I cant believe it has been this long!!! Our home went on the market this week so we have been feverishly working to make it sparkling and perfect. Mission accomplished! Please send us some real estate luck so we can get this place sold!
[I snapped this after we had a good cry together. I was so worried about him and he knew it. Can't you just see it in his eyes?]
I wanted to give those of you, who are kind enough to care, an update on Rusty. We hooked him up to a holter monitor, which is a 24 hour monitoring of his heart (basically a 24 hour EKG). We were looking for PVC (premature ventricular contractions) that were the evidence of an arrhythmia. As a breed, normal boxers usually have about 50 per day. Those with severe boxer cardiomyopathy have PVCs in the thousands and tens of thousands per day. Thankfully, Rusty only threw 32 during the time he was monitored, putting him in the normal range. [for those of you with medical minds who read this...all were singlets and in rhythm, which is super encouraging] When you have more than one of these extra contractions in a row is where you really run into trouble. So...for now our directive is to treat our little boy as normal. There are a few studies that have been conducted using fish oil and with some pretty decent results that show the number of PVCs are reduced with high enough supplementation in the daily diet. So Rusty drools for his two capsules each night and chews them like candy. He is back to doggie daycare and has no idea anything was ever wrong!
[Rusty wired like a suicide bomber. Poor little guy!!! This was off his daddy's cell phone camera, so excuse the quality! He tolerated the vest without the cone, thank goodness!]
5 comments:
I've been thinking of you all and Rusty! I know the feeling of being worried about your puppy... my family went through that when we lost our new puppy from heart complications. Very sad, but sounds like Rusty is going to pull through! :)
How pitiful does he look in those pictures?! You can tell he is really feeling your emotion too.
I'm so glad to hear the good news -I hope he continues to get better!
Sending you lots of good luck vibes for selling the house! I hope it's a very quick & painless process for you!
I read your blog everytime, and it killed me to see your dog sick in the earlier posts... (I am a huge animal lover), I'm so glad he has such a wonderful caring family :) I am thinking of you guys!!
Thank you for the update on Rusty. So glad that he is in the normal zone and is being strong! That is interesting about the fish oil...I don't know about Aspen and her heart, but I will definitely mention it to our in-laws who are watching her. The pictures make me sad and smile at the same time:)
Ashley, Anne, Shibahn, Rachel--thanks for your care & concern. I am a much happier mama with our news!!
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