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Dates & News:

ZimDog News, can be accessed from: www.vanerp.net.

Zimbabwe Kennel Club:

The Zimbabwe Kennel Club office will now only be open on a Tuesday and Friday each week, 14.00-16.00 CAT.
Also they will come to Kennel Club every LAST SUNDAY of each month  

Pituitary German Shepherd

Amazing meeting and seeing this lovely fully grown Pituitary German Shepherd at the Kennel club of Harare. She was bought from Chinese people and they are not even traceable anymore. The normal leathery skin, which is the usual sight along their spine, was not apparent, but they had some good medicine prescribed by the local Vet, which helped to get the hair growing again. I looked up one of the many website about this phenomenon and in earlier years I have seen quite a few of these animals in Harare.

Hypophysarer Zwergwuchs beim Deutschen Schäferhund [Pituitary Dwarfism in a German Shepherd Dog—author's trans]

R. Müller-Peddinghaus,
M. F. El Etreby,
J. Siefert and
M. Ranke

+ Author Affiliations
¹Institut für Pathologie und Klinik für kleine Haustiere der Tierärztlichen Hochschule Hannover
²Forschungslaboratorien der Schering AG, Berlin/Bergkamen
³Universitäts-Kinderklinik der Universität Tübingen

Sonderdruckbestellung an Priv. Doz. Dr. Reiner Müller-Peddinghaus, Kali-Chemie Pharma GmbH. Experimentelle Pathologie, Hans-Bockler-Allee 20, D-3000 Hannover 1 (West Germany).

Abstract

Pituitary Dwarfism in a German Shepherd Dog

Pituitary dwarfism has been described in more than 20 German shepherd dogs. Some cases probably were caused by persistent cysts of Rathke's pouch. This is the first histopathological, immunohistochemical and endocrinological study.

A 13-month-old, 7-kg, dwarf purebred German shepherd bitch with alopecia and hyper pigmentation was admitted to the clinic for euthanasia. Retardation of growth was noticed when the dog was about two months old. No littermates had this condition. Two subsequent breedings from the same parents produced normal offspring.

The clinical parameters in our dog (hematology, function of liver and kidney) were normal. Grossly, the pituitary gland had small and large multiple cysts, which light microscopy showed to be exclusively within the adenohypophysis. The latter had pressure atrophy, and immunohistochemically showed only remnants of the hormone-producing cells (growth hormone—GH; prolactin—PRL; thyrotropin—TSH; luteinizing hormone—LH; adrenocorticotrophin—ACTH/MSH). The thyroid was relatively small, and histologically showed focally resting follicles without lumen.

Endocrinological studies showed a surprisingly high value for serum growth hormone (cGH 4.1 ng/ml; normal range 1.8–3.8 ng/ml as determined by a specific homologous radioimmunoassay) and a pathologically low serum somatomedin (SM 0.132; normal value more than 0.50 unit/ml, determined by ³⁵S incorporation in piglet rib cartilage). Hypothyroidism was verified by a low T₄ binding value (T₄ 0.9 μg/100 ml; normal 4.1 ± 0.9 μg/100 ml) and a low thyroid binding index (TBI 0.54; normal 0.61 ± 0.05). While ACTH was lowered (ACTH <10 pg/ml; normal 74–210 pg/ml), cortisol was normal (0.81 μg/100 ml; normal 0.5–2.5 μg/100 ml).

Pituitary dwarfism in the 13-month-old bitch can be ascribed to the persistence of one end of the ductus craniopharyngeus. Rathke's pouch. Pressure atrophy of the adenohypophysis led to the loss of most of the hormone-producing tissue. An increase in growth hormone with lowered somatomedin raises questions. We have no conclusive explanation for this, due to the present lack of knowledge of how growth is regulated. High growth hormone and low somatomedin values are found in Laron's syndrome in infants. The literature indicates that pituitary dwarfism in German shepherd dogs may be a hereditary autosomal recessive trait.

© 1980 American College of Veterinary Pathologists

Blue coloured German Shepherd puppy.

What and who are they? Both from the same litter! One a normal black and tan and the other a Blue and tan. This litter was born around 9 years ago in Harare. I have looked up a very interesting article about colours in the German Shepherd and will put that up in the March News.

…none are as fiercely loyal as dog people [Linda shrieves] 

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