On October 24, 2008 my husband and I adopted a 6 year old boxer named Zeus from the Animal Humane Society in Woodbury, MN. After sharing many stories with family and friends, I thought that a blog would be the best way to share updates with people we know, and people we don’t know! Here is a picture of Zeus the first night that he came home.
Zeus is a sweet, gentle and sensitive dog. Our first week went well and then we encountered a couple of challenges. First, Zeus had several scary episodes where he lost consciousness and had seizures. After an emergency vet visit, Zeus was diagnosed with a ventricular heart arrhythmia. His heart was beating uncontrollably fast and beating prematurely causing a lack of oxygen to the brain and subsequently, seizures. Thanks to the great vets at Gehrman Animal Hospital, we have him on two medications and his condition has improved dramatically! We are going for weekly EKG’s to track his improvement and response to the medications. Apparently, this is a common issue in the boxer breed and can be hard to detect, which is why it was probably not picked up on at the Humane Society examination.
Zeus has also developed some separation anxiety. I work from home and he has become very attached. After he unlocked the apartment door twice when left home alone and several long episdoes of crying and barking, we have enlisted help! I ordered several books and with the support of the Humane Society, made an appointment with an animal behaviorist in December.
We are committed to helping Zeus become a happy, healthy, well-adjusted dog and I will keep you posted on our journey. He has brought an incredible amout of joy into our lives in a very short amount of time!
Zeus is a sweet, gentle and sensitive dog. Our first week went well and then we encountered a couple of challenges. First, Zeus had several scary episodes where he lost consciousness and had seizures. After an emergency vet visit, Zeus was diagnosed with a ventricular heart arrhythmia. His heart was beating uncontrollably fast and beating prematurely causing a lack of oxygen to the brain and subsequently, seizures. Thanks to the great vets at Gehrman Animal Hospital, we have him on two medications and his condition has improved dramatically! We are going for weekly EKG’s to track his improvement and response to the medications. Apparently, this is a common issue in the boxer breed and can be hard to detect, which is why it was probably not picked up on at the Humane Society examination.
Zeus has also developed some separation anxiety. I work from home and he has become very attached. After he unlocked the apartment door twice when left home alone and several long episdoes of crying and barking, we have enlisted help! I ordered several books and with the support of the Humane Society, made an appointment with an animal behaviorist in December.
We are committed to helping Zeus become a happy, healthy, well-adjusted dog and I will keep you posted on our journey. He has brought an incredible amout of joy into our lives in a very short amount of time!
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