Patriot's Journey- end of Spring update

She has had a good spring. Spends most of her days outside laying in the shade of the trees barking at squirrels and shadows. Digging is her passion and my yard could pass for a WWI trench warfare area!  My beautiful trumpet vines that once covered my fence has been pulled down for use as chew toys and to keep a clear field of view to bark at cars and kids passing by THEIR corner! They have successfully erradicated all grass from the north end of the yard as well. We hope to fence in a bigger area soon but we have to clean up some poisonous to dogs plants and trees first.

Patriot has gained weight (maybe too much as she has lost the Dane hourglass waist) and grown over 2 inches. She stands at just over 30 inches at the shoulder. The growing is a wonderful surprise since the vets said she would NOT grow more because of her heart! 

We can tell the heat of the last couple of weeks is causing her some trouble with her condition. She is agitated and snappy. She will get distant and refuse attention from us and her sister. There has been a few nasty fights caused by her attitude swings and Justice is bearing the marks. She has never gone after her people and if she did that would be a huge deal with hubs about keeping her around. Since she outweights all of our kids that is just not a safe situation...if it ever happened. At night she will wake suddenly wildly barking and we can't console her. We can see her heart pounding rapidly under her skin during the episodes. They don't last long thankfully just minutes to a half hour. It is a pitiful thing to watch her go through.

We bought them a kiddie pool and hose them down when watering the plants. Justice is a water hound and LOVES it!!  Patriot wasn't so sure but today she decided it wasn't killing her and splashed in the puddles and nipped at the water as it sprayed over her head.

The girls turn one year old next month! Hard to believe that time is passing so quickly.  I pray we have Patriot for many more birthdays but we are thankful for the time we have her now.  She has a good life. She is loved deeply. To say the girls are spoiled is an understatement :)

Patriot's Journey - unofficial 2nd opinion

I had to stop at the vet's yesterday for heart worm and flea meds and I was able to catch one of the senior vets at the desk.  I asked him about Pate's heart condition and he said there is nothing we can do that he knows of for VPC. He expressed his sadness, gave his condolences, said it would stunt her growth and offered advice on her heart worm and flea med since the girls are becoming so different in sizes. Of course it isn't "official" as he didn't have her charts and his opinion is based only on the original diagnosis of VPC/heart failure.

We will seek an OFFICIAL 2nd opinion at another vet over the summer. We aren't wanting to do anything that will stress her until she is fully healed from her spay since that is what caused the sudden onset in the first place.  She is growing, eating, and playing. She doesn't seem to be in any pain or have any issues causing her distress at the time so we will just let her be a puppy enjoying her life. That's all we really want for both girls... to live and enjoy life to its fullest.


In the meantime my girls are loving getting ice in the water bowel! Justice as always gone 'snorking' in the water to blow bubbles and let the water run from her jowels (preferablely all over us if she can!)

Here is a short video from today of Patriot and Justice bobbing for ice cubes



Patriot's Journey- a glimmer of hope

I had to go into the vet yesterday as Justice now has kennel cough even though fully vaxed.  :-( Getting the dogs to take their antibiotics and cough meds is becoming interesting to say the least. Patriot has been on her meds long enough to know to pick them from the food and spit them on the floor or run for cover if I try to put them in her mouth. Justice isn't interested in eating but will allow us to give her the meds some times. We have to watch that she doesn't hack them up.  Both dogs have love to hack out the pills and it is just NASTY to have to pick up slimy pukey looking pills 3-4 times and keep giving them until finally they are so dissolved they can't spit them out anymore. ICK!



Justice and Bub



I requested to meet with the vet we saw on Monday with Patriot to see if he had any news yet.  He said he hasn't talked to the cardio yet but he had researched and had some ideas.

He believes that even though she has Congenital Heart Failure and the VPCs that her heart isn't in failure at this time. This gives us the chance to try and keep her from going into heart failure. His suggestion is to bring Patriot in for a least a day to the clinic where he will do IV fluids and ladocain drip. He hopes that this will slow her heart down enough that it might catch a normal rhythm and then she will be put on a cocktail of heart meds to hopefully keep her heart rate steady. Its not without risks though. The whole thing hinges on Pate's heart being healthy and normal. The Dr can't hear any murmurs so he is hoping her heart is normal just off beat.  She will have to have chest x-rays and possibly other tests to verify this. If her heart is not normal then it won't work and there isn't much we can do. We also have to worry that the ladocain drug itself could trigger another attack like the drugs used during her spay triggered the first episode.

The good news is IF this works and we find the right combo of heart meds he expects she could live a relatively normal life though we would still need to exercise caution. But she would be able to play with her sister and enjoy activities with the family in moderation.

We will wait to do anything until we hear from the cardiologist. We don't want to rush into something that could make things worse or be of no help. In the meantime we are keeping her calm and watching her close. She seems to be on the mend from the kennel cough. :-) She hasn't coughed or gagged much even while playing so I am hoping that means her heart isn't over working.




"Look mom, I'm still your cute little lap puppy!"

                                                          Patriot after the vet on Monday

She crawled on to the couch and my lap (a no no in our house) really milking the attention she was getting

Patriot's journey - coming home

born July 10, 2011

came home to us October 31, 2011

coming home in the car.

she weighed about 35 lbs at this point

walking her new yard and first time on leash

Justice (Merle) and Patriot (Harlequin) making themselves at home

too tired to play any more

It took us almost 13 yrs to open our hearts to love another Great Dane after the passing of our first Dane, Ashley, in April '98 at age 8. 

We found the girls through a friend of a friend of a friend and a very complicated story that changed with each new telling.  When we finally got a straight enough answer we drove an hour to get them and had to fight to take both pups.  The "breeder" suddenly seeing interest in his pups was getting greedy and tried to up the price after having said these pups were destined for the pound because they were moving. 2 ladies rescued 2 of the 3 male pups and we got the only females. Was told the litter was originally 12 pups and 5 survived. :-(

We loaded the girls into the truck and headed for Petsmart for leashes, collars, and food. They had never been in a car, on leash, on concrete, away from their momma...  not a fun day for them with all the changes. A vet appointment the next day said they were healthy minus a rash that turned out to be possibly be demodex mange but never confirmed. 3 weeks of treatments, bathes, and good food healed them and it never returned up