So tomorrow my baby is going to her 3rd vet visit. She’s growing fast and learning tons. I’m really behind on updates and photos.. but just to get back in the swing of things, here’s a bunch of photos.

It was a good weekend both in socializing with people and with other dogs. My friend Troy came over with his two swissies. Lots of fun ensued…

This is what we had last night.

Around 3pm Zen started straining while trying to pee with very little output. This constant piddling with nothing coming out progressively got worse until 9pm at night when we decided to take her in to the Emergency vet because we were so worked up about it. Turns out she does have a UTI and they gave her antibiotics for it.

I had written our breeder before we had made the decision but as she is on east coast time.. she didn’t get it right away. By the time we made the decision to go it was way too late to call. We called her this morning and it was obvious this happens all the time and there were more holistic methods that could have been applied. We feel pretty stupid. But ah well. We learned.

Good news is, she’s doing MUCH better crating up. Here’s some photos:

I haven’t posted for awhile. A few weeks ago, I had two breeders narrowed down and we were in this horrible position where I really liked the breeder in one set, but I had some questions about one of the dogs’ health history. And the other, where I really liked the dogs but it seemed painfully obvious that the breeder had more important things to do than talk to me.

During this period, I was asking a LOT of questions about idiopathic epilepsy, otherwise known as genetic epilepsy. Idiopathic epilepsy occurs anywhere from 0.5 to 5.7% in all dog breeds, but in Swissies it occurs at a higher rate of 6 to 14%. This is not the most prevalent of the health problems that befall Swissies, but it the one that has everyone sweating and touchy. The reason for this is simple: the swissy population has a small gene pool. Epi usually doesn’t present itself until the dogs are older (3 or 5 years seems to be standard when it does occur) and is well past the time breeders start breeding their dogs. Because of the small gene pool, it is suspected that no lines in America are free from Epi and I’ve been told that Swissies in Europe have even more of an occurrence of the disease. Currently there is a great research project headed up by the University of Missouri, College of Veterinary Medicine, that is attempting to map the genes responsibly for the disease. But they seem to be years out from identifying a marker or even discovering what the mode of inheritance is.

Its a difficult subject to bring up with a swissy breeder. Almost all of them tout that people who want to get a Swissy should ask questions about it and if they don’t like the practices of the breeder, they should walk away. But they certainly don’t make it easy for us PPB’s to research it. There is no public data base mapping the lines for us to research. While almost all will talk about it in general terms, no one wants to talk about which dogs, when, and how often. The whole subject seems to be scarred with scandal, rumor and laced with pointing fingers and public witch hunts. More than once, I felt like I had entered a mine field when talking about this subject, but there was no other way around it.

Ah yes. What would we do without our drama. I understand there is pride and ego wrapped up in this, not to mention standing and history. Every breeder I talked to was practically bursting out of their sides with love and pride for their dogs. Every single one believes they are doing right by their breeding program. But there does seem to be a “not in my backyard” attitude with this issue and a fair bit of competition between them. I can’t help feeling that by NOT working together in a collaborative fashion they are just hurting the breed. It seems logical to me to try and map which lines should refrain from breeding, and if that means you stop breeding your prize line, so be it. But the argument is.. if they did that, they wouldn’t have anyone to breed to and since there is no genetic marker, its just elaborate guess work what is causing it.

So what does this mean for yours truly and any potential Swissy buyers? It means, that if you take on a swissy.. you need to go in with eyes wide open to the idea that YOUR dog might seize some day. Know the symptoms so you know what to do and what you are in for.

With the big tsunami and earthquake of Japan and organizations asking left and right to give.. this may seem like a small need in comparison. But our pets mean the world to each and every one of us and I just heard something recently that made me compelled to dig into my pocketbook yet again and help.

I’ve been hanging out on this forum called Love of the Dog and there is a mighty fine lady on it who runs the New York St. Benard Rescue. This is a woman who works tiresomely for these big dogs and saving their lives.. and yet her own dog Stoli went into the hospital yesterday due to BLOAT. For those of you who may not know, bloat kills far too many big dogs a year. He needs surgery to survive, she is unable to pay for this lifesaving emergency surgery and fears she may have to put Stoli down. Brian and I are signing up for a big dog and someday our dog may experience Bloat..so this is something that hits home. Please, if you can…. make a donation; even if it is just 10$. It can make the difference between someone losing their pet or saving its life and I hate to see someone who works so hard for others not be able to do the same for her self.

I can’t use the cool widget on my blog, but if you can donate a few bucks to help out a good lady, GO HERE.