My 8 week old puppy has worms!!!

[Dizzy]

What a cutie!!!!

More puppy pictures please, I'm a sucker for a merle... even if my merle puppy did decide to turn into a dark splodge

Sounds like the breeder is someone to be avoided But you live and learn, and your pup has definately landed on his feet There is LOTS of info on puppy mills on this site if you wanted to read more about bad breeding practices and what to look out for in breeders.

[tdog7879]

Originally Posted by Zoom

True, but that's not how the question came across.

And two merles do not automatically make a lethal white. It is the only way to produce a lethal white, but not every MxM is a lethal white.

EDIT: I somehow missed the pictures but found them. Deaf/blind can be very tricky in MxM dogs...now obviously if the pup was mostly white with small blue eyes with pink rims, chances are there would be some severe sight impairment. Ears that are colored, especially on the inside (though this is not always accurate) generally retain hearing, whether that's partial or total is unknown. I've seen some pups I could have sworn were deaf/blind based on the "lethal white" pattern, yet they retained both sight and hearing.

At this age, he might end up being sight impaired in his one eye, he might not. I've seen pups that were very light when young, end up dark with different enough markings as to make it difficult to tell the two pictures were the same dog if you didn't know how to look!

Im still not really understanding the whole color issue that can cause eye and ear problems....The parents of the pup (if this matters) the male was similar to the puppy the female was all dark color. Also the puppy(Riley) has the one blue eye and one brown eye with just a touch of blue in it....as i was saying the vet check his eyes and ears and said they are fine but i will make sure they check his eyes and ears everytime... Im going to do more research with the color issue .......now you guys have me stressing out if my dog is going to go blind or deaf!!......Thank for all the help from everyone!!!!

[Dizzy]

Originally Posted by tdog7879

Im still not really understanding the whole color issue that can cause eye and ear problems....The parents of the pup (if this matters) the male was similar to the puppy the female was all dark color. Also the puppy(Riley) has the one blue eye and one brown eye with just a touch of blue in it....as i was saying the vet check his eyes and ears and said they are fine but i will make sure they check his eyes and ears everytime... Im going to do more research with the color issue .......now you guys have me stressing out if my dog is going to go blind or deaf!!......Thank for all the help from everyone!!!!

If you breed two merle coated dogs together you can potentially end up with really BAD genetic problems which cause deafness and blindness and other nasty things.

A lot of breeders do it to get striking patterns on the dogs, or a lot of white on them, but it is generally BAD.

[tdog7879]

Originally Posted by Dizzy

If you breed two merle coated dogs together you can potentially end up with really BAD genetic problems which cause deafness and blindness and other nasty things.

A lot of breeders do it to get striking patterns on the dogs, or a lot of white on them, but it is generally BAD.

got it i understand ....Thanks....so what do you think about his colors?





had to toss in my 80 saltwater tank! just for show

[sammgirl]

If only one of the parents was merle, then I think you should be fine.

[Zoom]

He could just be a mismarked/excessive white. In which case he'll be just fine.

Check out www.ashgi.com for more info on color and recessive genes.

[tdog7879]

update: riley went to the vet today and got his 2nd set of shots!!! Also the vet. check his eyes and ears again and said they looked good ...but if i was really concern i could go see a eye dr. and get his retnia check..but so far so good!!!!

[Izzy's Valkyrie]

As long as one of the parents was dark you should be fine though if the parent was dark with the same merle *spotting in the coat color* pattern within the dark colors there's still a possibility of double merle genetic problems. Honestly the first thing I thought when I saw pictures was double merle too but lets hope he's not! Cute as a button though, hope the parasites go away sooner rather than later and if you have any more food questions, there are a ton of opinions to be found in the Dog Food and Recipes section

(I'm a huge sucker for merles) The little guy actually looks a lot like Steve (the border collie) with a totally merle and white coat. Hope the breeder wasn't mixing BC's in!

[Zoom]

You can get pattern white, but the normal white markings deal with different genes and locii than the lethal white markings do. White on the body isn't desireable but it's usually just considered a mismark.

One does have to watch out for "phantom merles" though when breeding...there have been a few accidental MxM breedings because one parent looked like a bi or tri-color, but was genetically a merle.

[tdog7879]

[/QUOTE]

Originally Posted by Zoom

You can get pattern white, but the normal white markings deal with different genes and locii than the lethal white markings do. White on the body isn't desireable but it's usually just considered a mismark.

One does have to watch out for "phantom merles" though when breeding...there have been a few accidental MxM breedings because one parent looked like a bi or tri-color, but was genetically a merle.

Im lost on the whole color thing ....in your best opinon what do you see when you look at the pictures Riley.. also if he does have some bad genes can the deaf or the blind issue come in to effect at anytime?

Thanks for your help!!!!