Health problems not addressed? - Page 3

My dog out of rescue, which I got at 2 years of age had Demodex: an evil we have combated successfully. The vet too quickly resorted to the itching and sboreah with a cortizone injection. And this brought out the most terrible form of this disease. To the point that I was watching my sweet dog bubbling from all poors with blood. It killed me especially when this aggressive parasite was active around the eyes. The vet said it was the worse case they had ever seen. time to put her to sleep. The clinical help: gave her a dose of pesticides enough to kill a horse. Some dumb vet, experimenting with my dog. I called a homeopathic vet over the weekend, questioning the change of character in my dog and if this was correct? If I had not done so, my dog would be dead today. A blood test was necessary to ensure no liver damage. Working together with this homeopathic vet and a clinical vet, I can now say five years later, we have never had a reoccurrence of this terrible infliction. My dog is a blonde.

Has anyone out there related pancreas problems and immune(demodetic mange), to early spaying or neutering? I had one puppy out there, that was put down at one year for a failed pancreas. One other puppy had a small patch of demodetic mange on the upper muzzle, 2 others were skinny as rails, with reduce muscle/bone density. The comon denominator was they were all spayed a 3 months of age. With the sex harmones tied to the growth harmones, I pondered that and called Germany for some opinions. Some opinions were that the dogs growth was thrown a growth/development imbalance curve due to the early spaying. I have not bred those two dogs together again, because I just don't know. 20 other puppies are doing great and 6 puppies from a different sire are doing great. The 4 affected dogs were decendants from Jeck V Noricum(not acusing that dog, just throwing in some salient information). I spoke with my vet and he said none of it was hereditary. The owners vets said the same thing. How does one know, for sure? I don't think you will eradicate all illnesses, this is not a perfect world. You can, however, track your animals out in the world as I do. People never call when they don't have a problem, they only call when there IS a problem. I call ALL families, every six months. Mostly all of the news is good news and they are happy with the dogs. The dog that had the pancreatic failure, I replace, at no charge(out of the warrenty period), to the family. The death occured outside the warranty, BUT I knew the family bought the dog for 12-14 years not 13 months, so it was only right to replace the dog at no charge. I have also changed my warranty, from one year to 3. I now give 3 years bumber to bumber(hips/elbows/major organs)guarentees if the dog is not spayed or neutered before the 24 month birthday. Spay or neuter before the 24th month birthdate and the warranty is voided, you are on your own. I am going to track these dogs and compare them with instances against those that were spayed early. I am still not breeding the two dogs together that had the puppies with the problems, just in case.

SGBH, although you addressed many issues, in the case of an adult bitch, such as was our case, the best thing was that she was spayed and did not have to go through the "stress" of heat. As I understand it, most dogs carry the parasite, demodex, but it can only get overhand when the immune system is down. In puppies it is transmitted by the mother but it usually clears up by itself. In adults, it is a problem. It is not a disease that can transmit from one adult dog to another or to a human being. But, it can be incurable. It definately is tied to the immune system and for a bitch the heat cycle is stress. I personally would never want another dog of mine go through what this bitch had to go through to find a cure or cures. It was a terrible battle with vets. So, nice to look back on having won it.

This is a really good discussion topic and a lot of good points have been brought up. With our breeding stock, we test not only for hips/elbows, but for heart/eye problems as well (CERF exam). When I went to the heart/eye clinic with our females to have them tested, the vets were surprised to see GSD's, as breeders rarely ever have their breeding stock tested. I did the testing as I wanted to know for myself whether these females had any problems. I was laughed at by several breeders for having done the testing, as 'there aren't any heart/eye problems in the breed' so I was 'wasting' my money. Sure, maybe I was, as I still have no idea if these females are carriers, I can test their puppies, but that doesn't tell me for sure. And then try to find a male who has had his heart/eyes tested, and even if he has, he could be a carrier. I wish that more breeders would start testing, as you have to start somewhere. The cost of testing is very cheap, so that shouldn't be a factor. JMO

Yes we have done tests, etc with this dog. The allergies are numerous but only one of many symptoms of an underlying problem - her immune system. She also has epilepsy and some other issues. My thought is that all her problems go back to her immunizations. However, I do believe the tendency for these kinds of problems to develop are genetic. The mange topic is an interesting one - one of my males got a bad case of demodex at 11 months. My vet was out of town and one of the other vets in the office gave him Ivermectin. Didn't work and he suggested other treatments but I waited until she returned and she had a great natural recipe that cured it very quickly with no side effects. I prefer homeopathic remedies when possible but for my female we have had to go back to the more damaging steriods to help her suffering.

Interesting issue raied by Birdy. I also know of at least one direct son of Ursus that simply flopped over and died of heart failure after a working session - and this was a fit, healthy working dog. He was 6 years old. And a granddaughter of 18 months was playing in the garden and the same thing happened. Makes one wonder ..........One of my friends firmly believe we are interfering with a dog'a natural immunity against diseases by feeding processed food and he is strictly BARF.

Interesting issue raied by Birdy. I also know of at least one direct son of Ursus that simply flopped over and died of heart failure after a working session - and this was a fit, healthy working dog. He was 6 years old. And a granddaughter of 18 months was playing in the garden and the same thing happened. Makes one wonder ..........One of my friends firmly believe we are interfering with a dog'a natural immunity against diseases by feeding processed food and he is strictly BARF.

My female is not out of Ursus lines, but she has the heart problem. I will keep trying to figure out how/why this happened. Some say infection, some say immunizations or lack of at an early age...no one knows for sure. GSD4Dogs...where can I find that natural remedy for mange? We battle that with her too and since she can't have anesthesia to spay her...we deal with it.

Neohaus, I'm not sure if this condition was related to anyone line... Even though her grand sire was Ursus her dam's sire or her grandsire is Zello von der Steinhägerquelle. Which has an eclectic bunch of bloodlines on his side too. Including Jeck Noricum, which I see this name being brought up here too. Maybe coincidence but then again maybe not. I heard of other heart related problems from this cross but again that could be coincidence too. All in all it was simply devastating and still bothers us to have lost her. She had demodex too but her immune system kicked in and it went away. This is something that is usually passed along from the dam to her pups as they snuggle up to her when nursing. It showed up when she was about 4 months old, vet treated it and said to watch it and it went away completely by the time she was 6 months old. Birdy...

Sunshine, What has your homeopathic vet done to help your dog? I would really like to know if you wouldn't mind sharing? Thanks, Birdy... Sunshine said "Working together with this homeopathic vet and a clinical vet, I can now say five years later, we have never had a reoccurrence of this terrible infliction."