When a dwarf is born
 

Pituitary dwarfism exists also in CsW breed and we know several dwarfs in different countries from different lines.

http://www.ursidaestee.wolfdog.org/v...20sleeping.jpg

In other topics on wolfdog I did give info about this disease and the possibility of a test for pituitary dwarfism. http://www.wolfdog.org/forum/showthread.php?t=10756

When a CsW is carrier it is not any problem, this dog will not get pituitary dwarfism.
You also can breed without problems, you only have to make a combination with a Free dog and no dwarfs will be born.

But because yet only a few CsW's are tested, still dwarfs will be born.
So I also will give some info for owners and breeders of dwarfs.

http://www.ursidaestee.wolfdog.org/v...20100_6303.jpg

When a dwarf is born an owner/breeder can think about a few options:

• Keep it yourself without treatment
• Keep it yourself with treatment (and you have to find a university or well specialized vet who can measure hormone values and who has the possibility to give thyroxine and p GH)
• Euthanize the dwarf in the country of your own when the dwarf becomes ill and suffers
• Euthanize the dwarf in Holland (The university did ask me to tell you all this option too).
• Adoption in Holland by the new Dutch Dwarfism Foundation where a dwarf can get treatment

http://www.ursidaestee.wolfdog.org/v...en%20Yazhi.jpg

About medication for a dwarf:
Any defect in the development of the pituitary gland causes a lack in producing hormones. And most dogs with pituitary dwarfism has a lack of these hormones GH, TSH, PRL, FSH, LH, ACTH.
That is why a dog with Pituitary Dwarfism have to be treated with a combination of GH (grow hormone) and thyroid hormone.
But it is not possible to treat a dwarf with canine GH, because it is not available for medical use. :(
But porcine GH (of pigs) is identical to canine GH, and a good alternative for treatment.
I don't know if porcine GH is available in other countries

http://www.ursidaestee.wolfdog.org/v...ers/WK%20Y.jpg

About dwarfs without treatment:
Some dwarfs without treatment can become between 4 and 5 year old. But there is a huge individual difference.
Because some dwarfs still produces a bit of GH of their own!
And their prognoses also it depends of how their kidneys were developed because of this.
Because the progression of kidney failure is also important for the age a dwarf can reach.
The Dutch university did even know a dwarf that did become 10 years old without treatment, because his kidneys did function (because of his own producing of GH) His only problems were bold skin and skin inflammation.
So nobody can ever predict what age an individual dwarf can reach.

http://www.ursidaestee.wolfdog.org/v...C%20en%20Y.jpg

About treatment:
The Dutch university knows after years of research that giving a combination of thyroid hormone in combination with porcine pGH is giving good results.
With giving the pGH in the first year they stimulate the kidneys of a dwarf to develop in a normal way.
They did find out that start with giving pGH after the first year did not have any results and influence on the kidneys anymore.
And when the kidneys did not develop (and grow)the first year in the right way, this cannot be treated anymore with medicines. (The lack of development of kidneys causes a lot of problems for dwarfs)
So the Dutch university only starts with treating very young dwarfs with giving pGH in combination with thyorid hormone.

http://www.ursidaestee.wolfdog.org/v...d%20Chezka.jpg

About the research:
The Dutch university is still doing research about treatment and the development of the dwarfs. And so they treat dwarfs of some breeds on this moment.
But for their research they also need pituitary's of dwarfs, so they can do more investigation of the dwarf process and see what is exactly going wrong in the pituitary.
And this research of pituitary's can be a great help for dwarfs (and human) in future.
And that is why they did ask me to ask all owners of dwarfs to help them also with this research.
So when you dwarf is very ill and you have to make sad decisions or consider to euthanatize, please contact me!
And we can also speak about the possibilities to euthanatize in the Dutch university (because then your dwarf can also be great help for other dwarfs)

http://www.ursidaestee.wolfdog.org/v...sneeuw%20Y.jpg

About adoption and treatment in Holland
Last month the Dutch Dwarf foundation "Saartje" was founded. This foundations will give info about dwarfism in dog breeds and the possibility of testing.
Besides this they also offer dwarf dogs a new home and treatment.
So an owner of a dwarf can donate the dwarf for free to the foundation. And the foundation will become the new owner of the dwarf and will take care for treatment and will pay for this.

