My dog is called Arcturus "Archie" (registered name ****Ima Rascal.) We got him from a breeder in the Hutt. . He turned 2 years old on the 7th of June this year, so he's a young dog.


The original limp, and notable stiffness in the elbows going into the down position.

Archie injured his right rear leg at the beginning of the year. His hock swelled up to twice its normal size and was very sore. He didn't want to put weight on it. Went to the vet, he was put on ten days of Rimadyl and six weeks bed rest. Limping subsided, but the swelling and tenderness to touch remained. A few months later he injured the other leg in exactly the same way. Swelling in the original injury still had not gone down.

We were referred to a vet at Palmerston North Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Went, Archie had his hocks examined. It was believed he had partially detached Achilles tendons. It turned out it was just acute bursitis over the tendons, which was unusual as it doesn't normally happen in dogs, and especially not in both legs.

Anyway, while we were there the vet checked Archie's hips and elbows and noted stiffness in the elbows. Hips were fine, thankfully. At the same time his hocks were ultrasounded and X-rayed, he had his elbows X-rayed as well. He has severe arthritic change in both elbows. So, he has elbow dysplasia. Badly. Equally in both front legs. And it's not the sort that can be operated on to relieve pain.

Archie was put on six weeks absolute bed rest followed by a further six weeks restricted exercise. We were also charged over $900 for the testing and anaethesia.

Informed the breeders of the vet's findings, and we got no response. Since then I've started hearing some very bad things about their dogs, and I was told outright yesterday that they are puppy farmers. The last time I visited their site, which was just after we received the news on Archie's legs, I noted that they had bred his two parents dogs together again and were selling the pups -- this was before I told them about the dysplasia, though, so I can't really fault them.

Checked again and Archie's sire and dam have both been removed from their site. I notice that they're still using breeding stock from Archie's sire, however.

And if you're thinking about getting a GSD, I wouldn't really recommend one from them. We've had other problems with Archie as well, such as food refusal, weight issues and chronic diahrrea.

What a lovely face Archie has. Re his weight issues and chronic diarrhoea what investigations have you had done for that.

I am sorry to hear that Archie has the other issues you mention, and I can understand your being rather ticked off though posting hearsay comments on the breeders being puppy farmers is not the thing to do - could get you into a bit of trouble re defamation I would think. I think it is best to remove public reference as to who the breeders of Archie are but if anyone wants to know they could contact you directly.

I am happy to talk to you, in fact I would be very keen to talk to you about Archie, you will find my contact numbers on the contact us page.

Okay -- thanks for fixing that up. I wasn't aware of something like that.

And as for Archie's diahrrea and weight issues, they lasted from about 4 months to 15 months of age, and then cleared up. We took him to the vet, took stool samples, etc. Nothing out of the ordinary. He had been on the same food for the whole time. No idea what it was, but it was messy. Couldn't take him for walks out in public because he'd squat on the side of the road and do a runny, and then I wouldn't be able to pick it up.