The Heart Murmur Repair Bichons Reunion Page

Small Paws® Rescue has been blessed over the years, to be able to save the lives of several Bichons who were all born in commercial kennels in Mo. with severe PDA heart murmurs. All could have died but after surgery they are now normal Bichons with normal life spans!
Here they are.Thanks to all of you. I now give you the Heart Murmur Repair Bichons!

1. Meet BUNGEE, our FIRST heart murmur repair!! Bungee is now owned and loved by Small Paws® volunteers, Sandy and Jim Sowell at LitlSybil@aol.com. (I got to hold him last summer at the Southern Ca Bichon Bash!)


Bungee before .....................Bungee is all well now
"Bungee was the first Small Paws Rescue fluff to go to Texas A & M for surgery. He's now almost two years old and the world would have been a sorrier place without this dear little fellow. He is everybody's friend. He never has a bad day, nor does he have a mean bone in his body. He wakes up happy and goes to bed happy. He should wear a big sign that says, for a good time, call Bungee. He still goes up and down like he's attached to a bungee cord and his humom and hudad will never forget all the people who donated their money, their love, and their prayers so that he could live."

2. Meet "Toby"! (Formerly "Rolex") Toby is now owned and loved by Rebecca at RLMades@mediaone.net.

Rolex/Toby before...Toby all well today!
"Sir Toby is not a terribly cooperative photo subject anyway. He'll ALLOW it if he's lying down. If he's up and perky, he wants to investigate the camera. Silly little flufferbutt. For the record, he's quite a TALL Bichon and is a slender 17#s. I keep
waiting for his adult coat to fill in completely. Right now, he's kind of half straight & half kinky. But he's always 100% wonderful!"
Rebecca

3. Meet "Georgie", formerly "Chanel"! Georgie is now owned and loved by Small Paws® Rescue volunteers, Sharon and Erik Krask at shrkrask@attbi.com. I have since gotten to see Georgie again and she is just just beautiful!


Here she is right after rescue.... and at home, all well,today!
Small Paws® Rescue: The Designer Bichons
"She does not like her picture taken (unlike Mr. Widget!)...so we will see. Georgie is now two years old and will always look like a puppy. She had not one but two heart surgeries....Auntie Robin took her to Texas A & M in late summer of 2000 for her first PDA coil placement. In December, our local cardiologist detected a "leak". Eric immediately flew Georgie (and her stuffed bunny) back to College Station in the middle of a Texas ice storm for her second coil placement at A & M. (This usually only happens in 1 out of 200 cases). She is now 100% leak free!
In March of 2001, the little tyke had bilateral medial luxating patella surgery. This was much harder on her than the less invasive heart procedures. Her was not a happy camper for six weeks. Now she runs and jumps like a normal puppy! Our little Georgie was truly last in line for healthy body parts but first in line for the soul of an angel. Oh, and by the way, have I mentioned that she is sooooo smart? The five of us, Eric, Sharon, Zoe, Sachi and Binky adore her."

4. Meet Came! Cameo is now owned and loved by Small Paws® Rescue volunteers, Steve and Andra Heitzman at SHEITZMAN@aol.com.


Small Paws® Rescue:Baby Cameo Needs Heart Surgery
"Cameo arrived at Small Paw's "door" in October, 2001 with a grade 5 heart murmur. Doctors at Texas A&M University Vet School tried to correct the hole with a coil technique procedure, but her little veins were just too small, so on October 22 the doctors "cracked open" her chest and repaired the hole! We had just come home from vacation when I "read" about Cameo--I contacted Robin right away--I KNEW this baby needed to stay in Texas! Three days later Cameo came home to live with us in Houston. Her "big sister", Maggie was soooo excited to meet her, but not as excited as Cameo!! The two bonded instantly and are never very far from each other. Cameo is now 6 months old and bounces everywhere. She is 10 pounds of tongue, fur and wagging tail!" Andra

5. Meet Pearl! Pearl was an adult puppy mill rescue with a severe PDA heart murmur AND heartworms to boot! She is now owned and loved by Small Paws® Rescue volunteer. Karen Franklin at littlebit@hubserv.com.

