Hello to all dog lovers - GSDs, many questions! Questions

There is no such thing as a stupid question, nobody popped out of the womb a ready made dog trainer/breed expert.

We all have to learn and I am learning all the time.

I do not have all the answers, and some of my views are just that, views, not facts.

Another convert

Zak wholeheartedly agrees

I would say absolutely!

When does your search begin?

what a lovely picture, of my star dog. thanks Moobli. he is looking so good.

Many thanks for the advice Moobli, as you say he is very young yet and i will just keep working at it. Fortunately he is very intelligent and picks up commands quickly, its just dealing with distractions that is the problem. I have tried the toy ruse but that is disregarded when he sees something worth chasing. Its all about prey drive and instinct i guess. But heck, what would we all have to do all day without these fabulous dogs to challenge us.

Aww thanks Jeagi. I am so glad that photos of Zak can still put a smile on your face, even at this difficult and sad time for you

Absolutely! Life would be dull

All the best laid plans...

Sadly Dido fell over on Sunday with her back legs just collapsing underneath her. We called the vet out straight away and in the mean time we managed to get her up and walking around but she was very weak in the back end, swaying and wobbly. The vet said it looked like it could be arthritis in her spine but as she appears to be in no pain and is unable to correct herself when her foot is placed knuckle under it is quite likely to be DM. As she appears to be in no pain the vet recommended waiting a few days to see how she goes before possibly starting any further investigations and unless anything else happens we'll go back at the end of the week.

This has come as a complete bolt out of he blue although with hindsight she has been a little slower and occasionally reluctant to jump in the car after a walk - but she is 11 now so we assumed this just to be natural slowing down with age. Other than being weak at the back she seems perfectly happy and up for everything as usual. For the time being we've cut her walks down but she gets so distressed at seeing the others go out for their walks without her and given the opportunity is out running round the garden with the others as usual, albeit a bit uncontrolled and floppily.

The vet's attitude seems to be that it's probably not worth stressing her out and upsetting her by undertaking invasive tests (this includes x-rays) for what is an incurable condition and the best thing is to manage any pain - which she doesn't have at the moment - and give her the best life she can have for what remains. I tend to agree that quality of life is most important and here's no point putting her through stressful investigations if there's nothing to be gained by it. On the other hand I couldn't forgive myself if there is something that could be done and we weren't doing it.

Needless to say any puppy plans are now on hold as I don't want to inflict a puppy on a frail elderly dog not to mention the fact that she will at some point probably need extra time and tlc.

im sorry to hear this. poor Dido. i know what you are going through, belive me. just treat her as normally as possible... whilst just being aware of the weakness. they will always try to adapt to each situation and condition, and often deal with it much easier than us. thinking of you both. lots good wishes.

So sorry to hear this LupiLu and i echo the good advice from Jeagibear. I found this article about DM which may be worth reading as it describes the symptoms more fully.

Extract"We have been told repeatedly by every vet and have read extensively too that there is no pain associated with DM, just tremendous frustration for the dog"

http://www.gsr-sp.com/dm.html

Thank you Apache, and Jaegibear. Needless to say I've been doing a lot of reading on DM but this article really puts it into perspective from the point of view of real dogs and owners. It's also a salutary lesson that sometimes less is more and sometimes the kindest thing you can do is to stop trying to do anything and just give them the best life possible - this certainly is what our vet was saying.

I had a GSD in a cart for about 18 months, it gave her that much extra happy time with us before the DM progressed too far and started to affect her front legs and she was unable to operate the cart, she still was able to run around in the fields and on the beach with my other dogs and she still bossed them around and kept them in line! She did turn it over now and again and used to wait for us to come and set her on the wheels again.

When she was already in the cart I got an Anatolian pup and she adored him! She was a very maternal bitch (although I had her spayed before her first season) and for the first year of his life she mothered him - in fact I would say that it helped extend her life as she bucked up tremendously having the pup around.

If you can get to a doggy swimming pool (or hydrotherapy pool) that can help to slow the condition down.

There are a few articles here about CDRM:

http://www.freewebs.com/dmroster/prince.html

http://www.mzjf.com/main.htm

http://www.freewebs.com/dmroster/dmdogsgallery.html

http://spanna.homestead.com/

Hope these help.

Sue

Thanks for all the info - I'd seen some of these sites but some were new to me. Thanks also for sharing your experience, it's helped me to realise that we've probably got a good amount of time left and we should make the most of it. I'm interested to hear your experience with the cart. I'd always felt that it was wrong to put them in a cart and once they are unable to walk it's better to let them go but your story is certainly making me think again. Unfortunately there are no hydrotherapy pools anywhere near us that we could get to on a regular basis.

We went to the vet today and agreed that we will just let things run run their course and not put the old girl through any investigations. I've stopped panicking now and we've gone back to our routine and everything is back to normal other than that she's got a bit of a floppy back end. In herself she's perfectly happy and we'll just keep a close eye and adjust life as and when required.

There is a DNA test for DM so when buying a puppy at least new owners will be able to know whether or not their dog is likely to develop DM. No one should be breeding GSDs without DNA testing the parents for DM.

Rescue GSDs sadly rarely come from parents who have had any health testing done :-(

Yes - I will definitely ask any prospective breeder about this before having a puppy. I was wondering how long the test has been available and how prevalent it is. I think all reputable breeders now do hips, elbows and haemophilia but until now I wasn't even aware that there was a test for DM so I suspect there's a way to go before it becomes common place but maybe I'm just not up to date.

As for rescues you're probably right although many dogs end up in rescues due to things like bereavement or ill health in loving owners rather than neglect (our very first shepherd was a rescue due to similar circumstances) so it's not inconceivable that they had come originally from breeders who do health testing.

The test has only been available very recently. My last male had DM, he refused a cart which I bought him but managed to get around crawling & was very happy for over 18 months till sadly he had a stroke which took away one of his front legs. He had his DNA taken by the group who were working on a marker & my bitch had hers taken as a control sample.

I have only just seen this. I am so sorry to hear about Dido. I do hope you have plenty more happy times left yet, and I agree that the pup plans should go on hold for the timebeing. Hugs to Dido.

Thank you Moobli. After the initial shock life has pretty well returned to normal and it's business as usual. We're just keeping a close eye on her and are ready to make any changes to routine as and when required. For the moment though she's her regular happy self, just a bit more uncoordinated than usual, dragging a foot occasionally and stumbling or tripping from time to time. It seems that progress of this disease is quite variable so with luck we will, as you say, have many happy times left.

How is Dido getting on now?

Thank you for asking. Dido is doing very well, bless her. She has good and bad days but generally she's pretty happy. She gets her legs tangled up quite a lot and sometimes gets her feet tangled in her tail, which is very long, and falls over. It would be quite comical if it weren't so sad. Occasionally she can't quite get her feet under her when she gets up but can usually sort that out within a few steps. The other day she caught her back leg in some long grass while trotting along and couldn't get it back underneath her so just dragged it along. I had to stop her and sort the leg out so she could walk properly again. I was practically in tears but she seemed almost oblivious to what had happened. It's a very sad condition because the dog really doesn't seem to notice what's happening and because there's no pain is otherwise bright and bouncy. Although we've made the decision that when she loses the use of her legs we will say goodbye, I can see why people find this so hard to do - apart from the paralysis in the back end they are the same happy dog as ever.

We've cut the length of our walks down a bit because she does get more tired now but she still comes out twice a day with the other two. She still bounces around with her ball, swims a little and seems to take genuine pleasure from watching the youngsters run around.

There is no question that her condition is deteriorating but at the moment it's very slow so hopefully she'll be with us for a good long while yet.