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Hey fellow Dobe lovers! I'm so glad I found this site! I need some help with all of you, some of you or maybe even just one of you. It's a long story and so I will thank anyone in advance.that reads it.......so here it goes.
The day we first got our first dog & first Dobe me and my fiance were so scoffed to add the new addition to our small family. We had done a whole lot of research on the breed, we knew all the pros and cons and and once we had him we learned the truth about these kind, loyal, comical, doofy, gentle giants called the doberman pinscher. Snoop was the last black/ rust Dobe left in the litter . There were 2 blues aside from him. He was soooo cute with his big brown puppy eyes and awkwardly enormous paws. He actually looked kind of pathetic sitting there with his big Marvin the martian duct tape helmet ear post contraption that his breeder put together. After weeks maybe months of research it was only 2 days prior to getting him that I learned their ears don't stand up on their own. We fell in love with his handsome little face, signed the papers and off we went.
He was a very energetic mischevious little puppy but also somehow mature for how age. He didn't ruin too many things in our house. I won't lie and say there wasn't times I thought of opening the front door and letting run out into the sunset because he was being so utterly annoying! That's part of raising anything though. He certainly challenged me more then any dog in my life. After a lot of hard work and dedication he finally started to mature into a one year old dog last novemeber. Since we have no kids yet he was our Pride & joy and our friends and family probably wanted to throw up everytime they beard his name because it was all we talked about.
We were in an apartment the first few months of his life and finally we got a house. He had his whole back yard to himself and one of my favorite things to do was to sit on my back steps and watch him whiz back & forth while chunks of grass fly out from under him as he galloped along like a horse. I don't think thereafter anything more graceful then a running doberman. I made sure i socalized him from a young age and he was a regular comedy act at our local off the leash dog park. People would get a kick out of him sticking his nose in the water bowls and blowing bubbles and then knocking them all over so no one else could have the water.
They are such and intellectual breed. Everything they do is carefully thought out and meticulously premeditated. Which is what brings me to the point of this whole story.
Dobermans need lots of attention which is why they are dubbed (velcro dogs). They get bored easily and it is up to you to keep them entertained and to stimulate their brains and fufill their purpose which is to serve & protect their owners. Doing so in July of this year I made it a point to come home everyday and spend at least a half hour in the backyard with my boy Snoop. Of all the millions of toys that we spent lots of money on his favorite was his $2.99 Petco frisbee better know to him as his fribee. He wasn't much of a fetcher though the game to him was to run after it catch it and then run away like a maniac tempting me to Chase him. I was determind our half hour play dates to teach him to catch it and bring it back to me and drop it. Everyday he was getting better and better. It was one week on a Thursday when I came home went in the back and picked up the frisbee, threw it and he went and for it. We did it a few times back and forth and then he got tired and didn't want to play anymore. I thought he was being his typical Dobe stubborn self so I let him off the hook that day and waited for Friday after work to play again. Friday came and as usual I went out in the back got the frisbee, tossed it into the yard but this time he just looked at me. I tried again and again but he just wasn't in the mood. I thought maybe he was sore from all the running he had done that week so I gave him a day or so to recoup. That weekend we had noticed that he was sort of walking funny so but we weren't sure why. I remembered that a few days prior during one of our catches he jumped really high and sort of twisted himself in the air and landed pretty hard on the ground. At the.time he didn't seem like he hurt himself but I thought I know when I strain a muscle or sprain something it usually hurts more in the days following. So we gave him about a week or so to heal before running him again.
As the week progressed we noticed that he was straining to sit and he wasn't getting better. We finally decided to make an appt with the vet. The vet felt his back legs and said it doesn't seem broken and he's not holding it up so he assured us it was probably a.sprain and they could take a few weeks to heal. He gave us a weeks worth of rimadyl and told us to keep him from running too much. As the week wore on he seemed to be getting better. We figured he would know if he were hurt and couldn't run and when he started running it was because he had healed. When the rimadyl ran out that week a few days went by and it seemed to be hurt all over again. This time we went to a different vet who told us the same thing and again we walked out with a weeks worth of rimadyl and the smart thing happened again. He was getting better and then a few days off the pills he was looking stiff again. We finally took the recommendation of our neightbor and went to their vet that they raved about.
I couldn't make it that day so my boyfriend took him and.finally we found out what was wrong with our boy. He had a partially torn ACL in his knee. Finally a diagnosis! We were told he had to be on strict lock down for at least 3 weeks. This time we followed the doctors orders very strictly. No running up & down steps. Leashed bathroom stops in the back yard, no exfitement, no jumping. With that 3 more weeks of rimadyl.
