Darwin

Darwin was born in June 2008, one of a litter of 12 AKC registered German Shepherd puppies. Of the litter there were two born with hindlimb deformities – Darwin survived, his sister died at 5 weeks of age.

Darwin is a happy, pain free, active dog. He is being fostered in a house with three other German Shepherds with the same deformities and has no idea that he is any different to other dogs. Darwin walks, runs (bunnyhops) and plays, although inside does like to pull himself round on his butt. He is housetrained, crate trained and gets on great with dogs and people, loving to lie on the floor and be stroked.

The cause of Darwin's deformities is unknown at this time, although current thought is that this is a new neurologic abnormality (motor neuron disease) in German Shepherd dogs. There is no surgical “fix” for dogs with these deformities, however they are all very well adapted and live normal lives. As there are other diseases, including Neospora and Toxoplasmosis, which can result in the same deformities, Darwin needs to see a specialist, and have radiographs and a variety of lab tests run before he can be adopted.

UPDATE: Darwin has tested negative for Neospora and Toxoplasmosis and has normal bloodwork. Radiographs show similar anomalies as other affected German Shepherds. Darwin has an appointment to see an orthopedic specialist in 2 weeks.

UPDATE: 3/8/09. Darwins coat started to look patchy a couple of weeks ago - a skin scrape at the time was negative. Today scrapings were repeated and came back positive for demodex. Darwin has been started on medication .

For information on adopting Darwin please e-mail helpdarwin@straightlegshepherds.org.

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