German shepherd with dwarfism still looks like a puppy at two years old

Ranger the German shepherd is two – but you’d be forgiven for thinking he’s still a puppy.

He has pituitary dwarfism – which means he looks young for much longer than is normal for his breed.

Ranger was diagnosed with a parasite called giardia and his owners initially thought that was why he was smaller than the rest of the litter.

After recovering from the infection, his owners noticed Ranger, who lives in Phoenix, Arizona, wasn’t growing at the same rate a German shepherd should.

They took him to their vet who thought he might have the pituitary dwarfism mutation.

Shelby Mayo, who is Ranger’s guardian, 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.

‘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.

‘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.

‘But we were still sceptical as this condition is very rare.

‘Over time Ranger still did not get much bigger, and at this point, we are certain he does have this condition.’

Although the condition makes him look cute, it has also caused various health issues including shedding fur and flaky skin caused by hypothyroidism.

But his owners and some of his online followers have helped with treatment. and he now has his health issues under control.

After a few more months we got him neutered and that’s when we started to see big changes.

Shelby adds: ‘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.

‘One of our followers ‘Guardians Farm’ is a small company that makes handmade soaps, lotions, etc and they sent us goat milk soap, which ended up helping Rangers skin immensely.

‘At the same time, another one of our followers who also has a Dwarf German Shepard told us to get his thyroid levels checked as many dwarfs suffer from hypothyroidism.

‘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.’