AZAWAKH ARA N'TATRIT 

2. Diagnosing the genetic fault of Tarat

Tarat’s legs were really getting strange – one day they would look a  bit better, the other much worse. One week after we bought Tarat we went to the vet’s to vaccinate him. The vet in Prague looked at his front legs. He agreed that puppies in this age can look funny and all twisted, but he thought Tarat’s legs were a bit too worrying to just sit and wait what happens. He suggested we should x-ray him in order to see what was going on with his long bones. Dr. Hnizdo had a suspicion that Tarat could have a Radius Curvus syndrome. I didn’t understand what he was talking about. I didn’t even want to remember the name of this syndrome. He pointed out that Tarat was standing on the extreme inner sides of his paws just like if he was trying to protect his elbows from too much pressure – typical for Radius Curvus. Even though dr Hnizdo ( http://www.animalclinic.cz/eng/team.html ) is probably the best vet I ever met in my life I was very skeptic about his way of thinking. I was sure Tarat was just having some growing problems. Anyway, the vaccination is normally quite a shock for a body of a little puppy, therefore we agreed we would wait with the x-rays at least another week, as it had to be done in sedation. In the meantime I contacted a German friend of mine, Nicole Holland, who is a trained animal physiotherapist and has a great knowledge of all sorts of growing problems and boning problems. She looked at the pictures of Tarat and she thought of Carpus Valgus. I was again skeptic, didn’t know what it all meant but I started to think maybe there was really something going on with this little folk. Nicole suggested I should change Tarat’s food. Up till now he was fed with the same food he got from the breeder: Nutro Puppy’s Choice for medium breeds. According to Carpus Valgus treatment, dogs should not be fed with high protein, commercial food. Nicole advised us to use a modified BARF diet, low calcium and low vit D levels – just the minimal ratios – no extra supplements, no puppy food.

I was disappointed, as I just ordered a whole set of supplements and minerals for Tarat in Germany. The order was delivered but I was not supposed to give any of it to him – except for the Gelenk Flex. What a pity I thought. Carpus Valgus did not mean a lot to me at this time, but I started to panic a bit. I knew we had to do all we could to get the right diagnosis.

One week after the vaccination we were back for the x-rays but there was some kind of an emergency operation at the clinic, so we decided to come another day. As we were also planning to go to Poland the same week, I finally decided we would take Tarat with us and show him to dr Mlynarski there. He is a vet that I have known for years. He treated our late whippet at the end of his life (he lived 15 years!!!) and he proved to be excellent with sight hounds. In 2005 he was also the only vet among 7 different ones we visited with our sloughi boy (I co-own a sloughi male with a friend) who gave the right diagnosis of HOD. He also helped us to heal the sloughi and today he is a mature dog with almost no signs of HOD.

Dr. Mlynarski looked at Tarat and he was surprised I bought this puppy as a “100% healthy and quality” dog. He pointed out several problems:

- wrong legs

- bad hair (we could see the skin through it)

- all glands enlarged

- general weak condition of a puppy

I explained to dr Mlynarski that Tarat had an allergy in the age of 4-6 weeks, had bold spots and I thought that maybe this was a reason for his weaker health condition. Dr. Mlynarski explained me that dogs’ immune system is not able to develop any allergic reaction till the age of about 6 months. An allergy is simply not possible with small puppies. Any kind of skin/hair problems have to be results of infections, demodex or fungus. The glands stay enlarged even up to 3 months after any kind of health problems/infections. The general conclusion was: Tarat had some very “bad past” at the kennel. My knees were getting really soft. I couldn’t believe it.

Dr. Mlynarski suggested that sedation was too much for Tarat in his overall state. He took only one x-ray picture of the right front leg.

