Amelia gets a heart

Corbin here to tell you about my Amelia.

 

 

The momma took over the blog last week to tell you how our family is fighting not to keep Amelia forever.  She also mentioned that Amelia was going to see my Dr. Mike for a urinary issue.  Amelia "leaks" urine once in a while, and the momma wanted to get it checked out.  She also wanted my Dr. Mike to meet Amelia.  Well, Dr. Mike loved her -who wouldn't?!  He gave her a medication to clear up a bladder infection and another medication to help with the leaks.  Dr. Mike also gave Amelia a general exam.

 

 

Dr. Mike heard a very, very loud murmur in Amelia's heart.  She was quite nervous being at the vets office, but the momma could see on Dr. Mike's face that this was a concern.  Her little heart was practically beating out of her chest, and Dr. Mike wanted to do some further testing, since he couldn't really put his finger on it from just listening.  So, the momma made an appointment with the cardiologist this past Monday for a heart ultrasound.

 

 

When Monday morning came, I ate my breakfast in my frozen Kong to keep me from missing Amelia, and off she went in the car.  She pancakes at the vets office, so the momma has to carry her in.  Everyone there always gets a kick out of the momma carrying a 50lb pit bull around.  Dr. Farrell, the cardiologist, really liked Amelia.  He took her for the day and told the momma he would call when the ultrasound was over and he had the results to discuss with her.  The momma left and Amelia was carried around by the vet techs -hehe.

 

 

Around 12:30pm, the momma received a phone call, but it wasn't from Dr. Farrell, instead it was from someone else at the vets asking if 5pm was an okay time for the momma to meet with Dr. Farrell and go over the results.  The momma knew this wasn't good and wasn't quite sure how she was going to make it until 5pm without exploding.

 

 

So, at 5pm, the momma waited at the vets for Dr. Farrell to come in.  While she was waiting, she found out that the Corbin's favorite vet tech is leaving and Monday was her last day!  I was very upset about this when the momma told me.  You see, Jamie, my favorite vet tech, stays with me and comforts me when I have to stay at the vets for the day for testing.  I really love her and I don't mind leaving the momma to go with her.  So, I guess I'm going to have to find a new girlfriend for my testing day vet visits.

 

 

Okay, back to Amelia.  Dr. Farrell came in and chatted with the momma.  He showed her diagrams and explained exactly what was wrong with Amelia's heart.  She has Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.  That means, the walls of her heart have become thickened, which makes it difficult for her little heart to pump the blood through.  He said it was a good thing we caught it now, because we're still able to contain it.  Had we waited about 6 months or so to catch this, Amelia's little heart could have just stopped beating one day.  Amelia started on her new bata blocker heart medications.  The bata blockers should help slow her heart down.  A dog her size and in as good of shape as she is, should have a heart rate of 80 beats per minute.  Little Amelia's heart rate was 160 beats per minute.

 

 

So, Amelia gets a heart.  Next to Amelia's beautiful face on Petfinder, you'll find a little green heart, indicating Amelia has special needs.  She'll need to be on bata blockers for the rest of her life -which only cost $6 a month, so that's good.  She'll also need a follow up heart ultrasound in 6 months to make sure the medication is working and the heart disease isn't progressing.  If the medication is working correctly and we keep Amelia fit and stable at a healthy weight, she should be able to live out her entire life with no real adverse problems stemming from her heart disease.  We hope people won't see this as a negative and dismiss her from their adoption prospects.