Kaycee

Rainbow Bridge, June 2004

October 2003:

The Westie from Out Westie!

We live out in the Southwest in New Mexico where the popular breeds of dogs are medium to large such as chows, rottweilers, labs, Pitbulls, and shepherd mixes. Currently, we own a yellow lab and a Cairn terrier. My Cairn did not come from New Mexico as there are no breeders in this state. I love the breed and have really enjoyed the smaller terrier dog for many reasons. But in this part of the country, there are very few of these types of dogs available. The availability of Westies and Cairns are few and far in between. 

I decided I wanted a rescued dog this time, either another Cairn or a Westie. I fell for the Westie breed the first time I saw one at the lighting store where I shop here in town. The owners have one that goes to the shop with them, and she was the cutest thing I ever saw. I knew one day I would have one.

So, I discover Petfinder.com on the Internet and start searching for my new dog. Mind you my husband told me he would leave me if I got another one. In addition to the two other dogs, we have a Bearded Dragon lizard, two goldfish, and three children. Every day I searched the Internet to find my “new” dog. This search started in late June of this year and continued through September.

And then one day there was “Glenda” as she appeared on Petfinder.com. She was located in another state, a rescued two-year-old female who had been a puppy mill-breeding dog. “Glenda” was beautiful and I said to myself, this is the one! I’ve got to have her!

So I contacted the rescue group which had her and told them I really wanted to adopt “Glenda” and the adoption process began. I made arrangements to fly from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Kansas City, Missouri, to pick up “Glenda”. Oh, by the way, neither my family nor I liked the name “Glenda” for her, so decided we were going to change her name to Kaycee, short for Kansas City.

I took my twelve-year-old daughter on this trip to get Kaycee as I wanted company and I thought it would be good for mom and daughter to share some time together. We got into Kansas City late on Friday, September 19, 2003, and were met at the hotel by Kaycee’s foster mom and Kaycee. Kaycee had been previously been checked out by a vet, spayed, and was also found to have a mild heart murmur, but the vet indicated it wasn’t anything we should worry about. Kaycee was also very thin, weighing only twelve pounds, but I didn’t think anything of it since I knew she came from a puppy mill and knew about the deplorable conditions in those places. 

We flew Kaycee home the next day via two plane trips through Dallas. She was quiet as a bug the whole way home, not a peep on the plane. Actually, Kaycee is very quiet most of the time and very sweet. She has had to make so many adjustments to be a “pet” for the first time in her life. Kaycee gets spooked easily by noises and was not housebroken when I brought her home, but she has made significant improvements. First, she had to learn her name. I know these puppy mills don’t name their animals, and it was obvious that Kaycee didn’t respond to any name yet.

I took Kaycee to my vet for her first checkup and my vet immediately detected a “significant” heart murmur. She recommended we do an x-ray of her chest, which we did, and it revealed an enlarged heart. My vet told me the only way to tell what is going on is to have an ultrasound done on her heart, and she would have to go to this other clinic where the people who do it come down from Santa Fe once a week. They work for a Cardiologist Vet doctor who does consult only. In the meantime, I take Kaycee home feeling very saddened by what is happening. 

I take Kaycee for her ultrasound and find out she has problems with the right side of her heart. There is a thickening of the valve, which is not allowing enough blood to go to her lungs to get oxygenated. There are two defects within her heart; the report comes back telling me she has Pulmonic Stenosis and tricuspid valve regurgitation. The changes are severe according to the medical report. This is a congenital heart defect which not only does she have, but was passed on to all the puppies she gave birth to at the puppy mill. What a disgrace. The breeders should have never allowed Kaycee to have puppies. But I think they knew she had heart problems and that is why they “retired” her. You can tell she gets tired easily and pants a lot when resting whereas my other two dogs don’t.

The medical recommendation for Kaycee is surgery and, either she will need balloon valvuloplasty (similar to angioplasty in humans), or if she has another type of pulmonary stenosis then it could be heart surgery where they do the incision in her chest. 