This x-ray was taken just over two weeks after we bought Tarat:

Dr. Młynarski was very careful about giving us a diagnosis at this point. The puppy was just over 3 months old. But he pointed out to us that the Ulna bone seemed to be shorter then Radius. He pointed there was a remaining cartilage structure at the end of Ulna which seemed to be stopping this bone from growing. This caused Radius to bow slightly as it was growing faster and was longer then Ulna. He checked Tarat’s blood for the Ca/P ratio. At this time it was 2,5Ca/0,5P. So, too low in phosphor.

He hoped that Tarat still had a chance to grow out of his problems. He regretted we didn’t know if the breeder did anything to help the puppy’s leg to get better before we got him, nor did we know when exactly they started to look that way – he arrived to our home with wrong legs already. It must have started much earlier. He told us to feed the puppy with fish every day, to give him VMP tablets – one per day, avoid exercising, separate him from our other dog and observe. If we it was just a growing disturbance we should see within 2-3 weeks that Tarat’s legs were getting better. If not – we would have to think about genetic problem and most likely Radius Curvus syndrome. But he gave us hope. And I stuck to it. I observed Tarat every day.

I was really angry at the breeders. How could they not notice Tarat’s wrong legs? Or how could they not tell us about it? We saw it the first day we got him… I wrote them an e-mail about the overall findings of Dr. Mlynarski.

It started to be a bit uncomfortable for the breeder I guess. We got a reply in which we read, that indeed, the puppies did not have an allergy but some kind of an infection which was treated with a week of antibiotics. They also ensured us they didn’t want to sell us a problematic puppy but in their view Tarat was showing signs of Rachitic which they never had in 30 years of their breeding practice. Etc, etc. I was furious. This was a very delicate insinuation that we made this puppy suffer from Rickets. They alarmed us we should give Tarat injections of vit D3!!!  I didn’t know if the breeders played silly or if they wanted to treat us as if we were silly. I guess even a child knows nowadays, that Rickets does not exist really in Europe anymore. The last diagnosis of Rickets were given before the II World War. A dog who is kept at home and eats normal food – whether commercial or BARF - is just not able to get Rickets!!

Anyway, the above x-ray picture shows that the bones are properly mineralized. As Mr. Hochgesand is a medical doctor – one could expect he knows how to read the radiographs. There are no signs of Rickets on this x-ray. Not to mention that Rickets shows at all body not only at front legs, but most of all ribs etc. I decided I would not argue with the breeders. I felt we were getting to a very delicate matter here and thin ice – a possible genetic fault. And many breeders will use all means (even “low level kicks”)  to avoid this truth to come out.

It was also in my interest to diagnose Tarat in the best possible way. After all I bought him as a stud dog!

Is this how you imagine dramatically bad conditions? Is this what a mistreated dog looks like?

I observed Tarat’s development impatiently. The day after we came back from Poland Tarat’s legs looked like this:

 

I started to do all I was advised to do. Tarat was getting fish ever day, we bought whole fish, we cooked it together with the bones and then mixed it into a paste in a machine. I cooked vegetables for him and mixed it into a paste as well. We imported horse meat from Poland – hearts, as they have a slightly higher phosphor content then calcium, as well as horse meat is supposed to be the cleanest on the market – no hormones, no other additives. Tarat was not getting any grain, as dogs with any bone problems should avoid it. He was separated from Tatarit most of the day. They would only be allowed to play for 15 minutes per day. He was not allowed to walk the stairs anymore, and we brought a special woolen rug from Poland (which ironically I took away when Tatrit was a puppy as I didn’t want her to destroy it :-) ). Tarat was not supposed to walk on slippery surfaces… We did all we could in order to guarantee him the best life conditions.

 

 

The diagnosis was the worst we could get. Radius Curvus in both front legs, premature Ulna closure and short Ulna syndrome. Slight changes in the elbows caused by the pressure of the long bones - no incongruity as yet but with a danger of it, which could lead to elbow displasia.
Suggested treatment: surgery, corrective osteotomy for both front legs, needs to be done within 14 days. The dog is not allowed for further breeding, the fault has genetic bases, just like all the other siblings from this litter (even though they do not show the syndrome they are carrying the same faulty genes). I was devastated. We received the diagnosis in German so that we could present it to the breeders - Hochgesads do not speak English.

