos, it does NOT look like the pup has this problem. Ricketts makes severe problems in the bone. What you have is a puppy that is very large bones for the age.  I also agree that the puppy does have parts of her legs, called "pasterns" that are very weak. This is often genetic and it may not ever get better but it is not a big problem. Sometimes as the pup becomes older it will get better. Your puppy probably does not have ricketts based on looking at these photos.

In the rear leg, there is something wrong because the puppy does not want to put weight on it (stand on the leg). When did this problem begin? Is it ever better and then becomes painful again a few days later? IS there any chance she hurt the leg? Did someone step on her leg, for example? Or did she jump off of something high off the ground, or fall?

I do NOT agree that the puppy is underweight. In my opinion, the puppy is almost too heavy and weight will certainly make any problem with the legs much worse. Too many people allow their puppies to be way too heavy. At four months old, it is time for the puppy to become less fat. When puppies are very young babies, yes, they should be very fat. But now leave her weight as she is. It is fine. If you look at her from above her back, you should see a waist, like where men and women wear a belt.

Also, more exercise will help firm up her muscle, but if she is limping, you must not exercise her. That will only make the problem worse. First you must find out what is wrong with the leg. It is possible that she has a common condition called "panosteitis". In this case, the limp should go away after some time, but it can come back in the same leg or a different leg again and again until the dog is grown up. It is usually not a very serious problem, but the puppy will limp. There are medicines that can help this problem too. In humans we sometimes say the child has "growing pains". It is possible that this is all that is the problem and it will go away in time.

Her nails do need to be cut but get someone to show you how to do that so you do not cut her. And her coat does look ok from the photo also. It should have a shine to it and from the photos, it looks like it does have a shine.

Play with her with a toy that she can bite and you can pull. We call it tug of war. Do you know what I mean by this?

She is a very nice pup and I hope your vets there will help you. Also, again, I think it will be very important to find a countryman who has a lot of experience with GSDs. He can also help you a lot.

Good luck.

Hodie, she said her pup was 4 months old and weighed only 11.5 kg. A female of that age should weigh approximately 16.4 kg., according to the growth chart I have bookmarked.  I agree that it would be bad for this pup to gain too much wieght, though. It is better for her joints to keep her on the slim side.

If you read her posts, it seems the pup did have an injury, but she didn't give details. It seems that x-rays were inconclusive (vet said there may be a hidden injury.)

 Sunsilver, 

I never use charts. I look at the dog. This pup is neither obviously malnourished or too thin. If anything, she may be a bit too heavy. I like to see pups lean. By that I mean getting rid of the baby fat and seeing a faint outline of a last rib. The pup may be small in stature and hence the 25 lb weight or so. But from the photo, the dog is not too thin. This pup is a lanky youngster, typical of some bloodlines, but something is not right with the rear leg. The pasterns may well correct themselves, believe it or not. I have seen such apparent weakness resolve with my own eyes.

My guess would be the pup has pano and/or has an injury and/or may have been malnourished at one point, but not now. As you know, ricketts would have done a number on the bones already, even in such a young pup. The best thing this person can do is find someone there who knows what the heck they are doing with GSDs. This is what makes me upset. So often we see animals sold in countries where they really don't have the experience to know what is and is not a proper diet, environment or otherwise. India and China are countries where there is a small but very active GSD group. Others see the dogs and want one, but don't make the right connections to be sure they know how to care for the dog. 

Dear Hodie,
Surely I am not verry much aware of GSD. It was in my dream to have a pet from very begining and honestly  love pet..
This is my first experience. I have gone through the information available in NET as well as in Books. Also took suggestion from an old pet lover who had numbers of dog (shetland sheep dog, Doberman, Lab, Culture Pom, Cockers).
And furthermore believe me I am trying my level best to give my puppy a proper nutrition. May be the diet was not up to the mark.
As you suggest I have found one gentelman who may help me. He is an international Judge. I have to take my baby to him. Hope he can help me.

Regards
Tanmoy

That's good news, Tanmoy! I wish you the best of luck with your puppy, and I'm sure this gentleman will be able to give you good advice!

 Hi Tanmoy,

That is great news that you have someone there who can also help you. Unfortunately, none of us speak your language. Sometimes when there is different language it is very difficult to help or to understand. We want to help. So feel free to post here and we will do our best. But hopefully the man there can also help you.

Enjoy this puppy. German Shepherds are the best dogs!!! Please keep us posted on how the puppy is doing. 

I agree with Hodie, this dog is not underweight.
 What I see is a irregular growth. Some bones are way too long to the proportions of the dog. Thus I suspect panosteitis "pano" also known as inflammation of a long bone or growing pains or traveling pains.
 Actually supplements and so called super high quality balanced diet will cause that since the dog on supplements and that type of a food will try to grow too fast and that causes pano.
The symptoms are described here are also symptoms of  Pano . Bones are soft and that causes Pano too. Limping comes and goes and travels to different legs. I am almost sure100%  that this is Pano. 
 Treatment:
1. Children coated Aspirin. Small doses (50mg) with each meal. (To diminish the inflammation) 
2. Keep the pup skinny. ( So that the skeleton does not have to bear more then necessary)
3. Vigorous none weight bearing exercises like swimming to build a muscle.
4. Moderate weight bearing exercises. Like walking. To build bone.
5. Sunshine.( gives Vitamin "D")
6. ultra small doses of vitamin "C" (25 mg) (Help digest minerals)
7. Boil marrow bones, chicken feet. (Excellent and by body readily available minerals, glucosomine, chondroitine, MSM, hyluronic acid. )
8. Keep feeding the chicken diet described and ad pinch of sea salt.
9. Do not feed any commercial dog food.
 I will PM you some more extensive care suggestions.
Prager Hans
http://www.alpinek9.com