? Australian Shepherd problem

[RobertMac]

My wife recently bought an Australian shepherd puppy and when we got her home, noticed she was limping. My wife, a physical therapist, determined the puppy had a dislocated right shoulder...took her to the vet and confirmed it. The pup is out of a mating of two blue merles...could the weak shoulder be congenital? The vet tried to put the shoulder back in place, but it wouldn't stay. Surgery will be a grand or more with no guarantee of success...Mississippi State Vet Clinic. Another vet has offered to splint the shoulder and tape it in place for several weeks to heal. Has anyone had experience with this type problem? Any advise would be greatly appreciated. This puppy is fearless and shows great instinct at two months...would make a great cow dog with four good legs! She shows relatively little pain right now...limps after a day of hard playing, but other than that, you would never know she has a problem except for abnormal amount of falling.

Thanks, Robert

[Faster horses]

There is a lady here that raised Border Collies and one of her dogs was
badly injured. I believe it was in the shoulder. It took quite awhile, but
the dog has healed up. I will visit with her and get back to you.

I would contact the breeder and tell them of the problem. Perhaps you
deserve some kind of refund.

Our daughter bought a Corgi and she had a parrot mouth. She contacted the breeder and they gave most of the money back. Our daughter had her spayed, of course.

[katrina]

If your puppy is one of the family now and parting with it is out of the question, then suck it up and do what ya have to do.. But in my opionion, the breeder should take the puppy back and give you anothr one...

[RobertMac]

Gussie Lee


As soon as the vet confirmed the problem, we called the breeder. She returned our check and put us down for a puppy out of her next litter in Sept.

[Faster horses]

So are you planning to keep this one, too?
She's so cute and the ones with problems are more endearing than
the others...

[IL Rancher]

I had that discussion with a breeder I bought a dog from once. They had a 1 year money back if anything genetic came up and have heard through the grape vine that they even took back a 5 year old dog with displaysia (Also heard that it was the only dog that they EVER had to take back).. Well, I treat my dogs like family and I'll be darned if I am going to send one back after having it for a year or even 3 months probably (I'm a sucker for pups).. They told me that they could work something out in a situation like that... I believed them too, they were good people.

[Turkey Track Bar]

Man she's a cutie...and great name too! I hope you can work something out. I'm like IL Rancher...once a critter comes to my house, I'm pretty attached.

Cheers---

TTB

[katrina]

With a middle name Lee, She is indeed vary special....

[desertrose]

I use to raise them and u never bred a merle to a merle ...always bred to a solid and a merle as it will produce mentally retard pups that are blind and deaf....I would consider getting your money back and going to a breeder that knows his aussies....

[RobertMac]

[desertrose]

its a possibility that it could be linked to that..the genetic makeup is affected by those matings....I think when people bred them they arent aware that the matings have to be a merle to a solid...so not only are u putting the puppies at risk but your hurting the breed as a whole...I think that people need to be aware of that before they even start raising them..its pretty sad to have a whole liter of puppies and they all have birth defects of some sort...Also if they had small children handling them dont let them lift them up by the front legs those bones arent strong enough and could cause problems as well...I would get my money back and go to a breeder that knows the breed you deserve to have a sound aussie.

[kt in calif]

Dear Desertrose & all interested in Aussies,

I have owned Aussies for many years and recently adopted a double merle female who is deaf in both ears and has one eye that has a deformed pupil. (She sees fine but squints a bit in the sun.) Please allow me to respectfully educate you a bit.

Mating 2 merle Aussies results in 25% of the offspring being "lethal white" or double merle. In these dogs, hearing and vision are linked to the presence of pigment in the skin and hair. So, if the dog has an all-white ear (no pigment), that ear will be deaf. Similarly, if there is no pigment around the eye, it will likely have some sort of defect and will be very light blue. (Note: Blue eyes are not an indication of blindness. Blue eyes, marble eyes, or bi-color eyes are perfectly acceptable and normal.) Some vision defects are minor, as with my dog. Dogs with pink noses and/or pink around the eye (no eyeliner) are more at risk for skin cancer in those areas.

There is no evidence that skeletal problems or joint problems are especially linked to double merle crosses. Most importantly, these dogs are NOT mentally retarded! (Where did you get this cockamamie idea?!?) As with all Aussies, they are smart, eager to please, have great work instincts, and are easy to train using hand signals.