Thursday Throwback: Duncan

My fifth foster introduced me to the wonderful world of hereditary disorders that affect Dobermans.

Duncan came to IDR+ as a stray, which is surprising considering his condition and looks. This is one big boy and really quite handsome! So handsome in fact that once we posted him, we had to take him down because I had about 5 adopters fighting to adopting him within minutes. Pretty always does go fast :). Not to mention that he seemed like the perfect dog - low prey drive, got along with other dogs, and even got along with cats!

Here is Duncan at the shelter before we pulled him.
He is ignoring the cat and the cat food! Crazy :)

Needless to say he didn't stay with me long. Just long enough to get vetted (which actually took awhile), narrow down the approved adopters clamoring for him, and transport him up to Illinois. It was a bit crazy in my house because he overlapped with Jeter but everyone got along famously. Duncan was however fascinated with Vito and really liked to hump him. Poor Vito :(. He handled it well though and if Duncan had stayed longer I'm sure the humping would have lost it's luster.

Duncan pestering Vito :).

Since Duncan was picked up as a stray, he had to have all his vetting done before he could be adopted out, which included a neuter. We didn't think there would be any problems going into the surgery, especially since he already had his ears cropped (which can be much harder to deal with than a standard neuter). But to our surprise Duncan actually had a form of Von Willebrand's Disease (vWD), which is similar to hemophilia in humans and can lead to excessive bleeding following an injury or surgery due to lack of clotting. Unfortunately, vWD is really common in dobermans. There are three types of vWD (type 1 being minor and type 3 being major and relatively rare), we believe Duncan had type 1, however we did not do formal tests on him. He came out of his neuter fine after some extra prepping and care, and minor injuries (like those incurred during rough housing or outside playing) don't slow him down any.

Playing tug...

After Duncan had been in his adoptive home for several years, he was returned to IDR+. They had spent countless time and money trying to figure out why he had such bad hair loss, skin ulcers, and allergies. But they were at their wits end and couldn't get to the root of the problem so they returned him. We gladly took Duncan back (now under a different name) and worked to try to resolve his issue. It turns out he also had an autoimmune skin disorder called Pemphigus Foliaceus. We treated him and got the disorder under control and he was quickly adopted out to another great family.

This boy has had quite a rough time medically - he just can't seem to catch a break! But now hopefully he is in his forever, forever home :). Here at IDR+ we are committed to our orphans throughout their life, so if they need to be returned for whatever reason, we are always here to welcome them back with open arms. And I, as a foster, am always ready to re-foster any of the ones I have helped if ever they should come back. I have had that chance once so far (with Ice), since Duncan needed expert medical care he stayed in Illinois when he was returned so that the specialists could look at him, otherwise I would have welcomed him back as well :).

Does your favorite breed have any common hereditary medical disorders? What kinds and how do you deal with them?