The first week it was easy to keep him calm because he wasn't really in the mood to run. He was laying around a lot. We also noticed during that past few weeks that he wasn't eating his food right away. We would put it down & he would leave it there then eat it sometime in the middle of the night.. We brought it up to all 3 of the vets and they all said that he was getting older and didn't need to eat as much and that he was probably more interested in our food but once he realised he wasn't getting it he would then eat his food. I had a dog before who did that so I didn't find it that strange.
By the end of week 2 to the beginning of week 3 Snoop was almost 100% back to his normal self & it was becoming harder to control him but we stuck to it. We were so happy & excited to show our vet how good he was doing. It was the best we had seen him doing in weeks.
It was only a few days until he had to be back when my fiance had noticed snoop vomited a few times & had the runs. Just to be safe he called the vet. The vet told him the meds could upset his stomach. He suggested giving him some pepsid and feeding him rice & chicken. He ate his food and a day or so later he was better until that Thurday night when we had noticed he was holding his leg up. We felt so defeated! We had tried so hard to keep him restricted. He was real lazy as well. We layer next to him and my fiance was inspecting the hind leg and noticed it was swollen as I noticed one of his front legs looked sort of swollen around his ankle. It was warm to the touch as well. That was when we realized something more then a partially torn ACL was going on and it was serious.
The next morning when we woke up his entire hind leg & front leg swelled up. We called the vet right away but he wasn't in. The first thing that came to mind was Lymes disease. It was all that made sense. My fiance called the Emergency Vet and described what had happened. Our follow up appointment vets appointment was the next morning. The ER vet told us some vital signs to check like his gums & stuff and assured us he would be ok until our regular vets appointmemt the next day. Needless to we didn't sleep that much that night. Looking back we should've just brought him in that night.
The next morning Snoop couldn't walk at all. He had to be carried into the vets office. It wasn't a good feeling at all. To make matters worse the look on our vets face was that of utter shock, confusement and worry. Right away he took him in the back for xrays. We can hear him discussing snoop in the back with the other vets and it didn't sound good. They were all confused by the cross section of swelling, the His front left and back right. The X-rays came back ok and the Dr said he couldn't see any organs swelling, no tumors, nothing! That was a relief so he also ordered an in-house blood test. He sent us out with a diruretic for the.swelling and some other meds. I took Snoop out to the car while my fiance took care of the paperwork. Suddenly he comes walking out and tells me our Dr wants us to go to the ER vet right away. It turned out Snoops albumin (a protein your liver produces ) was dangerously low & since the ER was better equipped for these kinds of things we should go there.
We arrived there and patiently waited in the lobby for 2 hours until we were finally able to see the Internal Medicine Doc. Finally we got called in. He did a routine inspection of Snoops body but didn't feel anything. Then he ordered an ultrasound of his abdomen. As far as he can see nothing looked strange except his kidneys seemed very slightly enlarged but he said it could be because had recently drank water. Then he did a Lymes test it came up negative. Then a urinalysis which showed snoop was losing the protien through his urine. We were.running out of tests until the.only thing left was a kidney biopsy but since my mom met us there and she had suffered kidney failure and happened to know a lot about it she asked the Dr. If his kidneys were failing why his creatnine & BUN levels were normal and asked.what a biopsy would tell us and.where to go from there. Basically he said all it would do is let us know if it were hereditary or not. Doggie dialysis really isn't an option for us. We left there $1500 poorer & with no answers & a bottle of doxycycline in case it was an infection causing this. He also prescribed Benazapril to lower his blood pressure to prevent anymore wear on the kidneys but his bp too was normal.
The first 2 days were devestaing and scary. I stayed by his side throughout the whole 2 days. He was still eating & drinking water. As the days went by he showed slight improvements every day. Here we are 2 weeks later. The swelling went down within 48 or so hours and he is able to.walk again but he still has major trouble getting up and sitting. His.appetite is very small. He is being very finicky as well. He finished up the doxy. 2 days ago and his appetite is returning. Other vets have looked at his tests and reports and they too are all puzzled.
We are just so upset and distraught. We just wish we had an answer. We want so badly for him to just get better. Had he been old we'd get it but he's not even 2 and he deserves a chance at life. We don't want to give up yet. We have read about every dog disease (we can probably be vets ourselves now) out there but none of it fits. We have formed our own theories. I think either he had a hereditary disease and the rimadyl (which is not good for your.dog at all) kicked it in. Or he does have.Lymes and since from what I've read the tests aren't so reliable especially if your.dog was being treated with anti-inflammatories prior to the test, or he has Rheumatoid arthritis or some other immune mediated disease. Either way I learned a few.lessons. they are always research your breeder, call references. If I knew then what I know now I would have thought twice before getting him. Also when a vet gives you a medication don't just assume its ok. Look it up and do your homework. Either way I just want my boy to live.
