here's another pic of goofball #2, just for fun
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Our other boy:
He’s a pure though, Greater Swiss Mountain dog. 145 lbs. Working breed, used to haul milk carts around the Alps, guard sheep, etc. Record cart pull for a Swissy is just a tick over 5000 lbs.
But he’s also sort of a rescue.
He was born with a heart defect. long story short, the entire left side of his heart is a total s-show. Holes, murmurs, misformed valves, strange tendon structures in the left atrium, etc. You name it, he’s got it. Vet figured he didn’t get enough nutrients in the womb, as the mother had a litter of 17 (including ours) and 2 stillborn. Figures he might have been on the outer edge of where the uterine lining was so his umbilical didn’t get as much as his body needed to grow properly.
Cardiologist only gave him a year or less (was actually indicating weeks to months). The breeder was a bit stuck: he couldn’t be “fixed” because of his condition (can’t be anesthetized) and she had two breeding females (one was his mother).
Multiple people on the wait list passed him up because of his heart and the only people that wanted to take him wanted to run him or work him, which would have killed him in short order.
The wife and I have had dogs with heart defects before, so we knew what we were getting into. The breeder was happy to just give him to us (and waive her fee) to get him out of her care and into someone’s who would take care of him properly. The breeder wouldn’t even take an offer to pay for his vaccinations, citing that she knew he was going to be expensive to keep, medically.
He just turned 5 last month.
We’ve got him on beta blockers and limit his exercise so as not to over strain his heart. I also make sure he gets lots of touch and interaction each day. Not sure if that helps, but I can’t help but feel it does as I believe he always feels like he belongs and is “special”.
Not one vet can explain how he’s beating the odds and they all want to “monitor” him. Ultrasounds, mri, ekg, etc because his case is so unusual. Both the severity of his defect and the fact he’s lived so long with it.
But I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth, nor am I subjecting him to the stress of those procedures (he goes nuts when he’s restrained). They can’t fix him so they really just want to use him as a lab rat/learning tool.
I get the “greater good” argument, but I see no need to stress him that way. My priorities are him just living what life he’s got left and enjoying what time we have left….together.
After all, he is “my boy”. Have to protect him.
/hijack
