The puppies had an eight week check-up when they were, of course, eight weeks. Sapphire had a murmur that was not present five days before when he was seen for his growing pains.
No big deal — puppies get benign murmurs as they grow. But how convenient — the puppies were already scheduled to have both eyes and hearts screened the very next day by specialists at WestVet.
Bully stick in the holder — safety first!
The cardiologist heard Sapphire’s murmur — the other three puppies got a clean bill of cardiac health.
Sapphire was always going to stay until he was 10+ weeks and that was also quite convenient because it allowed time for a follow-up appointment. The plan for that appointment was that if Sapphire still had the murmur, the cardiologist would do an echocardiogram at that same time. If no murmur — no echo.
Yesterday was the day.
I still will not leave the puppies home alone and so I packed up Sapphire and Star Garnet and off we went.
The tech informed me that the appointment had been incorrectly booked and blah blah blah and they could take a quick listen but if he still had the murmur, they would have to schedule the echo in the future and it would cost twice as much as they said it would and yada yada yada.
Anyone who knows me likely knows how THAT went down.
Sapphire still had the murmur. They would do the echo at the end of the day.
I took the puppies home for a bit before packing them up again — this time with Capella as being left home for that first appointment did not sit well with her — and off we went.
Capella needs a grooming!
I wish the echo had shown a structurally normal heart — it did not.
Sapphire has a very, very rare heart defect called Double Chambered Right Ventricle; there is one other dog in Berner-Garde listed with a similar diagnosis. Double Chambered Right Ventricle is a congenital heart defect, meaning that he was born with it. We do not know why or how this happened.
There is no fault or blame in this diagnosis. No need to spin elaborate stories or excuses. No need to create a crazy narrative that suggests a known cause for something that is clearly random bad 💩 with unknown etiology.
It is, however, normal and understandable that we want a causal explanation because that helps us have the illusion of safety. If I know how or why the bad thing happened, I will just avoid doing that in the future and my safety is assured — easy peasy!
But the truth is that sometimes — often — we cannot know why a bad thing happened. All we can know is that it happened, and our Little Soldiers need to be dispatched to the “Now What?” part of things.
What we have is a beautiful puppy with a heart defect who is still as perfect and wonderful as all the other imperfect dogs and humans on this planet.
💙
His new family still wants him, and they are the perfect match for what he needs. He will be evaluated at a leading veterinary teaching hospital but quality of life will, of course, dictate their decisions on behalf of Sapphire.
I was prepared to keep Sapphire with us but I know his new people will be thoughtful, kind, loving stewards of this puppy’s lifetime — however long or short that lifetime turns out to be. In fact, they are the only people I would let have this puppy.
And so, just in case the Take Home Lessons are not clear:
Breeding dogs well is hard on the heart in so many ways.
There are no perfect dogs.
Random bad 💩 happens.
Persistence and Politeness are effective.
Knowing matters; ignorance is not bliss — it is just ignorant.
Nothing terrible happens when we are transparent and honest about #2 and #3.
Life is not fair.
And so I will send the documentation to my favorite Berner-Garde Operator to update BG Dog ID #229623 — and then just keep doing the next right thing for this precious Gem 💎💙