Pituitary dwarfism in German Shepherd Dogs - ALLAN - 1978.
Pituitary dwarfism in German shepherds is a well known defect. Dwarfs are born in purebred populations all over the world with a mutated allele frequency of 9.4%.
Pituitary dwarfism in German shepherd dogs is an autosomal, recessive inherited disorder cha- racterized by underdevelopment of the pituitary and a deficiency of growth hormone, thyrotro- pin.
When a dog's pituitary gland fails to produce the proper amount of growth hormone (GH), pituitary dwarfism may result. Puppies will appear normal at birth, but will fail to grow at the same proportion of other dogs born at the same time.
Dwarfism in dogs in the vast majority of cases is not a serious health threat to your dog, unless it is the result of a metabolic disorder. Just because a dog is considered a dwarf, their heart and love for you will be just as large as if they were considered normal size.
Dwarfism occurs in animals as well as humans; horses can have achondroplastic symptoms, as shown here next to a person with dwarfism. A defining characteristic of dwarfism is an adult height less than the 2.3rd percentile of the CDC standard growth charts. There is a wide range of physical characteristics.
Refereed papers. Recent references from PubMed and VetMedResource. Graham P (2009) Canine hypothyroidism: diagnosis and therapy. In Practice 31 (2), 77-82 VetMedResource. Franch J et al (2004) Management of leishmanial osteolytic lesions in a hypothyroid dog by partial tarsal arthrodesis.Vet Rec 155 (18), 559-562 PubMed.
When its receptor FGF3R is mutated, it can also lead to dwarfism in humans. Discovery could help reduce risk of disc disease “There’s a lot of literature that points to chondrodystrophy in dogs as an exciting animal model for degenerative disc disease in people,” said Bannasch, who also holds the Maxine Adler Endowed Chair in Genetics.