The day we first got our first dog & first Dobe me and my fiance were so scoffed to add the new addition to our small family. We had done a whole lot of research on the breed, we knew all the pros and cons and and once we had him we learned the truth about these kind, loyal, comical, doofy, gentle giants called the doberman pinscher. Snoop was the last black/ rust Dobe left in the litter . There were 2 blues aside from him. He was soooo cute with his big brown puppy eyes and awkwardly enormous paws. He actually looked kind of pathetic sitting there with his big Marvin the martian duct tape helmet ear post contraption that his breeder put together. After weeks maybe months of research it was only 2 days prior to getting him that I learned their ears don't stand up on their own. We fell in love with his handsome little face, signed the papers and off we went.
He was a very energetic mischevious little puppy but also somehow mature for how age. He didn't ruin too many things in our house. I won't lie and say there wasn't times I thought of opening the front door and letting run out into the sunset because he was being so utterly annoying! That's part of raising anything though. He certainly challenged me more then any dog in my life. After a lot of hard work and dedication he finally started to mature into a one year old dog last novemeber. Since we have no kids yet he was our Pride & joy and our friends and family probably wanted to throw up everytime they beard his name because it was all we talked about.
We were in an apartment the first few months of his life and finally we got a house. He had his whole back yard to himself and one of my favorite things to do was to sit on my back steps and watch him whiz back & forth while chunks of grass fly out from under him as he galloped along like a horse. I don't think thereafter anything more graceful then a running doberman. I made sure i socalized him from a young age and he was a regular comedy act at our local off the leash dog park. People would get a kick out of him sticking his nose in the water bowls and blowing bubbles and then knocking them all over so no one else could have the water.
They are such and intellectual breed. Everything they do is carefully thought out and meticulously premeditated. Which is what brings me to the point of this whole story.
Dobermans need lots of attention which is why they are dubbed (velcro dogs). They get bored easily and it is up to you to keep them entertained and to stimulate their brains and fufill their purpose which is to serve & protect their owners. Doing so in July of this year I made it a point to come home everyday and spend at least a half hour in the backyard with my boy Snoop. Of all the millions of toys that we spent lots of money on his favorite was his $2.99 Petco frisbee better know to him as his fribee. He wasn't much of a fetcher though the game to him was to run after it catch it and then run away like a maniac tempting me to Chase him. I was determind our half hour play dates to teach him to catch it and bring it back to me and drop it. Everyday he was getting better and better. It was one week on a Thursday when I came home went in the back and picked up the frisbee, threw it and he went and for it. We did it a few times back and forth and then he got tired and didn't want to play anymore. I thought he was being his typical Dobe stubborn self so I let him off the hook that day and waited for Friday after work to play again. Friday came and as usual I went out in the back got the frisbee, tossed it into the yard but this time he just looked at me. I tried again and again but he just wasn't in the mood. I thought maybe he was sore from all the running he had done that week so I gave him a day or so to recoup. That weekend we had noticed that he was sort of walking funny so but we weren't sure why. I remembered that a few days prior during one of our catches he jumped really high and sort of twisted himself in the air and landed pretty hard on the ground. At the.time he didn't seem like he hurt himself but I thought I know when I strain a muscle or sprain something it usually hurts more in the days following. So we gave him about a week or so to heal before running him again.
As the week progressed we noticed that he was straining to sit and he wasn't getting better. We finally decided to make an appt with the vet. The vet felt his back legs and said it doesn't seem broken and he's not holding it up so he assured us it was probably a.sprain and they could take a few weeks to heal. He gave us a weeks worth of rimadyl and told us to keep him from running too much. As the week wore on he seemed to be getting better. We figured he would know if he were hurt and couldn't run and when he started running it was because he had healed. When the rimadyl ran out that week a few days went by and it seemed to be hurt all over again. This time we went to a different vet who told us the same thing and again we walked out with a weeks worth of rimadyl and the smart thing happened again. He was getting better and then a few days off the pills he was looking stiff again. We finally took the recommendation of our neightbor and went to their vet that they raved about.
I couldn't make it that day so my boyfriend took him and.finally we found out what was wrong with our boy. He had a partially torn ACL in his knee. Finally a diagnosis! We were told he had to be on strict lock down for at least 3 weeks. This time we followed the doctors orders very strictly. No running up & down steps. Leashed bathroom stops in the back yard, no exfitement, no jumping. With that 3 more weeks of rimadyl.
