Some Very Sad News for GSDS...DR Clemmons - Page 4

My registered female (Star) has a mildly dysplastic hip, and is plagued by allergies. A glance at her grandsire's pedigree might provide a hint as to why. Her sire had chronically itchy ears, too, which usually is a sign of allergies.

You will not have to look very hard to find this sort of backmassing in German showlines dogs. If I had carried the linebreeding back another generation or two, certain dogs (Palme, especially) would have showed up even MORE frequently!

 

Linebreeding - 5 generations		Inbreeding coefficient
Occurrences	Ancestor	Wright's	Hardiman's
3 - 3	VA6 Odin von Tannenmeise	03.17%	06.93%
↳4 - 4	↳SG3 Häsel von Tannenmeise
↳5 - 5	↳V Dixie von Tannenmeise
↳4 - 4	↳2X VA1 Quando von Arminius
4,5 - 5	2X VA1 Uran vom Wildsteiger Land	00.39%	03.32%
5 - 5,5	V16 Dax von der Wienerau	00.20%	02.49%
5,5 - 5,5	V Xaver von Arminius	00.20%	03.32%
5,5,5,5 - 5,5	V Palme vom Wildsteiger Land	00.20%	05.27%

SS, not surprised if Star's grandsire had itchy ears and passed that susceptibility on to his progeny...that's a particular sore point for me, TBH. FIrst the breeder overlooks the dog's 'touchy' digestive system--'Oh, Sparky can't tolerate beef/chicken/rice/corn/etc., etc.; we can only feed him a grain-free food, or a raw diet, or food using kangaroo meat as the sole protein source....", rationalizing that just because the dog needs a 'better' diet doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the dog's overall constitution. Or a breeder with a female they've spent so much money to purchase because she had her working titles and her breed survey, the bitch that spends every spring licking her paws and inguinal area, rubbing her face on the carpet or with her paws and scratching her ears--but the breeder uses the bitch for breeding anyway, because "it's only allergies" and after all, they've got too much invested in the dog already to not breed her at least once...

It happens with any species of animal where there's money to be made through sales of said animals, but at least when the chicanery occurs in livestock, the unfit animals can at least be slaughtered for human or captive predator consumption [of course, in countries where dogs are also viewed as a food animal, I suppose those folks do have that option available to them]. Bluntly stated, there are simply too damn many people breeding GSDs [and the same goes for other breeds as well], and far too many of them are willing to overlook just about anything short of the dog's hind leg just falling off of its own accord just so they too can sell their pounds of puppy flesh and earn their annual income from the sales of pups. But this wanders far afield from the actual topic, so the last thing I'll say is to any breeder who's going to jump in here and insist that they consistently lose money on their litters, and you can't make a profit off of breeding dogs "if you do it right"--bull honkery. I've done the math, I know what can go wrong and what it costs, and I know damn right well that breeders are not losing money on those litters when the whole picture is looked at. The cost of buying the potential brood bitch, the care and training that's put into raising her, the health certifications and stud fees and extra food during the pregnancy, not to mention the cost of food for the weaned puppies, and their health care, and advertising the litter: you don't get to count most of that, because you'd need to do at least half of those very things if you had just obtained a dog as a companion and activity partner. If you don't breed the bitch, there's no extra cost for added feed during a pregnancy, there's no stud fees, there's no costs for puppy food and heatlh care for puppies that are never conceived in the first place. There's a cost of doing business for everything one does to produce income: even when those costs are accounted for, a breeder STILL is making a profit on their litters, unless they're selling their pups for $300.00...and we all know that's hardly the case.

All good and valid points! Yes, I have to take care of myself now. I have to go back to the Dr's again, this week as I don't seem to be getting better. It's so hTd to live in constant pain. The Dr's do feel it could be permanent, or at the very least, be months, before I ei will feel better, because I was not diagnosed I. A timely manner. If I had started the medication on a timely basis, the outcome would have been different. :(

If its any consolation Margery I remember when my grandfather had Shingles;  he said he thought he'd never

get free of the pain from it ... but he did, in time.  Look after yourelf 

Yes, Marjorie, what Hundmutter said--it's a slow recovery from shingles to begin with [not that it will make you feel any better, but I had a break of them back in May, and I've still got some areas which have remained hypersensitive and painful...it can take up to a year to get full resolution of the nerve inflammation] and piling more stress on yourself is most definitely not going to aid in your recovery!

Talk to your doctor about giving you a prescription for the valcyclovir, too, so you can keep it on hand at all times, and start taking it at the first sign of that electric-current feeling that signals you're about to break with them again--that's what saved me from months of active lesions, because my doc renews my script each year and I was able to start on the treatment at the first signs. I still went right to the doc to have the episode confirmed, but by getting a jump on it I only ended up with the lesions in my ear and down the side of my face; had I waited, the bout would have been more expansive. I also found an OTC aloe gel that contains lidocaine, which I kept in the refrigerator and applied to my skin every couple of hours--it helped tremendously to keep both the pain and the itchiness at bay, and wasn't irritating to the skin, either.

I think we would all agree that right now, you need to be as pro-active and vigilant an advocate for your own health and well-being as you've always been in your quest to help our beloved breed conquer the thief that is DM. You CAN do this, you CAN get yourself well, mind-soul-and-body, with the help of a good medical support team...only THEN you can re-enter the DM fray at full strength.

 

 

Am I correct in thinking that if one has never had chicken pox they won't get shingles? Sounds like something one should get vaccinated against?

Typically that's the case--if you've had chicken pox, the herpes varicella-zoster virus remains in your system, and for some people it will resurface during times of stress. If you've never had chicken pox, then the only other ways you would have come in contact with the virus would be via what's commonly referred to as a 'cold sore',  contact with an open shingles lesion, or via vaccination. The medical community actually recommends that even people who HAVE had chicken pox, or been otherwise infected with the herpes varicella-zoster virus, be vaccinated with the shingles vaccine also if they are over 50 years of age, as it may be effective in keeping the virus suppressed and therefore preempt a break of that disorder. Unfortunately for me, I'm not one of the people who's enjoyed that benefit from the vaccination.  People UNDER 50 yrs of age should receive the chicken pox vaccine instead of the shingles vaccine if they haven't had chicken pox or weren't vaccinated against it as a child, according to the CDC.

I've never had either (cold sore or the pox) so I'm assuming I don't need the vaccine.

I wish I had known there was a vaccine for it..... I didnt know.. You can  bet your buns I will be having one every year from now on, if I ever heal enough to be able to do so. Spoke to pain management dr today as yesterday was an especially  horrid day- he said he has me on a  very low dose  so if I need to decrease the time between one pill and the next, by 2 hours, its ok to do so. The idea of the pain management is so that I can feel well enough to eat and retain fluids, as I was not able to eat or drink anything, and keep it down. He said if I dont eat or drink fluids, I will not be able to get  better. Just came back from the GI dr, and he was not happy with all the weight I lost since last week. He said I MUST eat and drink and he agreed with pain management dr that there will be no getting well without being able to eat. Today seems a bit better, so far, and I havent had to shorten the duration between pain pills :)

 

Thanks for all the well wishes :) They are truly appreciated :)

Naturally, you'll want to check with your own physician and follow their recommendation, but age 50 & over, never had chicken pox or cold sore, CDC suggests you get the shingles vax, in case you are inadvertantly exposed to chicken pox...it should prevent you from getting shingles if the virus does manage to infect you [typically after 50 years of age, you are unlikely to break with chicken pox if exposed, but the virus will still reservoir in your system once it's entered].