My Miracle Dog

My Old English Sheepdog, Pippy (Lady Wigglebottom of Pipceister), was born 4 December 2001; and bought from Shepherd Hills Kennels in Goodson, MO. I'd buy from this breeder again - I found her to be scrupulously honest. Don't get me wrong: she sells puppies; but she certainly seems to have a heart about the dogs she will sell, and is entirely honest about them.

She's a rather mischievious dog; smart, cute, and loves to play -- she has a very complex personality, which I understand to be common to the OES breed. She almost didn't get a chance to live. When we bought her, the breeder told us she had a severe heart murmur, and that the diagnosis was likely a PDA (patent ductus arteriosis); but that the diagnosis hadn't been confirmed yet by a suite of rather expensive tests. We got her at a very discounted price, and promised to take care of her as if she were one of our own children; to take care of whatever was wrong with this dog didn't even have to be agreed upon -- we were just going to do it. I wouldn't call our adoption of Pippy a "rescue"; but some might think so. Sick puppies don't sell well. In any event, I have nothing but good things to say about this breeder: she even offered a 50% refund of the purchase price if and when Pippy needed heart surgery; and she stuck to her word some 16 months after the sale.

I haven't discussed this with the breeder, but I'd be willing to bet a few bucks that she didn't make a nickel on this pup: we live in Connecticut, the breeder is in Missouri, and the dog was flown to us on American Airlines -- we weren't charged for the air fare or the crate she came in. And she was so clean and sweet-smelling when we picked her up off the air cargo conveyor belt, barking all the way!! :-)

Of course, our promises to the breeder were unnecessary: she grew near and dear to us quickly. We took her to our family veterinarian when she was 5 months old, the vet couldn't hear any heart murmur ... could it be that the heart murmur she'd had in early puppyhood was 'innocent', and now gone? What joy!! But not so fast...

We changed veterinarians (to Dr. Mark Sebetic, DVM -- a wonderful doctor and true benefactor of animals who, unfortunately, doesn't have a website. He's in Dover Plains, NY, if anyone who reads this is in the Eastern NY State area, this is a definite plug for him! He is worth whatever drive it takes.) when Pippy was about 17 months old, and this vet had some distressing news for us: Pippy didn't have long to live -- the murmur was indeed there, and sounded serious to him. So we spent the $800 for the testing, and got a diagnosis of a PDA, just like the breeder had told us. I found out months later that it takes training to hear a heart murmur: I guess the first vet just didn't get it.

We took her to a veterinary coronary specialist (Dr. Jeffery Berzon, DVM) in West Hartford, Conn, who did the surgery that same day. She stayed overnight under observation, and we picked her up the next day. Thank you, Dr. Berzon and crew ... you saved my dog. Not only that, your business manager, Linda, allowed us to pay off the surgery fee ($2,000+) over time: we couldn't have done this without all of your help and understanding. My gratitude is eternal.

It was now up to us to take care of Pippy, to clean her drains daily, and to be sure that she didn't stress the suture, which we did; but is very hard to do with a curious, playful dog of her age.

One Saturday morning about 3 weeks later, Pippy wasn't feeling good: she wasn't taking food or water, and was limping about lethargically. Looking into her eyes, I could see she was in pain. She even did something she'd never done before: in Dr. Sebetic's office, I was holding her in my lap; she looked into my eyes and bit my thumb -- not sharply, but with some force, as if to tell me she was in pain. It's not infrequent for something called a seroma to develop underneath a suture ... it is supposed to contain something called synovial fluid, which is more or less clear. Dr. Sebetic put a syringe in and drew some fluid out: it was blood red -- not a good sign at all.

We had to have Pippy anethesthetized again, and Dr. Sebetic opened her back up, not really sure what he was looking for; but he soon found the answer: the wire Dr. Berzon and team had used to hold her ribs back in place had shifted slightly, such that a sharp end was digging back into her skin from the inside, causing the bleeding. He dulled down the ends of the wire, and sewed her back up, new drains and all. Thank you, Dr. Sebetic: I'm convinced Pip would have just given up, if the bleeding itself hadn't killed her. You saved my precious dog (again!!) that had just been saved from a certain death 3 weeks prior.

These things happen. We'll never know why that wire shifted: all I really know is that Pippy is a miracle dog, and how grateful I am that she's still with us. You don't want to anesthetize a dog with heart problems: Pip survived two of these in a 3-week period. It took some loving care, to be sure, but it's been worth all the emotional stress and money.

As of this writing March 2004), some 8 months after all the surgery work, Pippy is a normal, playful 2 year-old Old English Sheepdog; a most valued member of our family and a miracle dog.