Apollo has heart problems...

[Belinda]

My husband and I can understand what you're going through, but there is plenty of hope! Our 5 yr. old boxer, Racer, collapsed while sprinting and scared us to death. (especially since we had lost our first boxer at only 6 due to sub-aortic stenonis). After giving Racer an ECG, a 24-hr. halter monitor test, and an echocardiogram, he was diagnosed with a highly arythmic heart - his heart beats were off the chart! However, after putting Racer on a prescription for Sota, his heart beat returned to normal within a couple weeks!!! The vet said his heart sounded great as did his pulse. The echocardiogram showed no damage to his heart muscle at this time. We were so lucky to catch it early as we hope your are as well. His heart beat has been normal in the two follow-up ECG's he has had since being on Sota, but the big test will be his follow-up 24-hour halter monitor test coming up in the next few weeks.

We'll keep Apollo in our prayers. Good luck & keep the board posted on his progress!

 

[Tyler&Haley]

Similar story, happy ending so far...

Dear Apollo's Mom,
My name is Jill and I have a boxer named Tyler. He turns ten years old this month. He was diagnosed with Aortic Stenosis when he was 2 years old. He has been a-symptomatic his whole life. Last week I returned from a trip to dallas and he did not meet me at the door. I asked my husband where he was and he said Tyler was resting. I thought that was odd. For ten years Tyler has met me at the door. My husband said he had a seizure type thing earlier but had snapped out of it. This wasn't entirely unusual, about three times in his life he has fainted basically but always snaps right out of it. So I went looking for him and he was panting hard and within 15 minutes he collapsed right in front of my eyes. I screamed for my husband and he came running. He could not beleive what he was seeing and neither could I. Thank goodness our two legged daughter was down for her nap. Poor Tyler collapsed and stopped breathing. I would swear he died at that moment. His tongue was hanging out, he was not breathing and I could feel no heartbeat. I was crying and bent down to kiss his little head and tell him I loved him and suddenly he gasped and jerked his head up. My husband and I put him on a beach towel and carried him to the car. He is heavy! He weighs 82 pounds. He is all muscle! Anyway we threw him in the car and I drove like a nut to the local emergency room. They said he was in ventricular tachycardia... his heart beat was over 200 beats per min and they said they were not qualified to help him. They recomended that I take him to the Texas A&M vet school in College Station about an hour and a half from here. So we put him back in the car, I drove home to get my luggage that I hadn't even unpacked from my trip, my brother met me and we got back in the car to drive to A&M. I thought I might be spending the night up there so I wanted to get my stuff and tell my husband what was happening. My husband had to stay home with our daughter. Tyler had another episode in the driveway where he basically died again. I pushed at him and yelled at him and he gasped back once again. We finally arrived at A&M at 9PM and they rushed him back to ICU. He stayed there for three days. cont...

 

[Tyler&Haley]

continued...

cont.... I must say that they are miracle vets up there. They said that for all practical purposes Tyler did die twice. I don't think they had much hope for him, but after a bunch of test and a bunch of medication and nearly $3000, Tyler got to come back home and I swear he is acting better than he did before he collapsed. He is taking Sotolal 2x a day and is acting amazingly well. I am so happy just to have some more time with him. I thought those days were over. Tyler still jumps on the bed, goes up and down the stairs, plays with his toys and protects his dog bowl from our other dog. It was music to my ears to hear them roughhouse the other day. He is acting perky and does his kidney bean dance. The vet says she doesn't know when he could have another fatal arhythmia, it could be in 15 minutes or in two years... but just to enjoy the time we have with him and try to have him take it easy. I just wanted to let you know that there can be good results from this terrible problem boxers seem to have sometimes. As long as Tyler is willing to fight his way back to me, I'll fight for him. Good luck with Apollo and I wish you the best.

 

[Bark]

Heart problems

Hi, I just wanted to tell you we are thinking of Apollo!! We too had a boxer who was diagnosed with boxer cardiomyopathy. She stayed alive on 5 human meds every day of her life for 3 and 1/2 years. She had her first attack at 7 and several after that before her final in 2002. She lived a normal happy life except we would not let her play with any other dogs. Unfortunately that is what excited her the most. The Vet has always told me that they usually don't detect this in a young boxer. Good luck with Apollo and keep us posted. The Liles Family

 

[lorioniris]

In our prayers.

Lori

 

[Belinda]

One more thing, my husband reminded me that when we learned about Racer's arythmic heart, we also learned he had a thyroid problem, so he's also on medication for his thyroid (medication has corrected this). We have also talked with other boxer owners who have said there seems to be some connection - when a boxer has a heart problem, he/she typically has a thyroid problem. Please make sure your vet tests for this as well. Please keep the board posted as to Apollo's progress. Good luck.

 

[sunnyboxer]

Sunny and I are sending many healing vibes to you guys. Hang in there everything will be fine...

Sue & Sunny

 

[momstaxi]

I am so sorry to hear about your baby. hoping they figure it out soon and that it is easy to treat and he'll be back home very soon. Sending healing vibes.
michele

 

[rygolf25]

Apollo's home with us!!! (long)

Thank you everyone for your kind words and well wishes! This weekend was truly one of the worst and best I've ever experienced. We started down to Manhattan, KS (about 2.5 hours) on Saturday around noon. About 45 minutes into our trip, the doctor called and said that Apollo was beginning to show signs of heart failure and that the sotolal and digoxin weren't working. We would talk about our options when we got there. Needless to say, the rest of the drive was a somber one. We got there and saw him and he was not quite himself. For the first time, Apollo didn't seem like Apollo. We could tell he felt sick. That meant it was time to make a decision. The next step involved one of two treatments, one was a more potent drug that could take up to 5 days to take effect but could work. The other was to do cardio-aversion. This is where they shock (defib) the dog at the proper time on the ecg to try and get his heartbeat/rate back to normal levels. Obviously, the main downside of this was the level of risk. He could be shocked and his heart could stop and not start again. It was probably the toughest decision my wife or I have ever made. We decided to do the cardio-aversion so he would either be much better or not suffering anymore :-{

That 20 minutes or so seemed like FOREVER! The doc then came out and told us that it worked and his beat was down to about 120! Great news! They wanted to monitor him overnight but we would get to bring him home the next day if there weren't any complications!!!!! YYYYYAAAAAEEEEHHHH We got him home yesterday and with the exception of still being on 4 meds (sotolal, digoxin, one other and a diaretic) and us having to watch his water consumption, he's feeling a ton better! His heartrate has been a sustained 90 - 110 over the past two days and he's breathing normally!!! Yesterday was truly one of the best days I've had since my wedding!!! He is our first dog and there wasn't any way we were going to let him go without a fight. Apparantly, he had the same idea. He put up the fight of his life and so far has won! There also is no evidence of cardiomyopathy. They are not sure what brought this on but we will probably find that out within the next couple of months. That is also good news.

Just like others have said, there is no telling if he will go into arrythmia again but if so, we just take him back to K-State. If there is no underlying heart damage or disease, he should be able to live a normal life. If there is damage or disease, who knows. We just cherish all of the time we have left!!! We love our little man and are so happy to have him back with us! We owe everything to doctors Heaney, Sweet and Bulmer at Kansas State Vet School...

Thank you again everyone for all of your support. It has helped a ton!
Ryan

 

[Holden's Mom]

Woo Hoo!

So happy to hear Apollo is doing well. I checked your gallery and both Apollo and his sister are real lookers. Keep us posted on Apollo's progress and the cause of this condition.

Best of luck and thank goodness for vet schools.

Pam and Pete