Then......and now!
Small Paws® Rescue: Pearl's Heartlight
Pearl's coil repair was done at Louisiana State University.
"Miss Pearl came to me a while back with a grade 6 heart murmur, heart worms, a hernia, and very bad teeth..The first thing I did after my vet examined her was to take her to LSU to see if they could correct her heart problem..

Fortunately it was a PDA which is fixable and almost unheard of in an adult dog...Pearl was three years old and this type of heart problem usually is fatal if not corrected while the dog is a pup..this is part of the reason we call Miss Pearl a Miracle..God's little miracle..

The doctors told me up front she may not survive the surgery..In her case it was cracking the chest and doing open heart surgery..but I knew she would die without it so we had to try..Small Paws® raised the money for her surgery in twenty four hours...

Well..I took Pearl in for her surgery and left in tears..I had only know her for a few days, but she stole my heart...the doctors told me that would call me that evening and let me know how it went..I was three hours away so I had to go home to take care of all my other dogs..

Well the doctor called that evening and said everything went remarkably well..she came through the surgery with flying colors and could possibly come home in several days..

To my surprise the doctor called the next day and said she was walking around, eating and drinking and could go home the next morning..I was on cloud nine hearing this news..I went the next day to pick her up and she could breath and walk around without loosing her breath and becoming exhausted immediately..when I got her home I couldn't keep her still..you would never know she had open heart surgery two days before.

Well several weeks later she began her heart worm treatment..I was terrified that this would be fatal also..she had severe heart worms and that is one of the reasons it was a miracle she came through the surgery...and I shouldn't have been surprised that she came through the treatment without any complications at all...and was clear in four weeks.

Now we had to wait two more weeks to spay her and repair her hernia which she breezed through like nothing was ever done to her..and two weeks after that we did a dental and after we got all the tartar off her teeth her teeth were beautiful..all of them..

Pearl is still a little skiddish and very small..only 9 lbs...and she is one of the biggest joys of my life..when I come home from being away from the house she jumps up and down and appears to clap her hands she is so excited to see me..she is truly a miracle...and I hope to have her in my life for a very long time.."
Pearl's Mom....Karen

6. Meet "Hammie"! Hammie is now owned and loved by Dr. Cynthia Ragsdale at rasdalec@aol.com.

Hammie and Smidgie.

7. Meet Marcie! Marcie is now owned and loved by Ginger, BabyandMarcy@cs.com, and her other precious Bichon, Baby.

Marcie before surgery. Ginger, Baby, and Marcie today.
(Marcie is on the right).
Small Paws® Rescue:Marcie's Heart
Marcie became world famous when Animal Planet covered her heart Murmur surgery!
Small Paws® Rescue: Animal Planet!