I hope I could help dwarf owners/breeders a bit with all this info :)
When you still have questions, just contact me! [email protected]

Thank you Mijke for this Thread.

If somebody can translate it to poland or other language, be so friendly, please.

I think polish people can read english :) without problem :) like and others who interesing too.

I wish this was true! :))))

But not everybody is as language smart as you! :rock_3

Also in my country a lot of people don't understand and can't read English! :oops:
So a lot of time I translate for some people topics of the English forum

I know, who interesing about this, can used translator or search moore info in google.
We have only 5 or 6 thema, only in english forum about dwarf, I think now all people in WD know who this is.
p.s. Mijke You are great :) only maybe better all info have in one thema not in 5 or 6?

The reason that I did make a new topic for this, is that in the other topics was info about dwarfism and the test.
This is only about what an owner can do when a dwarf is born. :)
And when there are a lot of comments in a topic, a lot of people miss the original info.

But it is not any problem for me when the moderator wants to make 1 topic of all the info about dwarfism. :lol:

And maybe it is an idea to make only of the info and the possibility of every test a sticky topic.
So everyone can find direct the info how they can test for a disease :)

Agree 100%

I think this topic is better as it is = separate and alone :)

Thanks Mijke !

Very best regards / Mikael

Daiva, not all people understand english. And you can see- for example Graba- pleased about translating.

Thanks Mijke - I think it is important to breeder/owner to see that there is help available. And - even if it becomes necessary to lay the dog down - it may help others as well.

It was the same with Czech version.... there was no translation for a long time... 8) First thanks to Marianka, leila and saschia the Czech and Slovakian people had finally the chance to understand it... ;)

You had not time to make it so I hope you will understand that it is the same case with Lithiuanian and Polish version :rock_3 (in the second case I would like to say again THANK YOU to Rona for great work!)

Mijke, a long time I had saw a very small ammount pituitary glands of addult dwarfs in biopsy, some of them were visibly different even in size and format, I would like to know, for those breeders who lost one or two puppies in litter, would be possible by a necropsy see if it was the pituitary gland of a dwarf pup?

Yesterday I did try to reach the specialist of the university, but it did not work out. But monday I'll speak him and I'll also ask for this possiblity :)

With histology it can't be proved it is pituitary dwarfism.:( You only can have strong suggestions it maybe is.
Most of the time the pituitary of dwarfs has cystic deformations and relative less pituitary tissue
But also normal dogs can have cystic deformations in the pituitary.

http://storage.canalblog.com/78/28/537107/61606224.jpg

Hi Mijke,

I received your email where you me requests of the news of my small, afflicted, have time to answer, I unite you this link towards the French forum (I will share his evolution) where you will be able to see photographs there. ;)

http://www.wolfdog.org/forum/showthr...56786&langid=7

is funny the conclusions that I had recently… ignorance…. :roll: :lol:

our small is very well, is a super puppy our CSW toy :lol:

her mother still has a relation very maternal with him :love

to finish, I am very grateful to you of your councils to you and Margo, as, I think as I would still need to bring me closer to you regularly in order to offer the best to him ;)

Thanks for this link! :cool3

In the meantime also 5 other CsW dwarfs were born in several countries.
A few of them will come to Holland for treatment and research.

with their agreement of course, can you give me their address email in order to correspond with them, is always well to know the various experiments...

Hello Mijke & Martiou,

I had a question about dwarf CsV. I read this thread and also the other thread "Pituitary Dwarfism test for CsW is available!" about Dwarfism, and I saw that there were some other associated conditions such fur or skin problems, kidney and liver problems, etc.

I have read in passing before that pituitary dwarfism may also affect behavior or mental development, and was wondering if you can provide input on this from your experiences.

Thank you!!

Best regards,

Jing

Hello Jing, the dwarf dog is absolutly normal in thinkink. No different between dwarf and normal dogs.

After his birth, when is possible to detect a dog is a dwarf? How many weeks/months to be sure?

I see it usually on puppy in age 3 weeks. But it depends on photos......