The latter is harder on the dog than the balloon procedure, but both procedures will take about 4-5 hours in surgery. If she doesn’t receive the surgery, she will develop right-sided heart failure. After discussing everything with my vet, we felt that she is a good candidate for the surgery. The doctors have told me that this will certainly be an improvement in her life and allow her more years on this earth than if she doesn’t have the help. I felt that Kaycee’s first two years were so awful that she deserves a chance at living a nice, quiet, happy life at home with us and her sister and brother and family she now has.

The main obstacle in this whole situation is the fact that there is not a single veterinary doctor/surgeon in New Mexico who can perform this specialized surgery. The closest place that can do this surgery is in Fort Collins, Colorado, at Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital. They have a special cardiac unit with cardiology specialists in small animal care and they have the expertise and state of the art facility to do heart surgery. 

Thanks to the caring, generous people and their donors at WestieMed, Kaycee will be able to have her surgery. I just could not afford this kind of expense (plus the cost of traveling) to Colorado for 4 days was making things tough on me. WestieMed is a wonderful group of people and I hope to meet some of them one day soon to thank them. 

So, as of today (October 29, 2003), I have made my plane reservation for next Tuesday, November 4th to fly Kaycee and myself up to Denver and drive about an hour north to Fort Collins (it’s supposed to snow while I’m there!) for the surgery. On Tuesday, November 4th, Kaycee has her exam with the surgeon and pre-surgery tests, and on Wednesday, November 5th is her surgery. We won’t know which procedure the doctors will do on Kaycee until they examine her. I will stay up there through Friday just in case they have to do the “heart” surgery since that requires Kaycee to spend an extra day in the hospital for recuperating. Then we will fly home. The following week on November 14th, I will have surgery on my broken foot (which was delayed to take care of Kaycee’s needs), and Kaycee and I will be recuperating together, watching movies, lying around the house doing very little. 

We will keep you posted. Donna

Update, November 6, 2003:

I went to see Kaycee today at the hospital and she is doing wonderfully. I had her on my lap for about one and a half hours. She had to be bandaged all around her body since the incision is in her lower groin and was leaking blood earlier last night. But that has stopped and she has a large hematoma there so it doesn’t look pretty but the blood and its nutrients will be reabsorbed into her body as I was told. She has been eating and is not messing with the incision (yet) and is alert and the good news I was told is that her abdomen is no longer distended from fluid!!! The fluid is gone so the doctors believe that they think they did more to improve her situation than previously thought. This is a good sign since that fluid was at a moderate level when we got here and was the beginning of congestive heart failure. I am really happy that she is such a trooper and such a good girl. Kaycee has really meant a lot to the fourth-year medical student who has been caring for her and she was in the surgery with Kaycee too. Even the women at the hotel Sleep Inn have been overwhelmed by Kaycee, they just love her. Anyway, she is staying tonite at the hospital, and we go home tomorrow. I get her early in the morning. She will be on anti-inflammatory and blood pressure meds. Blood pressure meds for a long time. Gotta go will talk later

Hugs to all Donna

Update, November 7, 2003:

Pictured to the right is Donna and Kaycee checking out of the hospital and heading home!

Update, November 13, 2003:

Kaycee woke up this morning with labored breathing and her color pale and not looking well. I gave her her medicine (atenolol which is for blood pressure). I just took her to the vet and they have her there while they do some blood tests and chest x-ray. She was doing wonderfully through yesterday so this is a surprise. The vet said she had a little fluid in her abdomen and they are checking for internal bleeding either around her heart, the valve area, or elsewhere. I will let you know as soon as I find out from her doctor.

Update, November 14, 2003: 

Kaycee is staying in the hospital. I took her to the vets this morning and had to take her to a larger hospital so they could do an ultrasound on her heart. I had to take her there with an IV in her leg to keep the fluids going in her. The hospital Vet Dr is trying to get hold of Dr. Bright (Kaycee’s surgeon in CO) because it is hard to tell what is happening with her. Her heart for some reason is enlarged more and she had very labored breathing and turning pale today. It isn’t fluid around her heart as they first thought. It might be a blood clot that got loose but this is hard to tell. This was thought by the other cardiologist specialist in Colorado that spoke to the Vet here. They did another ultrasound on Kaycee today. In the meantime, she has been put into an oxygenated cage to give her more oxygen. They did an EKG on her and that was normal. It is perplexing as to what is happening but if it is a blood clot then it could be bad. They are going to give her some low dose heparin injections for potential blood clots but they have to be very careful as it causes bleeding so they are being very cautious. Kaycee is stable for now. I have to go back to the hospital tonite to give them her medicine (Atenolol). I will certainly know more about what is wrong by tomorrow when Dr.Bright gets in touch with the Dr here in Albuquerque. She will most definitely want to know what is going on with Kaycee and have some ideas. I thought Kaycee was over the hump but apparently not.

