Page #3 - Health

Veterinarian Visit:

A visit to your veterinarian should be calculated in as part of the purchase of your new puppy. A clean bill of health from your veterinarian will give you reassurance that the breeder didn’t miss anything and your puppy has no serious problems that you would need to return him or her to the breeder. The sooner the visit is scheduled the less time your family has to get attached to the new puppy. And “yes” we do recommend that a puppy should be returned to the breeder for a refund or another puppy is there is a serious problem like a very bad heart murmur, high fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. Most breeders have several shepherds and aren’t emotionally attached to all of the puppies and can deal with the problem more effectively. Most breeders have established a relationship with a veterinarian with reasonable rates.

Puppyhood Illness & Puppy Killer "Parvo":

Canine parvovirus (CPV) or Parvo for short, is the most dangerous and contagious virus that affects unprotected dogs. It was first discovered in 1978. Symptoms: loss of appetite, vomiting, high fever, and severe diarrhea. In the early 1990’s we would have an occasion litter get sick with parvo. Our vet was doing our shots and we were getting the shots done on time (6, 9 ,12, and 16 weeks of age). She had no suggestions on why they were getting sick.  It was always nerve racking when a puppy would leave here because an infected puppy would show signs of being infected for several days.  Then there was the bad phone call from the new owner that they had to take their puppy to the vet and the puppy may not make it.  Most new owners would wait too long before taking their puppy to the vet thinking that their puppy was just not eating because he or she missed their litter mates.  The sooner the virus is detected and treatment started, the better the chance of the puppy surviving the virus.  The Parvo virus is the virus that the dog pounds and Pet Stores have so much trouble with killing their puppies.  The virus can live on open surfaces for over a month.  Most veterinarians will place a sick puppy on I.V. fluids and antibiotics until the sickness passes (3 to 5 days) or the puppy is dead.  As you can image, it's a very costly procedure.  Many of the sick puppy owners will spend more on the treatment than they did for the purchase of the puppy.  

One day I found the answer while I was reading an article in a Veterinarian Supply catalog. The article stated that out of the 6 Parvo Vaccines manufactures, only 3 were testing. Out of those 3 vaccines, they recommended the one that provided the best protection.  We started ordering our own vaccines and started doing our own shots so that we could control the brand of vaccines used with our puppies because you never know what vaccine a veterinarian has selected to use in their clinic.   Since we started using this article's recommended vaccine brand, we have not had a puppy get sick here, OR after they leave here. Most of our puppies leave here at 8 weeks of age and have received their first two rounds of vaccines.  What our puppies receive after they leave here is unknown to us but our vaccine selection has corrected a very heart breaking problem for us.  Now today this is old information and we hope all of the Parvo vaccines manufactures have corrected their mistakes.  We will never change a procedures that has worked so well for us from the mid 1990's to present day just for the sake of change.  Any breeder or veterinarian that wants to know the brand name of the vaccine that we use, may email us for that information.

Belly Button Hernia:

A belly button hernia is a small opening in the Puppy's abdominal wall where the umbilical cord attached and the puppy to the mother’s uterus.  Fat polks through the hole and makes it look much larger than the actual size or the hole.  Belly Button Hernias unless unusually large are a non issue on male puppies and female not going to be used for breeding.  If the hernia is a concern to you, you could have you vet fix the hernia when your puppy is spayed or neutered.  It maybe a concern on a female puppy if she was purchased for breeding. The hernia could enlarge during their pregnancy from the pressure of their puppies if left uncorrected. Small umbilical hernias have been known to close spontaneously by the age of 6 months.  For this reason, many vets will recommend waiting until the puppy is 6 months of age before repairing surgically.

Hips

What is OFA certified hips?

The OFA stands for Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (web site www.offa.org). The procedure: After a dog reaches the age of 24 months, their hips are x-rayed by a veterinary. If the x-rays of the hips joints are good, the x-rays are sent to the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals for their examination. If the depth of the hip sockets and the head of the leg bones are fitted to their standards, the breeder will receive an OFA certification number for that dog. If their hips are good the OFA grades their hips “Excellent”,“Good”, or “Fair”. If the shepherd had a positive identification (tattoo or micro-chip) at the time they were x-rayed, their OFA information will appear on their offspring’s litter registration papers just below the parent’s name. The OFA certification numbers can be verified on the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals web site.  For reference, take a look at HeartStar's Harry Potter's OFA information (click here).

What causes hip problems?

