Muscular dystrophy in pups

Abstract

Extract

Muscular dystrophies (white muscle disease) do not appear tot be commonly encountered in the dog. Elvehjem et al. (1944) described the occurrence of a vitamin E-responsive muscular dystrophy in pups born to, bitches fed evaporated milk fortified with iron, copper manganese and cold liver oil. In New Zealand Money et al. (1971) recorded an, advanced cardiac myopathy in a 2-week-old pup from a litter of three all of which had died after exhibiting signs of respiratory distress. Response to vitamin E treatment in a subsequently similar clinical disorder suggests that the pathological condition was probably due to a vitamin E deficiency Manktelow (1963), however, suggested that the disorders he had seen were possibly selenium-respoasive myopathies since they occurred in an area where ovine selenium-responsive disorders also occurred. His cases included an adult working dog that had lost the use of its hindquarters and two litters of young pups in which myocardial necrosis was the main lesion. This note is to record the occurrence of muscular dystrophy in a litter of four crossbred pups born to a bitch with a previously good breeding history.