Update, November 15, 2003:

Kaycee is still in the hospital. It is Saturday and she is making some improvement but not quite out of the woods yet. But it looks better than yesterday morning. I got the call from the vet at the hospital here right before I had my surgery and she had turned blue in the oxygen cage and had labored breathing. That was yesterday morning. Since then, The vet here in Albq spoke with Dr. Bright/Colorado yesterday and they seem to agree that a blood clot did get loose in Kaycee and went into her lungs. Dr. Bright said she has never had a patient that this has happened to and she has done many of these operations and is an expert at the balloon valvuloplasty procedure so she would know. This is very unusual. But the good thing is since yesterday Kaycee has been holding steady and hasn’t had any setbacks since yesterday morning. And she is eating well, some color improvement since yesterday so I keep praying she beats this. The vet will call me tonite with another update since late this afternoon. They will be increasing the Heparin medication for blood clots as well.

Update, November 18, 2003:

Kaycee came home tonight finally after 6 days n the hospital. She looks much better and is taking it very very easy. I have to keep her calm and not very active for a while. She is getting Heparin injections three times daily for a few days along with taking Warfarin tablet (half a day) and half baby aspirin per day along with her atenolol two times a day. Dr. Bright said that until the area they did surgery on in the arteries (where they had to use three different size balloons) heals in about 3-4 weeks then blood clots can develop. That is why she must be on the blood-thinning meds. And once a week, I believe, I will need to take her to my vet to have blood tests to determine her bleeding rate. So at least she is home, what an improvement. She seems pretty tired out and has been resting in her bed in a pen in the kitchen. Her stitches from her heart surgery came out yesterday and that area looks so much better. Hematoma is gone. Now she is on the mends. The hard part is keeping her from running around and keeping her separated from my other two dogs. I will let you know how Kaycee’s doing little by little. But the doctors said she was doing very well, so I am happy.

Update, January 10, 2004:

Kaycee is such a doll. She is very, very lively and happy and has some piss and vinegar in her too. I notice that she tries to be the dominant female with my yellow lab who is also female. It is quite funny to watch her get her feathers ruffled with the lab and starts to bark at her when she comes into the house at the end of the day (the lab stays outside during the day in her pen and comes in late in the day). 

Anyhow, Kaycee has done a miraculous comeback after the heart surgery and subsequent blood clot. I think it also made a big difference that I was home with her full-time during November and December (due to my surgery and holiday vacation time off from work). I know that without the heart surgery she received, she probably wouldn’t be with us today. Her health was declining rapidly and if you saw her now you would not have any idea that she had been so sick. She runs around the house like a crazy Westie along with her pal Cosmo who’s my Cairn terrier. The two terrors. 

Kaycee was weighed at the vets yesterday and weighed 14.2 lbs. She finally got some meat on her bones and no longer looks scrawny like she did when she first came to our home. She has done very well with housebreaking, although she’s not 100% yet, she mostly is. She follows the other dogs outside where they do their business now and she finally gets it and has her favorite spot. At first, she didn’t understand this process.

Kaycee sleeps on my bed along with the Cairn who likes to go under the blankets while Kaycee is on top of them. She’s a love bug. Truly. I cannot imagine how she lived in the puppy mill before this. She wouldn’t trade places for anything. She is quite content at being a spoiled poochy. She also enjoyed her first Christmas and got lots of goodies and toys under the tree along with my other two dogs. 

Attached is a picture taken recently.