Bio: (Dictated by Miss Marcy HERSELF) "The first four months of my life were kind of scary and confusing. There were lots of other dogs who didn't look like they were having any fun at all. It was just so hot and dirty and not much food and no one seemed to care about us at all. Then some nice people came and took me away and said I was going to have a "real life". They took me to a nice place where it was cool and the food was really good and they gave me lots of cuddles, but I really didn't feel good at all. I was coughing a lot and had a hard time breathing and just felt really terrible. Then they took me to another scary place that was really clean and smelled funny. I didn't think I liked it very much there and was afraid they were going to leave me there. But the people there were very nice to me and let me have a nice long nap. After I woke up from my nap, it was so strange, because all of a sudden I felt like a real puppy. I wanted to get up and run around and chase my tail and chew on stuff and jump up and give kisses. Then the first nice people came and took me back again and I lived for awhile at Dr. McKinney's office. The weather turned real cold and there was this "snow" stuff and then this really nice lady came and took me on a airplane to a place called California. This nice lady turned out to be my forever Mommy and she already had a big sister for me to play with there. Since December 15, 2000, until now, I have become a "real puppy" and of course, the mini-boss (right below Baby in rank) of our house. My most favorite thing in the whole entire world is to seek and destroy my Mommy's undies. She tries to hide them from me but I always manage to get them anyway. She has to get up pretty early in the morning to fool me! My sister Baby just wuvs me a lot, only sometimes when I pester her too much she "play growls" at me. Doesn't scare me any though, cause I know she won't really hurt me. She keeps telling me she's too old to blitz around with me, but I won't leave her alone until she give up and plays with me. I'm also quite a little "Houdini" and the baby gate or playpen hasn't been invented that I can't get out of. Mom says I've cost her a small fortune to replace flexi-leashes that I've chewed through. Well, all I can say is she shouldn't just leave me standing there with one end of the darn thing stuck in a drawer to keep me from doing what comes naturally....ya know what I mean? Let's see, I also like the taste of shoe leather (particularly the Cole-Hahn kind) and tissue-shredding is lots of fun too. Books are good if there is nothing better, but most of the time there is better stuff around. I'm a world class blitzer and once I've reached my top speed, don't even think about catching me :-) Under the bed is a great place to hide when Mom is trying to get me to do something I'm not particularly interested in at the moment. It's just high enough for me to crawl under, but not enough that she can get under it too :-) I just love fresh fruits and veggies. One of my favorites is fresh tomato, and I particularly like that because Baby doesn't and I can get all the treats for myself when Mom is slicing tomatoes. We both like fresh broccoli and little bites of fresh baby carrots. Actually, there isn't much I won't eat, and that includes deer poop. Wellllllllllll
I weighed just under 5 lbs when Mommy took me to California a little over a year ago. I'm now up to a big 11 pounds, but still quite petite. Especially, next to Baby who is just a big fatso at about 14 lbs. Whenever we fly, Mommie always carries me and lets the other person carry Baby. She says Baby is too heavy for her to carry, but I know it's really because she loves me the most. She totally denies this and says she love both of us and always is real careful to give us both the same stuff and even dares to give it to Baby first, cause she's the oldest. But I know :-)
Other than some really troublesome hot spots last summer which we had a horrible time getting rid of, I'm a totally happy, healthy, rambunctiuos, life-loving PUPPY! We moved to Pittsburgh, PA. in October 2001 and I really love to play in this snow stuff too! Mommie says we are going back to California next year, so I better enjoy it while I can. That's all for now, but I just wanted everyone who saw me on Animal Planet to know that I'm thriving and wonderful and other than still being a little afraid of strangers (only until I can check them out a little) I'm just a perfect little Bichon. I'm not afraid of any dogs though and love to play with the biggest and best of them. My best friend here is a big old Golden Lab and he just wuvs me sooooo much. I jump up and kiss his face and then roll over so he can nibble under my armpit. I just hold my arm up so he can get to it real easily. He has pretty bad arthritis, but I can still get him to chase me a little bit. Good ole Honey Butch....what a friend!
Big Kisses to Everyone from
Marcy

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8. Meet baby Gershwin!


Small Paws® Rescue:Baby Gershwin's Heart
Gershwin is getting ready to go home to his new Mom, Jeannie Rogers at rogersjkt@yahoo.com. Gershwin has no idea anything was ever wrong..he zooms nonstop now!

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9. Grady with his new mama Louise at Beeechcmbr@aol.com! Come ready baby Grady's story...he was so cold..I did not think he would make it to surgery.
Small Paws® Rescue: Baby Grady's Heart

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10. Powder has eyes that you can see though.
He also had a heart murmur which was fixed at Texas A& M.


Here is baby Powder with his new Mama at the airport, Debbie at debbie@knothole.net !

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11. Baby Cassie with her new Dad, Pat Border at joanborders@aol.com.

Read Pat's account of their trip on the plane to their home in Va.

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12. Satchmo

Baby Satchmo's Heart
Satchmo was adopted by Cathy Dirlam at CMDirlam@aol.com

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13. Chevy



Chevy went to Texas AM, but was sadly, Chevy not a candidate for surgery at that time. He needs mitro valve replacement surgery but as of now, this surgery is still in the experimental stages.
The cost would have been $7000.00-$8000.00 for an experimental surgery with absolutely no guarantees, as no dog has survived this surgery yet, at Texas A&M.
Chevy continues to do well today without surgery.

