Alkarah Kennels - Page 1

I purchased a beautiful gsd back in 2000 from Alkarah Kennels which I might add wasn't cheap. Anyway, around the age of six he got peri anal fistula which is a hereditary disease. If you are not aware of this disease please research it. Its also requires very expensive medication. I immediately contacted Karen to make her aware. She didn't even have to courtesy to respond to me. This is the last kennel I'd ever get a dog from again. To me she's all about the money and has forgotten about the bloodline and caring for the dogs!

Actually I believe it is not a hereditary condition, it is most common in the GSD.My understanding is that is was caused by inflammation.
Regardless, sorry your breeder did not contact you back. But why are you just now posting this? The dog is at least 15, and probably has passed.

A hereditary component is presumed due to certain breed predilections. I was advised not to breed my shepherd due to this condition by multiple vets.

I'm posting this now because I saw previous posts asking about alkarah. And yes my dog has passed after fighting this for years which also spread to his eyes. He died of cancer at 13.

Also its not caused by inflammation. It's the body's immune system being over active and attacking the body. Unless you've dealt with this disease first hand you have no idea how bad it can get. 

Yes, I was just going to post that AF (Anal Furunculosis, as we know Perianal Fistula in the UK) is thought to be an auto-immune problem. But - having dealt with it in a family of dogs, in which it cropped up from generation to generation, it became clear to me there IS a genetic propensity, also. It IS a pain to deal with, and treatments (especially with cyclosporine) ARE expensive. But mostly it is the repetition of the daily cleaning, and watching the dog reduced by the disease, if it keeps coming back, which are the worst problems. There have been several threds and many references to AF on PDB over the years, I don't know if you can still pull them up with a Search (now we have the updated site ?) but there's lots of case studies all over the Web to refer to for info. if anybody needs to read up on it. Reaching the eyes was a new one on me. But it is not fatal; generally only death occurs from other causes; or euthanasia to spare the worst continuing cases. 13's a good age for a Shepherd... we lost the dog with the most troublesome case to an unconnected tumour at 8 yrs.

I know Karin and am very shocked to hear that she ignored your issue with the dog you bought from her. I have never seen any mention of Alkarah on this forum. When did you see posts here about her?

I don't recall seeing much mention of the Alkarah kennel on PDB, either, Blitzen.
Perhaps I should have added, anyway, that - although one would wish for a better
response from any breeder about any dog of theirs than reported here - the OP is
kinda assuming that "its all her fault" that the dog got AF. Not sure this is true:
cases have to start somewhere, she may not have known she had bred a dog that
went on to develop AF. If the dog was 6 and had got something wrong with it only
then, it seems harsh to say you'd never ever buy another pup from them.
[I must point out that the progeny of the dogs in question in MY example were not
bred from for commercial purposes, and that all reproduction stopped once the
hereditary nature of the illness became clear.]

Dr. Karen Becker has a pretty informative video on the PAF subject; there is possibly a propensity of it being allergy related in some cases, at least some are proposing that; also just for your information and knowledge my older sammie boy (9.3) years old now, has a tendency to have anal tumors as does a half brother of his; all his life he has been on some type food with chicken. I completely took him off chicken products about a year ago; got his anal tumors removed for which I thought were PAF's but turned out one was just an abcess of a nature, the other was a type benigne (sorry about spelling) tumor both were sent to lab. However his 11 year older brother is not so lucky; he had 4 tumors but due to location could only remove 2 of the 4 and both were malignant.

Reason for my blurb is since my boy was taken off chicken products of all types he has felt so much better. Just am now trying Orijen adult which does have some chicken along with turkey and fish so we will see. But am leaning towards food sensitivities as well as auto immune related problems/allergies...JMHO Nan

And of course there is ALWAYS a possibility of problems of this type being inherited as we all know auto immune can be inherited...So yes your breeder probably wants to run and hide as you KNOW this is not her first rodeo.

Alkarah is a ASL breeder who has used a few German dogs over the years. She's also an AKC judge and not the sort of GSD owner who is likely to ever post here but that doesn't mean someone else hasn't mentioned her or her kennel name.