Muscular dystrophy in a GSD?

Question

Has anyone heard of or seen a GSD with muscular dystrophy or anything similar? There is one that is on the East Coast, American show lines, that is down big time on his pasterns and hocks. I have seen another one that was very similar and he came from a good American show breeder. In both of those boys, there was no muscle in the front legs, they were splinted with no help and their front feet were splayed out causing their toes to point up. There is another that I have seen, that is not the same, he is down on his hocks, and has trouble moving his rear, kind of swaying his hips back and forth. This pup is alright in the front, except for a buckled carpel joint on one side that was splinted, and it has come back. That pup is probably going to have to be put down, he is 7 months and I told his breeder to send him off for necropsy. Has anyone seen muscle problems like this in the GSD's?

This is not related to the dwarf gene from what we see. Fred Lanting is trying to help out with his research.

We also don't think this is HOD.

We are looking closely at the pedigrees of the 2 show line dogs. But, the other dog I have seen is a total outcross! His mother is American show and his father's pedigree has West German show, working, and American show and white lines. This 3rd dog was very angulated young, and looked amazing structure wise. I have seen the littermate to this one and they look totally different.

Answer 1

I have never heard of it, but I wonder if it is caused in part by the breeding to get their top-line and gait to have the desired look and the way that some breeders breed their dogs (inbreeding and linebreeding mainly). I have seen a GSD puppy (about 11 months old) that was not absorbing calcium and phosphorus like he was supposed to and it caused severe weakness in his joints, but I do not think that he had many problems with his muscles. I would think though that there could be problems if the dog's body was not producing the correct proteins which could in theory cause musculature problems, so I would think that it is possible for dogs to hav muscular dystrophy but I do not know for sure. You could try calling a local veterinary medical teaching hospital and ask them. They seem to be the most up to date on all of the new medical information.