A 2-year-old German Shepherd has pituitary dwarfism, a rare condition, which makes him look like a young puppy.
Ranger, the puppy, has a rare condition that doesn’t allow him to age as other dogs do.
This means he is going to look like a puppy for a long time.
Ranger got diagnosed with pituitary dwarfism after he contracted a parasite that is called Giardia.
After getting treatment for the parasite he contracted, the owners of Ranger realized that he was not growing.
When the owners brought Ranger back to the vet, they found out that he was diagnosed with pituitary dwarfism.
Ranger may look cute due to his rare condition, but there are side effects.
Due to being diagnosed with pituitary dwarfism, Ranger loses a lot of fur and has flaky skin, which is caused by hypothyroidism.
Thanks to the caring owners of Ranger, he made a full recovery from his skin and fur problems that were caused by hypothyroidism.
After the dog became healthy, he ended up having thousands of followers on his personal Instagram page, which is being run by his owners.
Shelby Mayo, the guardian of Ranger, said, “When we originally got Ranger from the breeder, he was smaller than all his other littermates, but we figured that was because he had a parasite called Coccidia.”
Shelby added, “In the weeks following we took him home and he was parasite free but later on ended up getting a parasite called Giardia. At the same time, we also discovered that Ranger had a large infection on his neck.”
Shelby continued, “We were eventually able to get the infection under control, fast forward a few months later we were finally able to get rid of Giardia. During this time Ranger remained very small, the vet had suspected that he may have Pituitary Dwarfism, a genetic mutation.”
Even though Ranger is healthy now, he is still not getting bigger.
A few months after the owners of Ranger got him, they started to realize that he was losing weight and most of his fur.
Shelby explained, “He lost his appetite, started to lose weight, lost almost all of his fur, and had extremely dry and flaky skin. Many people on our Instagram page warned us that Pituitary Dwarfs can have many medical issues, but up until that point we hadn’t experienced any.”
Thanks to Guardians Farm, a small company that makes handmade products, Ranger got his skin problems solved.
The small company sent them goat milk soap, which ended up helping the pooch’s skin immensely.
Another follower of Ranger had a dog that had the same condition.
The follower told them to get the thyroid levels of the dog checked because dwarfs suffer from hypothyroidism.
Shelby said, “So, our vet checked his thyroid levels and sure enough he was low, this can cause hair loss and a loss of appetite. After getting Ranger on Levothyroxine and using this soap his fur grew back and the dryness went away.”
She added, “Rangers litter was the first litter that our breeder had bred those to specific dogs together. We believe this was the cause of the genetic defect. And as a responsible breeder will not breed the two dogs together again.”
She continued, “He healthy and happy as can be as of now and loves jumping around and playing with his ball and squeaky toys with his two sisters Hazel and Jessie.”
Ranger is such a cute pup! We hope him the best.