Leonberger
Dog Breeders...See our Leonberger Puppies
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Vom Sanften Loewen - "The Gentle Lion"
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The
health and well-being of our dogs are of paramount importance to us.
Great care is taken that each Leonberger puppy receives the best veterinary
care available. With your new Leonberger puppy comes a certificate of
health. His or her first vaccination, de-worming, and tattooing are
all completed before they are placed with their new families.
It
is of utmost importance to us that our Leonberger puppies be placed
only in loving homes that share our devotion to these amazing canine
companions. Contact
us at: |
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Information on Leonberger Polyneuropathy
Leonberger dogs may suffer from a neuromuscular disease
called Leonberger
Polyneuropathy (LPN). This disease, in its classical presentation, sets in
before three years of age. The dog suffers from slowly worsening exercise
intolerance and may develop gait abnormalities, such as an exaggerated
hitched step, especially in the hind limbs. There is often wasting of the
hind limb muscles as well. Additionally, these dogs may have noisy breathing,
a change in their bark, or even difficulty breathing due to involvement of
the larynx and laryngeal folds in the throat. Eventually the disease may
progress to the point where the dog cannot support its own weight. Biopsies
of nerve from affected dogs show degradation of the nerve fibers and loss
of
myelin, the insulating material that normally helps speed messages along
nerves. Muscle biopsies show atrophy resulting from nerve loss. It is
important to note that older dogs can also display some or all of these signs
and suffer from disease, although typically when dogs are affected at an
older age, the disease is less severe.
Research carried out at the University of Minnesota, the University of Bern,
and the University of California San Diego, indicates that polyneuropathy
is
likely a group of several genetically distinct, but clinically similar
diseases. We have mapped two major genetic risk loci and identified the
causative mutation in one of these loci that we now term LPN1. Dogs being
homozygous mutant (two copies of the mutation) for this mutation will
typically develop neuropathy before they reach 3 years of age. Dogs
heterozygous for this mutation (one copy of the mutation) might also develop
mild clinical signs late in life, but they will most likely not develop
severe disease. The identified LPN1 mutation appears to be responsible for
approximately one third of the cases of polyneuropathy in Leonbergers. The
other two thirds of cases are apparently caused by different genetic
mutations.
As of this time all my dogs have tested Clear for the
LPN1 . And I will promise
all my future puppy owners I will never breed to a dog that is anything but
clear.
Leonberger Dog Breeders...See our Leonberger Puppies
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"We
give dogs time we can spare, space we can spare and love we can spare. And in return, dogs give us their all. It's the best deal man has ever made"M. Facklam |