Perhaps I should change the name of our kennel to SicklyPup instead of StinkyPup. Here’s the health update:
- Stubby: Three weeks ago Stubby, at 12 years old, had her first obstructive bowel surgery. She’s recovering well, except for chronic diarrhea– oh what fun. Apparently she’s been chewing on pieces of our dog door. Part of the plastic had poked through her intestine. Doc M. cut out 4 inches of her intestines and saved it for me in a baggie. Thanks Doc.
- Storm: Four weeks ago, while we were out of town Stormy got beat up by Danny and Chevy and needed to go to the emergency vet for stitches. She healed up well, except for part of the drain that she chewed off and the other half got stuck inside her. Stormy needed additional surgery to remove the drain.
- Rattles: This last week, Rattles had several HUGE hot spots. I took him to the vet Monday and they shaved some of the spots. He’s on Cephalexin for 10-14 days as well as a low dose of Prednisone.
- Goblin: Get ready for the big one. Goblin has dilated cardiomyopathy and is in heart failure. When I came home from NY, he had a low grade fever of 102.5, wasn’t eating and just seemed a little off. I took him to the vet thinking that I was just being overprotective. Turns out he has a heart problem. Meds for this are Lasix and Enalapril.Goblin is the son of Foxtail. Foxtail was my neighbor’s dog and she got Foxtail from Tony B. She’s pretty sure Foxtail died of a heart attack. Asa and Higgs, two of our hand-me-down sled dogs were also from Tony B, and both of them had heart issues. Asa’s heart stopped when he was getting surgery for fight wounds and Higgs died of a heart attack one afternoon in the dog yard. So it’s quite likely that Goblin’s siblings (Myra and Lasher), also have heart problems, and it’s likely that Tony was unknowingly breeding dogs with genetic heart conditions.