Regards, Donna

Update, February 4, 2004:

I thought you could use a current update on Kaycee. She is doing wonderful. She is extremely happy and active and you would never know this dog had heart surgery a few months ago. Although early last week she had me concerned by her breathing as it seemed a bit strained for a few days. I adjusted her blood thinner medication (the doctor had just increased her dose) so that it is now given two times a day instead of all at once in the morning. She hasn’t had any problems since I made the change. Compared to when I first got Kaycee she used to have breathing problems that became so difficult for her. She was always panting as though she had just run a race. Now she isn’t breathing that way and I can see the difference the surgery has done for her. She is such a sweet, loving dog who has gotten sooo spoiled and loves the company of the other two dogs here at home. She enjoys sleeping on the bed with us at night and runs around the house like a maniac at times playing with my Cairn terrier. Kaycee goes to the vets for blood tests every other week, for now, to monitor her bleeding rate since she is on blood thinners. She must take Warfarin (blood thinner) full tablet once a day as well as baby aspirin and atenolol for her blood pressure. 

Kaycee has made a marvelous adjustment to life here at home with us. Her house training is not quite 100% but she has made significant improvement. She occasionally pees submissively if you go to pick her up and she sometimes gets scared still. Other than that she has been very good in the house. She does have her normal routine in the morning and throughout the day along with the other dogs here. She has also become quite the watchdog along with the Cairn terrier. They make such a racket when someone comes to the door. It would be impossible for anyone to break into the house and no one would hear it!

Well enough for now. Kaycee says hi and so do I.
Donna P.

Update, April 2004:

I’ve been thinking of you all and how Kaycee wouldn’t be here with us today without your help. Kaycee is doing terrific. Right now she is sound asleep on the futon couch next to me along with Cosmo my Cairn terrier and Tara the lab; all very tuckered out after a busy day. Kaycee and Cosmo got to go to the Canine Country Club, up the street from my house because I am having some landscaping done in the backyard today and tomorrow and my little dogs go crazy barking their heads off (esp my Cairn) when strangers come to the house. So today they got to go stay at a very upscale kennel near our home (we take our dogs there when we go on vacations) and they get doggie daycare during the day and lots of neat treats and spoiled rotten. 

Kaycee has adapted very well to life here in New Mexico. She is truly the sweetest little girl who has such an easy-going personality. She will sit on your lap for hours and I even take her to my son’s little league baseball games and she just sits and watches everything, and of course, small children have to come up and pet her. She has never displayed any mean or snippy behavior with anyone, except Tara my lab who is also female. The two of them can get into it sometimes but they will keep their distance just enough. But the snarling and growling and chasing each other you would think one of them would get hurt by now by the sounds of it.

Kaycee sleeps next to me every night in our bed and she follows me wherever I go through all hours of the nite. If I go upstairs and then back down, there’s Kaycee at my side. I guess when I first found her on the internet last year, I just knew she was going to be my new baby and it was fate, I guess. She’s a very lucky girl, and I am too to have her. She is very loved by all of us (my husband is very attached to her and he was the one who didn’t want another dog!!).

Regards from the Land of Enchantment Donna, Kaycee and family

A Very Sad Update, June 2004:

This is not the kind of update I wanted to give all of you regarding Kaycee. Kaycee passed away sometime during the night of June 5th or Sunday morning June 6th. Unfortunately, I will never know. We were returning from a weeklong trip to California and Kaycee was with our Cairn, Cosmo, at a boarding kennel at home. We stopped Saturday overnight in Phoenix before returning to Albuquerque on Sunday. I received a phone call from my sister-in-law that the kennel called her informing her about Kaycee at 6 a.m. Sunday and she immediately called me. Kaycee was doing wonderfully before we left for California, so I didn’t have any hesitancy to leave. She had been well all this year with no health problems since her hospitalization last November, and I was so pleased with her recovery. So you can imagine how shocked I was to get this horrible news. There hasn’t been a day that goes by that I don’t constantly think about her and how sorry I am that I wasn’t there with Kaycee. My Kaycee was an amazing Westie, and a total love bug who had such a tremendous impact on my family and me for the short time we were together. She was only two and a half years old and I felt she deserved more time to be with us in a happy place here but it wasn’t meant to be. At least she got some quality time outside of the puppy mill where she came from and left in September 2003. My Cosmo greatly misses her as well, and it’s obvious there is a void there. She will be greatly missed. 

I want to thank WestieMed and all those who contribute to WestieMed for the amazing things they make happen with their love and generosity.

Donna Pedroncelli
Albuquerque New Mexico