No one can 100% guaranty a puppy will not grow to have hip problems (no matter if the parents are both OFA certified).  There are many contributing factors to hip problems. Certain health conditions can be inherited from the parents that can cause hip problems. It seems no one can pen point the exact problem that causes hip problems. There are many contributing conditions that can vary from litter to litter and hinder solving hip problems. We believe it’s primarily a nutrition problem. Number of puppies in a litter, inherited digestion conditions, health conditions of the mother, the mother’s nutrition before, during, and after whelping her litter are all contributing factors that can affect the nutrition of each puppy in a litter both during pregnancy and nursing. While x-raying hips and breeding OFA certified shepherds is a step in the right direction it may not be the total answer to hip problems. We believe breeding OFA certified parents and nutrition during pregnancy have helped us to avoid hip problems here at HeartStar.

HeartStar's track record on hips:   

In our 20+ years of breeding German Shepherds we have had only 1 puppy returned to us for bad hips.  This puppy was bred in the early 1990's. The confusing factor, both parents were OFA certified with a rating of "Good".  This proved to us that breeding OFA certified dogs was very important but it wasn't the whole story to breeding healthy dogs.  This problem lead us to the understanding that it's more of a nutrition problem. 

Why not just x-ray puppies before they are offered for sale?

Young puppies' bones haven't formed completely and are soft and not solid.  The older a puppy the more you can tell about their x-rays.  OFA will not certify a dog under 24 months of age.   They will do a  Hip and elbow prelims for puppies between the ages of 4 to 24 months but there's no guarantees that they will certify when the time comes.    We have certified dogs much older than 2 years of age with no problems.   Most families want to get their puppy as young as possible.  X-rays would add at least $200 to the price of their new puppy. 

What's the Process to get a dog OFA Certified?

You need to contact your vet and tell them that you want  your dog's hips x-rayed for OFA. They will make you an appointment and x-ray them. Some vets know what they are looking at and others don't. They should be able to tell you think your dog will certifiy or not. Most vet will charge around $200 for OFA x-rays because they normally have to take several to get a correct x-ray.  Vets with digital x-ray machines may charge less because there is no physical film to develop.   Digital images of the hips may open the door for us to or your vet to email the image to the OFA in the future.

Most vets will get you the x-rays and a signed form for you to send the x-rays to OFA. The form has the address to OFA or you can go to their web site. The last x-rays I sent to OFA cost me $25 but you will need to check to see if they have gone up on their price. So you mail the x-rays, vet form, and a check for $25 to OFA. Some vets will/want to do all of this for you.

Bad hips will show up in the first year of a dog's life. Some dogs hips (one side or the other) isn't good enough to pass OFA but the dog never has any signs of a problem. And then others will pass with Fair, Good, or Excellent. Sometimes OFA will have you have your vet to redo the x-rays because the dog was tilted when the x-rays were taken.

Above is the x-rays of HeartStar's Cisco Kid's hips.  He certified with a rating of "Good".

Guarantees:

In general all of us want a guarantee there’s nothing wrong with our new puppy. The honest truth is there are no 100% guarantees with any living things. There are thousands upon thousands of possible combinations when breeding one shepherd to another. There are recessive genes that do not show up until crossed with another shepherd that carries the same recessive genes. Basically we breeders can only do our best to know the history of our shepherds and breed the best to the best.  We here at HeartStar are doing all we can do to provide you a shepherd with a great personality, temperament, appearance, and good health at a reasonable price.

And we thank God in our 20+ years of breeding shepherds that we can still count problem puppies we have produced on one hand.  One was a hip problem (mentioned above) and the others were Pancreatitis.  Pancreatitis is not correctable but could be managed with medication.   None of these problems mentioned here could not be detected at the time of purchase and wasn't detected until the puppy was months older. 

In the event a puppy develops a serious problem most breeders offer a replacement puppy instead of paying vet bills.  Why? From the financial side of breeding dogs it's easy to see that breeders can't pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for veterinary care for an unfixable problem or hip replacement.  In order to offer a health plan for puppies breeders would need to raise their prices.  Higher prices would limit the average family the pleasure of owning a good shepherd.  It's our experience the better a breeder's guarantee the higher the price of the puppy.  It's kind of like you are paying for the puppy that you want to purchase and a replacement puppy the time of purchase.  We don't do that here. 

We offer a quality American German Shepherd puppy at a reasonable price with a one year replacement guarantee.