For me it is very new as my small has 2 months 1/2. What I can say to you for moment, during weaning it was slower than the others, openings of the eyes later, slower in its displacements, an evolution slower than the others of the range…

All this corresponds so that Mijke had indicated to us when I contacted she to know if our small were really a dwarf or then a pup having simply a delay of growth…

Now it is rather sharp all the same, but forcing in connection with its size much less turbulent qu' a pup " normal"

and obviously, he is now the good playmate of my daughters, considering his size, much less abrupt than my adults.

of character, in remainder not less one worthy representing of the race, but in miniature version :lol:

the question, how it is known if there is a dwarf pup or not, a question that forcing I was posed, for my part, I had announced my doubt with Margo and Daiva as of it had 1 week, but with this old there, it is too early to decide with certainty. I compared curves of weight made by friends stockbreeders in France. This always did not confirm anything to me…. And like Margo had said, I have had to await its 1 month approximately front to be on….

Here, approximately 1 month 1/2 with is brother Falco.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._5829003_n.jpg

Thanks for your replies. By this photo we can tell that at 6 weeks it's already clear.
That would be interesting to see a weight table in comparison with a normal brother :)

The last years I have seen many dwarfs (GS, SWH and CsW) so for me it is more easy to see when they are very young.;-)

But even the specialists of the Dutch uni will never confirm that it is really a dwarf after testing.
So in all other cases we speak about "possible" dwarfs :)

But like Hanka did tell after about 3 a 4 weeks you can see more and more differences between normal littermates and a "possible" dwarf.

After all our experiences with dwarfs, it is clear that all of them did have "drinking problems" the first weeks. So almost all of them were also feed by the breeder.
Other signals are like Martiou did write: more slow then litter mates in first weeks, later opening eyes, slower in development.

And every week the differences between normal littermates and a dwarf become bigger (size, form, fur)
In exterior they are different with littermates but in behavior there are no differences!
My experience is that most of CsW dwarf pups are even a bit faster and have more spirit after the first weeks then other pups (maybe to survive in a litter?)

http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Foto-GKFGX3MP-G.jpg
CsW dwarf 9 months and normal CsW pup

In GS and SWH breed I did see more dwarfs that were "slow" (and seems to be "tired") then in CsW breed. But this also can be caused by the % thyroid hormone they still produces (and there are differences between individual dwarfs).

About weight there is also nothing the same for all dwarfs! (I know dwarfs on age of 8 weeks between 1,5 kg and 3kg or more !)
When they grow up there are even more differences in height and weight! As well between dwarfs with P GH treatment as well between dwarfs without treatment.

General info about Dwarfism and last updates of test results is to find on: www.wolfdog-healthinfo.org in 6 languages (English, Dutch, German, Zcech/Slovakian, Italian and Russian)

When you have tes tresults please send them to: info
And we publish te reaults like you wish (with name of the dog or only result and xxx)

And don't forget also to send to info@wolfdog! :rock_3

Two dwarfs were born in my kennel recently. A male, called Carinoso and a female - Valerosa. Val had problems with sucking right from the beginning, so I had to help her with eating. Carinoso has been fine ever since he was born. He ate on his own and grew well, though more slowly. He is quite solid, but Val is exceptionally small. Their weights can be followed on our kennel site. ( http://k-lee.wolfdog.org/en/szczeniaki/ )The first symptom which indicated that Carinoso could be a dwarf was that he was relatively short – he had shorter paws while their width was the same as of the healthy pups and his coat was more abundant. Val looked exactly like healthy pups only was much smaller.
The male opened his eyes with healthy pups and his whole development was the same except his appearance. The girl opened her eyes 8 days after the rest and her ears opened when she was close to 6 weeks. My observations indicate that dwarfs do not develop like other pups. They behave more like cats, especially Val. They have stiffer joints, so they started running smoothly a bit later. I’m not sure if the female sees and hears well. She bumps into things and reacts more slowly to my recall. She’s much more of a “lap dog”:/ teddy kind of animal than typical naught CSV pup. I can’t say how much they weigh now, because they’re too big for my kitchen scales.
As far as characters are concerned they seem to be more courageous and fear nothing – they were “attacking” the vacuum cleaner when the healthy pups were getting used to it.

I’ll willingly share my experiences if somebody is interested. My dwarfs’ photos are here:



http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...3&l=e13c216872

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...3&l=7efae66fc1


(Thanks to Rona for help with translation) :)

Thanks Gia ;-)

Like I say Margo recently, when special dog show for dwarf ?:lol:

It's nice that you speak about them too ;-)

But they are really so sweet!!!! Mijke, your puppy is "high", I am surprised. She looks on photo like female in normal size. Or - almost normal. How tall she is?

Yes, they're veeeery sweeeet ;)