PetCaseFinder

Peer-reviewed veterinary case report

Puppy born without lower spine and hindlimbs due to rare defect

By Amaral, C B et al.·Published in Journal of comparative pathology·2012·Departamento de Medicina Veterin&#xe1, Brazil·View original on PubMed

PetCaseFinder translated the abstract of this peer-reviewed paper into plain English so pet owners can read it. We do not publish original research — every detail traces back to the citation above. How we work →

Original publication title: Perosomus elumbis in a puppy.

Species:
dog
Brain & nervesDogs

Plain-English summary

A 2-day-old poodle puppy was brought in with severely underdeveloped hind legs and no tail. The veterinarian found that the puppy had missing vertebrae in the lower back and other serious internal abnormalities, including issues with the colon and urinary system. Unfortunately, the puppy had a rare congenital condition called perosomus elumbis, which is not treatable. Sadly, the puppy did not survive due to these severe birth defects.

People also search for: poodle puppy birth defects · why does my puppy have short legs · perosomus elumbis in dogs

Abstract

A 2-day-old poodle puppy was seen to have hypoplastic and arthrogrypotic hindlimbs and no tail. Palpation revealed an absence of lumbar and sacral vertebrae. At necropsy examination, the colon had a blind ending at the umbilical area, there were no urinary system organs, the spinal cord ended at the thoracic level and no genital system organs were found except for a structure similar to a rudimentary penis. The pelvis was abnormal with no articulation with the spine. This congenital anomaly was consistent with perosomus elumbis, a rare condition of unknown aetiology with few reported cases.

Find similar cases for your pet

PetCaseFinder finds other peer-reviewed reports of pets with the same symptoms, plus a plain-English summary of what was tried across them.

Search related cases →

Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22578331/