I have a long, hard story about what we learned at today’s appointment with Ema. The short story? It’s fixable – expensive, but fixable.
At the moment, however, I’m just not up to writing about it – not yet. For now, I’m just going to give you a pictorial on Ema’s appointment with Veterinary Cardiologist, Dr. Sandra Minors, at the Mississauga Oakville Veterinary Referral Clinic.
Ema in the car enroute to the clinic. The resolution isn’t great, but you can sort of see the color of Ema’s tongue here – a uniform blue, almost all the time.
See the rest, after the cut – and please don’t forget to help, if you can.
https://i0.wp.com/www.bullmarketfrogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Brindle_pied_frenchbulldog.jpg?fit=662%2C662&ssl=1662662Carolhttps://www.bullmarketfrogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/bullmarket-logo.pngCarol2010-09-29 20:00:072010-09-29 20:00:07Ema at the Veterinary Cardiologist
A very quick update after Ema’s veterinary appointment —
Of course it couldn’t just be as simple as an elongated soft palate issue, although there is that to contend with.
My vet did a thorough listen to Ema’s heart, although it was hard to do so through her heavy breathing sounds. She determined that there’s definitely a heart murmur going on, and decided to do xrays to see if she could find anything else of concern.
It seems that Ema’s heart is definitely enlarged, and her diaphragm also seems malformed. Another potential issue is a stenotic trachea, which can only be diagnosed via scope. Bottom line? Ema needs to see the cardiologist at Guelph.
Dr. Boyle was also very concerned about Ema’s cyanotic appearance, as well as with her fainting spells, and has prescribed valium for her, which I’m to keep Ema on between now and her cardiologist’s appointment. For Ema, running and playing like a normal puppy could be fatal. I think I might end up needing to share her valium – there’s only so much worry a surrogate dog mommy can take.
We’re hoping to get her in as soon as Wednesday, because Dr. Boyle isn’t sure she’s going to make it much past that without some treatment. All of this is, I’m sure, going to come with some hefty price tags – I don’t think I’ve ever walked into Guelph without it costing me at least $3,000.
Cross your fingers for us…
https://i0.wp.com/www.bullmarketfrogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Brindle_pied_frenchbulldog.jpg?fit=662%2C662&ssl=1662662Carolhttps://www.bullmarketfrogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/bullmarket-logo.pngCarol2010-09-27 15:35:252010-09-27 15:35:25A very quick Ema update
On the weekend, Eva Skaloud, ECFBC and FBV volunteer, drove 17 hours round trip from London to Montreal to pick up our newest foster Frenchie, Little Miss No Name. Turns out she does (or did) have a name, if “Earlina” can be counted as a name, but Eva quickly re named her “Ema”.
We knew that there was something wrong with Ema – after all, her owners were giving her up because they said she was sickly, and had breathing problems and patella problems. I was working on a ‘wait and see’ approach before deciding just how bad her breathing and her joints really were – call me skeptical, but I’ve seen too many vets who over diagnose doom and gloom in every French Bulldog who walks in their doors. I wanted to see her for myself, and to have my own (sane, Frenchie experienced) Vet have a look at her.
My first clue that maybe something really, really serious was going on was when Eva called me with an update, and said “I was afraid she was going to die in the crate on the way home”. Eva, who owns a Boston and has owned several other Bostons and Frenchies in the past, didn’t strike me as the type to panic at non existent symptoms, so when she said she was scared, I believed her, and on meeting Ema, I instantly understood what all the panic was about.
Ema is a tiny little black masked fawn girl. She’s delicately built, with expressive eyes and a shy but affectionate nature. Within 24 hours, she had tightly bonded to Eva, and spent most of her time either sitting on Eva’s lap, or worrying about where Eva was. She’s a happy little thing, and played a little with Eva’s Boston, Carmen, but it wasn’t easy for her, because Ema just can’t breathe.
She gasps for air almost constantly, her sides working in and out like a bellows. Her tongue and gums are a uniform blue shade, no matter if she is at rest or at play. When she gets excited, Ema gasps for air even more frantically, and Eva told me that, at the worst points, she almost fell over from the effort of trying to catch her breath.
