I have had a strange incident happen here.  A breeder here in Australia has
contacted me about a litter she studded her hob out to produce.  Here is
the story:
 
Hob (sire of litter) is a chocolate/sable out of a sable & by a DEW
Dam (to whom he was bred) is a DEW out of an albino & by a DEW
* Note - Aussies consider marked whites DEWs - there is no silver colour
  like in the US
 
Kits born from this cross started to lose function of hind end.  After a
few weeks (they are now about 6-7 weeks old) the affliction occured in
almost all of the kits.  The initial kits that developed the loss of motion
have also lost motion of the front legs as well.  The owner of the jill
was upset and took the kits to the vet (duh) and was told the reason this
happened was due to the hob's DEW parantage.  This upset the Hob owner so
she rang me.  She is concerned about her hob and his offspring, as she
should be.  After chatting with her, she told me the jill owner started
feeding the kits milk with calcium supplement at 2 weeks of age.  He also
started them on a meat mince.  Also - the jill owner was *just* informed by
her previous owner that this happened in her last litter.  I told the hob
owner that it was a genetic problem with the jill, and she should not be
*too* concerned, but to watch her hob's other offspring.  She is still very
concerned and afraid after this incident.  I told her to advise the jill
owner to put a kit or two down and have a necropsy preformed to see what
was *really* going on.
 
Any information I could forward these folks would be wonderful.
 
Thanks!
 
Amy Flemming
[Posted in FML issue 2887]