Boxer Talk

I am owned by 3 boxers - a beautiful big white boy called Buster, a brindle girl called Hexe and a baby white boy called Jaxon.

Hey Boxers3! Welcome.

Sounds like you have a lovely family of dogs. Hexe is an interesting name where did that come from?

Hello Again,
Hows life treating you Paul, its been a while since I was on the site but it still looks good. I think the last time I posted was when Buster was coming up to his 12th Birthday and the good news is that he is closing in on his 14th which is in August, and Harvey is still trooting on behind at a youthful 11. The bad news is that buster is starting to suffer with his hips which can be expected at his age, and he is a bit thin at the back end now, unfortunatley he is also totally deaf now, but that does not seam to phase him, and although his hip gives up occasionally, he can still run around like a youth.
Harvey on the other hand is as strong as a bull and still crazy, a lot of people are suprised by their age, but I aalways say if you treat them right that will prolong their life, a good diet, excercise etc and especially TLC. I hope everything is fine at your end Paul,
All the Best
Phil

Hey Phil!

Nice to see you again and great news that your boys are doing so well. 14 is a great age.

I remember Jason at about 13 got the way you're describing and It's only latterly looking at photos I recognise how skinny he got. That being said he was happy and healthy and it wasn't age that got him.

Sounds to me that Buster has a good long while left yet.

Yeah things are pretty good on this end. Rosie does have a lot of problems though. She's 10 now but at the beginning of the year she was diagnosed as having complete heart block. I forget the exact term.

It's not as it might sound she has a healthy heart but something is wrong with the electrical signals not working. So there is no synchronisation between atrium and ventricles.

The upshot of which is she has a very slow heart rate and had fainted a couple of times. Couldn't exercise.

If she was younger we would have had a pace maker put in but instead we've tried some medication which has made her heart beat faster. So far it's worked a treat.

She's much more able and seems to enjoy life. So it's great.

Only thing is she has to go on short steady walks. Can't go to far. Though in part that is due to her back legs which have bad arthritis. Also due to an injury when she was younger.

So I worry about her and it's possible she could just drop dead one day due to this heart issue apparently.

Like I say though she seems happy and full of life so yeah, things aren't as bad as all that sounds.

As for this place I think it looks just like it has for about 7 years. Apart from a few tweaks.

Give Buster and Harvey a hug for me!

Paul

Hello Paul,
Buster suffers from that same heart condition, which I believe is a common problem within the boxer community. I had him to the vet a while back who explained the problem, and he did tell me to keep the excercise down to a minimum and try not to over excite him. Over excite him, is he kidding I thought, how do you prevent it lol.
Anyway, he put him on a course of medication which seemed to increase the freaquency of the fainting and he seemed to be doped up all the time. This went on for weeks, so we stopped the medication, the real Buster returned and the fainting gradually began to occur less and less, and now it happens very rarely.
One time when he was on the medication, My wife returned from work, and as she opened the door, Buster, who was at the top of the stairs, jumped up to quickly, fainted and tumbled down the full length of the stairs. It frightened the life out the wife, but fortunately no damage was done and once he came round he was ok although a little confused I would imagine.
It is a horrible thing to witness when they do it, and I have a friend around the corner who's Boxer had the same thing and he collapsed and died in the street which devastated him.
Harvey has'nt shown any signs that he suffers from it so far, so fingers crossed he would have been spared the problem.
Nice to correspond again Paul and I will keep in touch

Phil

Wow that sounds bad Phil. We were lucky she never had regular fainting. It only happened twice and she was never injured. Probably scared me more than her.

Rosie's experience was almost the opposite of Buster's. Medication has really helped her.

The first time she fainted she had been going crazy on a walk and it scared the proverbial out of me. Nothing showed up when I took her to the vets though that first time. Heart seemed fine.

She'd been having difficulty on walks for a long while but I put it down to her back legs giving her problems over distance.

However by the time she had fainted again some months later. It was just getting up from her basket that had caused it, it seemed. At this point she was in big trouble. On walks you'd go a few paces then have to wait for her to catch up.

The medication she's taking (I think it's called Corvental but I'd need to check.) is for breathing problems if I recall correctly but a side effect is increased heart rate. Which obviously is what we wanted.

So far it's been great. It really was a night and day difference for her.

Of course I don't know what medication Buster was on but I remember being told it wasn't certain it would work and that it could become less effective over time. So it may just be luck Rosie's helped her.

Hello Again,
Well he's made it. He is the ripe old age of 14 today. Lol. Looks the same as yesterday though, no change in that squashed up face,he is still the picture of happiness lol, you know what I mean
Speak to you soon Paul

Happy Birthday Buster!

Sorry it's a bit belated. It's a great age to reach especially since he's in such good nick.

Very pleased for you and yours Phil!