I brought Ema home last night, and I’ve done my best to keep her calm and settled. She was overwhelmed by my household of rowdy Frenchies, and climbed up on my lap for refuge. She and Jacob have sniffed noses, but he’s far too overwhelming for her. It’s such a strange contrast – Jacob is the same age is her, and is a relatively small Frenchie, but in contrast to Ema he’s a bull.
This morning, when I put Ema outside to pee, she was a little bit over excited by the freedom and danced around in a circle. A few seconds later, I saw her staggering and falling to her knees. I can honestly say I’ve rarely been as frightened by anything I’ve seen in Frenchies as I was at that moment. Thankfully, she recovered quite quickly, and I picked her up and attempted to calm her down. Her little heart was pounding like a hammer inside her chest, and mine was beating to match.
Ema is, all in all, a scary little girl – scary, because she so desperately wants to do all of the things that normal Frenchie girls do. She wants to do them, but she’s too busy fighting for her life. Sean was so horrified on meeting her that he blurted out “She reminds me of my mother, when she was dying of emphysema”.
Ema has a veterinary appointment this afternoon, and we’ll do everything we can to give her a chance at a normal, happy life.
So far, we’ve raised almost three hundred dollars towards her surgery, but we still have a ways to go. If you can, please chip in and help us to get Ema the surgery she so desperately needs to have a normal life.
I’ll be posting photos of her this afternoon, when I get a chance to shoot some of her. She’s a little bit camera shy, but she’s awfully adorable!
Ema’s Supporters:
Kim Jacoby
Bryan Kuppers
betty nguyen
Susan Snider
Whitney Kratsas
Rachel Tennant
Karen Bringol
RMR EMPIRE DISTRIBUTION LLC
Susan Koshoshek
Susan Rosenau
Nicole Sellers
Vicki Bouchillon
Alissa Gordon
Lisa Ricciotti
JESSICA HSIA
Marktplaats B.V
Jennifer Vodvarka
Jason LaChappelle
Theresa Wates
Katherine Deveau
Marcy M Einarsson
Lisa Goetz
https://i0.wp.com/www.bullmarketfrogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Brindle_pied_frenchbulldog.jpg?fit=662%2C662&ssl=1662662Carolhttps://www.bullmarketfrogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/bullmarket-logo.pngCarol2010-09-27 10:40:572010-09-27 10:40:57Ema is a scary little girl
Rebecca Hosking, with a picture of her collie Dave
In a nice change of pace, a major daily newspaper has actually published an article that is pro raw feeding.
Excerpt:
Vets tell you: ‘Live with canine epilepsy, not for it.’ Good advice, but much easier said than done. We went entirely the other way and buried ourselves in research, starting on a journey that would take us far beyond canine epilepsy.
A concerted internet trawl through scientific journals, veterinary publications and pet-owner forums revealed a huge and growing incidence of dogs with diseases of the joints, internal organs, immune system, eyes, ears, skin, teeth and nervous system; not to mention cancers, behavioural disorders and, yes, epilepsy. And, this being the internet, the suggested treatments encompassed everything from fancy pharmaceuticals to collective prayer.
There was one piece of advice, however, that cropped up far too often to ignore – ‘get your dog off commercial pet food’.
At the time we were feeding Dave what we thought was a high-quality dried food or ‘kibble’. According to the description on the side of the packaging, it was ‘rich in meat’ with ‘wholesome ingredients’ and ‘100 per cent complete and balanced’.
But the ‘ingredients’ section on most petfood packaging is notoriously vague and misleading. Manufacturers don’t really want you to know what’s in there. After some serious delving, I could understand why.
In all probability we had been feeding Dave the waste by-products of industrial grain processing, vegetable pulp (and possibly woodchip), a grounddown mix of non-nutritious animal parts, along with used fats and oils, possibly from restaurant fryers and industrial food-processing units. This mixture is preserved with powerful antioxidants banned in the UK for human consumption and linked to liver and kidney damage, stomach tumours and cancer.
