This leg anomaly is an Congenital Elbow Anomaly This can be recognized in an affected dogs as young as 4 weeks of age, The above pictures are of a front veiw of the dogs. The picture on the left is a real picture of a Landseer with this condition at the age of 6 months. The picture on the right is a pup that is 4 months old, notice how the front legs are bowed instead of straight. The picture below the top pictures is of a one year old that has the same thing, you can see by the white lines in the pictures the angle of his legs and the yellow lines are how they should be. This guy was put to sleep because of this condition right after this picture was taken. These are newfoundlands as it has been documented to have existed in several major lines. This is real similar to the "dwarfism" that has surfaced through other breeds like the Norwegian Elkhounds, Great Pyrenees, Pointers, Goldens, Shepards and Samoyed breeds. On the surface this Elbow Anomaly looks like the Dwarfism but through xray study is found to be different. Elbow Anomaly affected dogs that have been xrayed and evaluated are found to have an asynchonous growth of the radius and ulna coupled with subluxation of the elbow.
It is hard to tell which of these came first and if the luxation caused the uneven growth or whether the growth pattern caused the elbow luxation. This is not considered to be linked to one sex since it has been documented in both genders. It is suspected to be genetic.
It is not considered to be a dominant trait either.
I got to thinking that when ever I try and find information on leg anomalies there are never any pictures of what they are describing so I decided to add this to my websight and dig up as many picture of real
animals as I can so everyone can learn things. Pictures were submitted to me by various people for learning purposes and all names will remain anonymous. Besides genetic or hereditary problems I also wanted to make people aware of the environmentally induced bad legs too. I want everyone to know what they can do to avoid adding to problems that already exist through genetics by showing you legs on animals that people created and how it was done so someone can learn from these mistakes, and that knowledge and awareness we can control the environment stuff. All the pictures below are of real affected animals....gives you things to think about as a breeder AND things to think about as an owner. If both the breeder and the pet family owner do what we can to prevent these things pictures like these will be harder to come by:)
This is a newfoundland pup that is aprox. 3 months old here, as you can see in the picture he has weak pasturns, both are weak but his left front is the worst. You can see that his leg is in an "L" shape. Most the time this is from a newfy line that has rapid growth to the point that the weight of the pup is more than the muscles can handle. In this case supplementing with glucosemine, L-lysine, Vitamin C and MSM brought this pup out of it in a months time. You can come across this with poor nutrition as well.
I wanted to show you that this "cow hocked" condition as shown in the pup above is not isolated to canines. This cat has had this condition since he was 8 weeks old only to get worse with age. He was also xrayed and all his joints were fine. You can see in the picture on the right that he is comfortable with his legs and has obviously adapted to the position. This is the hereditary side of this leg deformation as this cat had plenty room to run and grow and being a cat does not deal with the same speed of growth as the large breed puppys do. This is something that a responsible breeder will see in a pup and place that pup into a pet home and not a breeding program. You can't control everything with genetics but as long as you are taking your best and breeding them with your best then you are doing all you can to insure you have healthy happy pups. Things like these leg anomalies can crop up in the best breeding programs but it is what we do as breeders from that point on to try and correct this that counts. An irresponsible breeder is one that will take an affected dog or cat from a litter that has any of the inherited leg anomalies and breed it or will breed the same 2 animals repeatedly producing the same anomalies. These irresponsible breeders are doing all this for the wrong reasons and it makes them equal to the puppy mills.
Here we have environmentally damaged legs, although this can be a hereditary condition this one case is not, these are back legs on an (aprox.) 6 month old that is heel to heel and toes out. (cow-hocked) after all the xrays on the rear end were taken on this pup it was determined the joints were beautiful adding more weight to the environmental theory. This is a pup that walks and runs like a "Seal" because of this affliction. After examining his teeth and observing pitts in the teeth and worn enamel the vet that examined this pup determined his problem to be: confinment in an area that he was not able to exercise properly and when he hit a big growing phase his leg muscles were not able to hold his body weight. The teeth damage appeared to be caused by this pup trying to find his way out of his kennel holding him.
Here is an example of neglect, the first sign of this starting should have been taking serious and taken into a vet for examination and advise on what to do, but it was let go. When you have a breed of dog that is from lines that are rapid growing large lines you NEED to be aware of the required space so that there is plenty of exercise. **Note that in a kennel it is not natural to run and play like out in open yard a kennel my be ok for a toy breed pup but not a large breed pup to live in without daily exercise outside of the kennel.** Because of the age of this pup has a good chance to straighten back out with lots of area to move and exercise with a slim chance of permanent damage, all depends on how his muscles respond to the physical conditioning. Think about your growing pups and where they are and how much room they have to move and run. The first couple years are the most important for the best legs! Are you doing ALL you can for you companion??? Aren't they worth it??
I copied a letter from a friend once that said all this better than I could have: She wrote:
I think every (prospective) breeder should read "Control of Canine Genetic Diseases." As breeders, we are all one breeding away from disaster. Everyone of us in every breed i.e. the wrong combination of two dogs produces the crippling scotty cramp. Our job as breeders is to sift through the genes, keeping only the superior for our breeding program.
As an individual dog can not be blamed for the genes it has or passes on. It is the combination of the genes that the breeder puts together. And what it produces is also up to the breeder. And if we all sit around worrying about producing carriers, we are in big trouble. It is estimated that any given dog in any breed carries genes for a minimum of 4 genetic defects. Scarry isn't it?
Let's talk instead about affected dogs. The object of the breeder is to know their breeding program well enough to never produce affected dogs. Impossible? Maybe, maybe not. With time and understanding of breeding systems, few, if none, of the dogs in the breeding program will produce affected dogs. And let me state for the record here that I can not justify breeding affected dogs.
