The Bionic Dog Comes Home

Over Christmas holiday we found out Atilla, our black 7 year old Chow Chow has a heart problem. The poor dog was lethargic, quiet, completely listless and was panting/breathing hard all the time. So off to the vet we went to get the dog over his "cold". The vets had a different idea though.........the veterinarians said he has a 3rd degree heart block which means his brain does not send the right signals to his heart to make it beat at the proper rate. His heart rate was in the 40's around Christmas and would not speed up when his activity changed. The vets thought he probably had the heart problem most of his life and that we would have to watch his activity.

Since that time he got better, he got worse and better again but last week, he really got worse. Upon checking his pulse it was down to 28 beats per minute... note the normal resting heart rate for a dog is in the 70 beats per minute range.

We went back to the clinic on Monday (Feb 5th) and met the owner vet of our clinic, Dr Scharg. He checked Atilla over and said you have two choices, take your dog in for a pace maker or Atilla would die. Wow.....both options were scary. He referred us to UC-Davis Veterinary clinic.... which he said would be cheaper than a private veterinarian that does pace makers.


As soon as we got home we called UC Davis, our vet had already called and they got us in on Wednesday for a preliminary check. The vets reviewed our previous exams, did their own tests and said he needs a pace maker and they could do it tomorrow (Thursday).

Today (Friday) we drove to Davis and picked up our new bionic dog with his own little pace maker. He looks like a mess but he is not panting anymore and could even breath with his mouth closed. Amazing what a regular heart beat can do. Someday the hair on the right side of his body and his legs will grow back and he'll look like a normal dog again. Maybe even the cut on his shoulder where the pace maker is embedded will heal and no one will even know the bionic dog is on the loose.

If you cannot tell, we're now broke but happy as all that he's healthy and will be in our lives for many more years!!!