 

NI wrote to the breeders, I informed we had to bring Tarat back the following Saturday. As soon as possible as he had to be operated within next 14 days. I didn't get any answer. I called the next day in the morning - Thursday the 23rd. Anne Hochgesand told me that they would take Tarat back but not earlier then in two weeks, as they are not ready to have him at this moment. I was shocked! I wrote them a week earlier about this possibility. As I got no answer I was sure they just accepted it.
I was so angry! They put us in a very difficult ethical situation: if we kept him for the next two weeks we would have to operate him. Or if we didn't operate and gave him back after the fortnight maybe it would be too late for the operation… I didn't know what to do. I was so shocked with their attitude. I sent a several more emails to them. I was alarming they had to take the responsibility for the genetic problems etc, etc. I asked if we could bring Tarat back the next morning, on Friday, as they claimed Saturday was not possible for them. Anne told me she had to discuss it with her husband and told me to call her in the evening. How rude! I was to call them! I started to realize we were dealing with people with very law customer orientation, with very questionable ethics, and with no concern about the puppy's real state.
I did call in the evening. I listened to a 10 minutes long aggressive monolog of Mr. Hochgesnad. He was screaming his head off at me. I did not understand all of this shout, but basically we heard we were awful, irresponsible, etc. They disagreed with the diagnosis and told us we only wanted to give Tarat back as we didn't like him any more and we got bored with him. Therefore, they thought we were the wrong people to have any dog and we should give Tarat back the next day. They will take care of him but he will not be operated, as in Germany things are done properly and thoroughly, and what we did was absolutely wrong and unacceptable. And there is not enough knowledge in countries like Poland or Czech to give a proper diagnosis.
I tried to point out to Mr. Hochgesand that our vet studied and practiced in Germany and in Switzerland and he had only moved to Czech a few years ago. I was also suggesting that before disagreeing with him maybe he would like to talk to dr. Hnizdo. I was told that they will not talk to anybody. End of story.
It was a very rude, emotional, slightly nationalistic shout not a conversation. Took me a while to calm down after it. But we still thought the best we could do was to give Tarat back to the breeders. We packed our things, we packed all Tarat's things, all the medical documentation and were ready to leave the next morning to Frankfurt. It was all heart breaking. It seemed we would never see Tarat again as the breeders turned into our enemies - we brought them very bad news, so they decided to "kill the messenger". During this evening I e-mailed some friends and breeders. I got some answers. People felt very sorry for us.
In the morning after some difficult decision making process and some crying we decided with Karol we should keep this poor puppy and do all we can to help him. We wrote a final e-mail to the breeders, where we informed we would keep and operate Tarat. We asked them once again to cooperate with us and at least pay for his medical treatment.
We scheduled Tarat's operation for Friday next week, March the 31st. In the meantime I sent all the radiographs to the University Clinic in Munchen, Germany, to get the second diagnosis. I received a short e-mail back, from Dr. Ines Holz, in which she confirmed Tarat showed a Radius Curvus Syndrom and a Carpus Valgus. I also sent digital copies of the x-rays to Poland, to dr. Tomasz Niedziela in Warsaw, and he also fully agreed with the diagnosis as well as with the need of surgery.

A day before the operation we got an e-mail from Hochgesands. They thought things over and they consulted someone in Germany. They agreed with the diagnosis and they offered they would either operate Tarat in Germany or they would pay for his treatment in Czech. I was very surprised but also very happy as it seemed we finally got some understanding and support from the breeders. I really appreciated their offer. The next morning Tarat was operated. As it turned out later, the breeders were cooperative only till we met the first complications. Since then we were again called the worst people on earth and there has been no more good will from the breeders side - but I will describe all of that in a separate section called "The Breeders' attitude".
After the 31st of March our life changed into a big fight for Tarat's healt. More about it in the next chapters: Treatment and Rehabilitation.