The first week it was easy to keep him calm because he wasn't really in the mood to run. He was laying around a lot. We also noticed during that past few weeks that he wasn't eating his food right away. We would put it down & he would leave it there then eat it sometime in the middle of the night.. We brought it up to all 3 of the vets and they all said that he was getting older and didn't need to eat as much and that he was probably more interested in our food but once he realised he wasn't getting it he would then eat his food. I had a dog before who did that so I didn't find it that strange.
By the end of week 2 to the beginning of week 3 Snoop was almost 100% back to his normal self & it was becoming harder to control him but we stuck to it. We were so happy & excited to show our vet how good he was doing. It was the best we had seen him doing in weeks.
It was only a few days until he had to be back when my fiance had noticed snoop vomited a few times & had the runs. Just to be safe he called the vet. The vet told him the meds could upset his stomach. He suggested giving him some pepsid and feeding him rice & chicken. He ate his food and a day or so later he was better until that Thurday night when we had noticed he was holding his leg up. We felt so defeated! We had tried so hard to keep him restricted. He was real lazy as well. We layer next to him and my fiance was inspecting the hind leg and noticed it was swollen as I noticed one of his front legs looked sort of swollen around his ankle. It was warm to the touch as well. That was when we realized something more then a partially torn ACL was going on and it was serious.
The next morning when we woke up his entire hind leg & front leg swelled up. We called the vet right away but he wasn't in. The first thing that came to mind was Lymes disease. It was all that made sense. My fiance called the Emergency Vet and described what had happened. Our follow up appointment vets appointment was the next morning. The ER vet told us some vital signs to check like his gums & stuff and assured us he would be ok until our regular vets appointmemt the next day. Needless to we didn't sleep that much that night. Looking back we should've just brought him in that night.
The next morning Snoop couldn't walk at all. He had to be carried into the vets office. It wasn't a good feeling at all. To make matters worse the look on our vets face was that of utter shock, confusement and worry. Right away he took him in the back for xrays. We can hear him discussing snoop in the back with the other vets and it didn't sound good. They were all confused by the cross section of swelling, the His front left and back right. The X-rays came back ok and the Dr said he couldn't see any organs swelling, no tumors, nothing! That was a relief so he also ordered an in-house blood test. He sent us out with a diruretic for the.swelling and some other meds. I took Snoop out to the car while my fiance took care of the paperwork. Suddenly he comes walking out and tells me our Dr wants us to go to the ER vet right away. It turned out Snoops albumin (a protein your liver produces ) was dangerously low & since the ER was better equipped for these kinds of things we should go there.
We arrived there and patiently waited in the lobby for 2 hours until we were finally able to see the Internal Medicine Doc. Finally we got called in. He did a routine inspection of Snoops body but didn't feel anything. Then he ordered an ultrasound of his abdomen. As far as he can see nothing looked strange except his kidneys seemed very slightly enlarged but he said it could be because had recently drank water. Then he did a Lymes test it came up negative. Then a urinalysis which showed snoop was losing the protien through his urine. We were.running out of tests until the.only thing left was a kidney biopsy but since my mom met us there and she had suffered kidney failure and happened to know a lot about it she asked the Dr. If his kidneys were failing why his creatnine & BUN levels were normal and asked.what a biopsy would tell us and.where to go from there. Basically he said all it would do is let us know if it were hereditary or not. Doggie dialysis really isn't an option for us. We left there $1500 poorer & with no answers & a bottle of doxycycline in case it was an infection causing this. He also prescribed Benazapril to lower his blood pressure to prevent anymore wear on the kidneys but his bp too was normal.
The first 2 days were devestaing and scary. I stayed by his side throughout the whole 2 days. He was still eating & drinking water. As the days went by he showed slight improvements every day. Here we are 2 weeks later. The swelling went down within 48 or so hours and he is able to.walk again but he still has major trouble getting up and sitting. His.appetite is very small. He is being very finicky as well. He finished up the doxy. 2 days ago and his appetite is returning. Other vets have looked at his tests and reports and they too are all puzzled.
We are just so upset and distraught. We just wish we had an answer. We want so badly for him to just get better. Had he been old we'd get it but he's not even 2 and he deserves a chance at life. We don't want to give up yet. We have read about every dog disease (we can probably be vets ourselves now) out there but none of it fits. We have formed our own theories. I think either he had a hereditary disease and the rimadyl (which is not good for your.dog at all) kicked it in. Or he does have.Lymes and since from what I've read the tests aren't so reliable especially if your.dog was being treated with anti-inflammatories prior to the test, or he has Rheumatoid arthritis or some other immune mediated disease. Either way I learned a few.lessons. they are always research your breeder, call references. If I knew then what I know now I would have thought twice before getting him. Also when a vet gives you a medication don't just assume its ok. Look it up and do your homework. Either way I just want my boy to live.
