| dc.description.abstract | Bouviers are a popular breed of dog in Holland. Since some time the breed association has noticed that in different litters pups were born with deformed forelimbs. The abnormalities seen in different degrees in the young Bouviers include: outwardly turned feet, inwardly turned elbows and short legs, some of the dogs show symptoms of lameness. The defect appears to be hereditary and seems to fit into the syndrome of chondrodysplasia.
Lameness in the front limbs is a common complaint for owners to seek out veterinary help. The causes can be categorized into congenital anomalies, developmental disorders, traumatic, idiopathic, infectious, nutritional, metabolic and neoplastic disorders. The first two are more common and can have a genetic basis.
28 Bouviers, both with and without the skeletal anomaly, have been clinically and radiographically examined. The age ranged from 6 weeks to 11 years. The most prominent abnormalities found, include (sub)luxation of the radial head and bowing of the proximal radius in a caudolateral direction, bowing of the ulna, a shallow trochlear notch, a widened olecranon fossa and (sub)luxation of the ulna at the level of the carpus and valgus deviation of the front paws. The abnormalities show a lot of similarity with CEL type 1 as reported by Kene et al (1982). | |
