# 3 week old puppies dragging hind legs



## Stellaluna22 (Jan 9, 2015)

I have a litter from a 2 yr old first time bitch- 3 males and 3 females. Two of the males are dragging their rear legs behind them and app rears to have no strength or feeling in them.The others are up on their legs. Has anyone had this issue and know the cause and any experience with correcting this?Have bred German Shepherds for over 20 yrs.


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## Crystal butterfly (Nov 2, 2014)

Sorry no advice really but i really think you should be taking them to the vet


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## Crystal butterfly (Nov 2, 2014)

Also have a look up at swimmer puppies as if i remember rightly these have similar syptoms xx


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## Sleeping_Lion (Mar 19, 2009)

Swimmer pups struggle with their front legs as well, if they appear to have no feeling or movement to their rear legs definitely a vet trip I'm afraid, or get the vet out if they will come out to you.


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## Ridgielover (Apr 16, 2008)

Hi Stellaluna

I bred my first litter back in 1987 and have never come across this in any of my litters or litters I've visited. 

I would advise you to have the pups checked over by a vet. This does sound worrying


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## Stellaluna22 (Jan 9, 2015)

This is def not swimmer puppy as I've had those and know what to do for them and a vet just shakes their head and says prob neurological. But my problem is why?Do certain lines carry this etc. Is it something that happens to the bitch when she's in whelp / is it from the birth process etc.


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## Sleeping_Lion (Mar 19, 2009)

Stellaluna22 said:


> This is def not swimmer puppy as I've had those and know what to do for them and a vet just shakes their head and says prob neurological. But my problem is why?Do certain lines carry this etc. Is it something that happens to the bitch when she's in whelp / is it from the birth process etc.


Possibly one or all three, I don't think you will find out tbh. I lost two pups with my one and only litter so far, and one of them was just completely baffling, no apparent problem but she just never put any weight on right from day one. Whether or not it has anything to do with that particular genetic mix, or was just bad luck, I'll probably avoid breeding closely along the same lines again.


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

Stellaluna22 said:


> I have a litter from a 2 yr old first time bitch- 3 males and 3 females. Two of the males are dragging their rear legs behind them and app rears to have no strength or feeling in them.The others are up on their legs. Has anyone had this issue and know the cause and any experience with correcting this?Have bred German Shepherds for over 20 yrs.


Don't know if this would be of any relevance and you may have considered it already but if not there is Mucopolysaccharidosis Type V11 in the GSD and Brazillian terrier. Apparently its rare, and is an autosomal recessive inheritance. There are other signs with this usually too from what I can make out, don't know if there are any other symptoms as well as the rear leg problem.

LABOKLIN (UK)|Genetic Diseases | Dogs| MPS ( Mucopolysaccharidosis type VII)

Although not the best source of info there is some more about it on the link below and a photo of a 4 weeks old brazillian terrier puppy that affected.

Mucopolysaccharidosis - Dog


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## Stellaluna22 (Jan 9, 2015)

Thanx Sled dog! I've read tons on this now and it could very well be the answer here. It irks me that vets don't even know enuff on this or most diseases and shake their heads . Now I seriously have to look into this and see if the vet can even get the testing for this . I don't want to have this in my line.


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

Stellaluna22 said:


> Thanx Sled dog! I've read tons on this now and it could very well be the answer here. It irks me that vets don't even know enuff on this or most diseases and shake their heads . Now I seriously have to look into this and see if the vet can even get the testing for this . I don't want to have this in my line.


It shouldn't be too hard to get the DNA test done the details are on the link,
you can contact them with any queries you have too I would think. Should be easy enough to take the sample and send them off to the lab.

LABOKLIN (UK)|Genetic Diseases | Dogs| MPS ( Mucopolysaccharidosis type VII)

It seems to be an autosomal recessive so it that does turn out to be the cause, then your female and the stud dog will have to be tested. The only way that you could produce some affected puppies would be a carrier to a carrier, which would give you
about 25% affected puppies, 50% carriers (so they can pass the gene on but wont be affected themselves) and the other 25% would be clear. If you mate an affected to a carrier then you would get 50% affected and 50% carriers, Affected to affected would give you 100% affected puppies. As far as I can work out to get only two puppies in the litter affected, then the most likely scenario would be that both the sire and dam would be carriers, should this end up being the cause. There is more explained about the different status matings and what they would likely produce on the link, as well as the testing details.


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## snoopydo (Jan 19, 2010)

This sounds awful is there a cure or would the pups have to be pts


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## Pointermum (Jul 2, 2010)

Sled dog you are amazing as always , I presume your not a vet but should have been !


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## lostbear (May 29, 2013)

Crystal butterfly said:


> Also* have a look up at swimmer puppies *as if i remember rightly these have similar syptoms xx


This was the first thing that came into my mind when I saw the post.


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

lostbear said:


> This was the first thing that came into my mind when I saw the post.


That was the first thing I originally thought of too, when I saw the heading, but with swimmers they are flat on their chests and their legs stick out at the sides. Apparently these are not doing that, and the OP said that she was familiar with swimmers as she had them in the past.


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## IncaThePup (May 30, 2011)

snoopydo said:


> This sounds awful is there a cure or would the pups have to be pts


Surely with a bit of Hydrotherapy and physio you could see if you get their back legs going? Even at home when they're a bit older, placing them in bath water not deep but enough that you could see if they would try to paddle with *ALL* 4 legs (with your hand under their tummy) or whether their back legs just hang (like they were actually paralysed and no messages getting to them from brain).

Even then they're have been successful results (on humans) with a kind of treadmill therapy the patient is put in a sling over the treadmill and as the treadmill moves the legs are stimulated into moving.

If they can move their back legs themselves if someone is helping them support their weight then something like this

Zoomadog - Walking Frame

If they're too tiny for the smallest size maybe you could make something up similar if you study how it works or the company may do custom jobs? just to see if they would start moving their back legs in a walking motion, you'd then have more of an idea of what kind of quality of life they could have, but there's plenty of happy disabled dogs out there, who are just as happy as non-disabled pets.

As they're so young I would think they'd be a chance of re-training the brain, so could have them walking independently within their first year or first 6 months even.


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## Lumikoira (May 20, 2011)

Any update from the OP??


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