Degenerative Myelopathy most common to the German - Page 1

Will someone please put a side panel link on this web site, that explains all the German titles and acronyms in English and Spanish, and cross references them to FCI and the rest of the world. For example, I see VA rated dogs, with HD ausland (a6) Hip-dysplacia ratings, and I wonder how widely that top dog Has proliferated those bad hip genetics to the whole next fifty generations of German Shepherd, that are LINE BRED on him showing 3,4, 5- 2, 3, 5 in the mating check. Wow! We haven’t even began to get close to cleaning up bad hips, and we still have Degenerative Myelopathy most common to the German Shepherd dog, to find a cure for and weed out of the gene pool. See This web site for more information: http://neuro.vetmed.ufl.edu/neuro/DM_Web/Funding.htm

http://neuro.vetmed.ufl.edu/neuro/DM_Web/DMofGS.htm

these problems are polygenetic, meaning its not as simple as "ok, this dog has it, we won't breed it & we'll get rid of this problem" i'd like to think people are not purposefully breeding dogs w/ d.m. also

The problem with DM and breeding is that it often is not suspected or diagnosed until later in a dogs life, possibly after already being bred.... I believe (this could be changed) the tests are not easy, comfortable or remotely affordable so a lot of folks just simply can't do it ... one would hope that if a dog diagnosed with DM has progeny, that people would at least test the progeny or refrain from breeding them IF (and that's a big one!) people were up front and open about what is going on and oftentimes that is not the case....

Some people have been upfront about DM in the American lines and they have really suffered because of their honesty. There is the "Flash" test that might be able to identify dogs that will develop DM before they exhibit the obvious symptoms. I know of one 4 year year old that has been diagnosed with DM using the Flash test. He had very subtle signs that would have been missed by most of us I think. Dogs living in kennels or as pets with non-dog people might not be suspected until they have more advanced cases. His owner recognized it because she had owned another dog with DM. If diagnosed early there are treatments to try, they do help some dogs. I don't know if anyone deliberatly uses dogs with DM for breeding, I would hope not. As was said, some dogs aren't symptomatic til they have passed the breeding age and by then they already have progeny on the ground. An early test would be a wonderful thing for GSD breeders.

I just was at the University of Minnesota and my vet allude to the act that a vet at the University of Florida thinks he has found a genetic mark for Degenerative Myelopthy. He was trying to touch base with the Vet from Florida but as of yet had not been able to veriy his findings.

http://neuro.vetmed.ufl.edu/neurohp.html Main site for DM research, under specific conditions Here's the information on the test: http://neuro.vetmed.ufl.edu/DM-Flash-test.htm I have an 8 yr old male (never has been bred, will never be bred) who has DM. Thoughts are it's autoimmune based. He has suffered from allergies all of his life. I no longer vaccinate him, he gets a waiver for rabies each year. Only use h/w preventative. It's a very heartbreaking thing to watch. Some dogs go very quickly, others slowly. I've seen another dog that came and progressed with it very quickly and was put down in about 6 months. We've managed to keep things on an even keel now for over a year. We feed strictly raw to him since part of his allergies are food based. As mentioned, normally not discovered until older. Our male was 7 when we first started noticing things (video on the website listed above as well showing different stages), he'll be 9 in January and still hasn't progessed past stage 1 thankfully. Would be wonderful if they could find a cure for this horrible disease

That might be the "Flash test", not sure, but I do think the vet working on it was in Florida.

Just accessed that webpage and that's the test I was talking about. It's a good start, don't you think?

Unfortunately, I've had two dogs with DM through the years. It is extremely heartbreaking. And yes, these dogs were used for breeding in their early years, before ever showing any signs. One was diagnosed at age 6 and the other at age 8. Thank you for the links, I will definitely look it up. These two dogs were grandsons from Natan v Busecher Schloss also, who was an extremely widely used stud dog.