Long-leg Chondro?

[lhaggard]

I have a heifer that tested positive for Chondro. Her sire has been tested Chondro negative. Her dam has not been tested. The heifer and her dam both appear to be long legged. My question is: Can a long legged Dexter be a Chondro carrier?

[kansasdexters]

lhaggard,

The terms "long-legged" and "short-legged" are not very good for relying on to know the chondro-status of a Dexter. This is because there are individual animals that are chondro-carriers and that are well proportioned. They don't look dwarf. The only way to know for sure is to test the animal. If you don't believe the test result from one lab, then the animal can be retested at another lab to confirm the test result. Labs can make mistakes, so if the test result doesn't seem right, ask for a confirmation test or test the animal at another lab for confirmation of the result.


Patti

[dexterfarm]

I would test the dam. If she comes back non carrier. then I would retest the calf. Can you post pictures of them?

[zephyrhillsusan]

We recently had a bull calf born to a chondro-negative cow by a chondro-positive bull.  I did a post on here about Is He or Isn't He?  The photos might be of interest to you. The explanations from some of those who breed a lot of chondro-positive animals were really helpful in how to tell by looking.  BUT (and a big BUT) the only way to be sure is by pulling tail hairs and testing.  You'll see by the different opinions on the post I linked, that if it was that easy to tell by looking, more people would have been sure what he is.   I emailed the post to the bull's breeder, and their opinion was that he is negative.  Actually, it turns out he is positive.  He's just very "proportional," meaning he doesn't have as much of the chondro-positive look.

I'm going to guess that your cow is chondro-positive, but the only way to be sure is to test.  I think Patti answered your question, but just to put it another way, no, a true long-legged Dexter is chondro-negative and cannot be a carrier.  If an animal is a carrier, it is chondro-positive, and it is "short-legged"--although as Patti explained, those terms are confusing.  They're only useful when backed up by testing!