Breed: German Shorthaired Pointer
Age: 7 yrs
Owned & Adored by: Candis Amasalian
Titles:
I first saw Jersey at a demo my old flyball team was doing. She was up for adoption . I ended up convincing Kevin we needed another solid liver GSP. So we went and got her. Little did I know what I got myself into. After several days of her hacking and breathing awful we took Jersey to the vet. The first vet prescribed her medicine and said she had kennel cough. After a week of no change, we went back. The second vet saw her and said she had some type of obstruction in her throat, so we left her at the vet so he could do XRAYS. During the process he also tried to stick a scope down her throat. When we returned to pick her up, we received some awful news. The vet could not get the scope down her throat, as the hole was almost closed up. At this time her breathing was so loud and heavy because she was not able to get any air. The vet told us there was a procedure he could do down her throat, but he had never done it before, was not comfortable and was pretty sure she would not make it anyways. WOW!
So after calling all my friends in hope someone would have answers, one of them contacted Colorado University. At that time they recommended Dr. Nathan at Abby Vet in Fresno. ( Lucky for me I lived close to there). So we contacted him and immediately got Jersey in. Dr. Nathan was pretty sure that Jersey had previously been de-barked. Except when they debarked her they did it a very ruckus way by ripping out her cords. The vet wanted to try and go down her throat and clean up her airways first. If that did not work he said he would have to do a very intensive procedure of going through her throat and suturing up the vocal cords, as well as cleaning out the scar tissue that was obviously obstructing her breathing.
Unfortunatly the first procedure did not work and after a few days Jersey was back to breathing heavy. So she went in for her major procedure. The vet said the amount of black thick scar tissue he removed was the most he has ever seen. She had to have over 15 staples and 40 stitches inside and out. After a month of recovery Jersey was a whole new dog. We are so pleased with her temperment and although she is a complete wild thing, her off switch is really good at night.
Jersey, Italy, Spooky