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14. Sara Lee (as in nobody doesn't like!)


Sara Lee has been adopted!

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15. June


10 Month old June June went to Texas A&M and it was determined that she had an "innocent" heart murmur that did not need surgery at all!
UPDATE December 10, 2003


Dec. 10, 2003 Update!
Luckily Junie did not need surgery for her heart murmur, but she did go into cardiac arrest when she was spayed. She was resuscitated by the wonderful Dr. Russell in Tulsa , She remained in a coma for 2 days. She was a very sick little girl, but she is great now. She lives with her bichon buddy Nash Rambler and her new bichon siblings Magee and Brittany Belle with human Mom & Dad, Colleen & Leonard Butler at outnback@direcway.com. She loves to chase Nash and Magee and plays until she is exhausted everyday. She weighs about 12 lbs now as compared to 7.5 when we picked her up with her life buddy, Nash. She takes very good care of Nash. Every morning and night she washes his face and licks his eyes. He is such a lovey bichon~~he just eats that up. I am so glad Bonnie asked me to "foster" June when we went to Tulsa to pick up Nash. At that time, Junie had a tremor and we did not know if her eyesight would be normal. I am so pleased to report that Junie's tremor has decreased to hardly anything at all and she has no problem with her eyesight. It has been a love affair ever since that day in Tulsa when we brought them home. Nash and June have been a wonderful addition to our family; even the queen-bee Bichon, Brittney Belle, (our 10 yr ) will get into the act and join the frolicking that the younger kids do. Thank you, Bonnie and Robin for leading me into this wonderful adventure with you and the fluffs!!
Colleen Butler

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16. Chipper


2 year old Chipper has been adopted!

11/20/03 UPDATE!



Subj: Up-date on Chipper for Hear Murmur Reunion Babies
Date: 11/20/2003 3:23:51 PM Central Standard Time
From: CRStoroof@aol.com

My name is Chipper. I was born with a heart murmur about three years ago. For two and a half years, I lived with the heart murmur and was very weak. Life was pretty much food and sleep. One day my owner was taken away and a stranger came and took me far away. I went from Naples, FL to Texas A & M for heart surgery. In 13 days I lost my owner, had a foster home, had a heart operation, and was flown to Raleigh, NC to my new home. I was one terrified puppy!!

I have now spent 5 months in my new home, or should I say, my new world. Everyday is a new adventure. I see, do, and experience things that are so much fun! Because of my heart operation, I now have huge amounts of energy to run, jump, and play. To me life is heaven every day. Now, my new family wants to tell you how they feel.

In July, we lost our Bichon, Bangor, to cancer. Bangor was not a dog but a true member of our family. When we left the hospital and knew he would not make it, we sat in the car and cried but thanked God for letting us share this special life.

For the next few days, Carolyn cried and realized how close she had been to Bangor. One day on her computer, she looked up Bichons and found Small Paws. Out of sadness, she scrolled through the photos of the many Bichons in Small Paws for rescue and adoption. All of a sudden as if God hit her finger to stop, there was a photo of a long legged Bichon that had survived a heart operation - Chipper.

We looked at all the puppies and something continued to bring us back to the photo of this scared little Bichon. It only took one day and we knew God or our Bangor or both, had sent Chipped to us. (By the way, our Bangor was born with 3 paws and the doctor made him a pad for the forth at birth.) Maybe he was saying, Chipper is special. He had a heart problem, now it's fixed, and he has a strong heart full of love.

Chipper has been in our home for 5 months and what has happened is amazing. From a shy, frightened puppy, Chipper has become the life of the house. Everything is new to him. From a leaf blowing in the breeze to climbing stairs. When Chipper first arrived, you could hardly hold him, now he rolls over on his back and begs to play.

I believe he has rubbed every square inch of our home in Cary as well as our beach house. This is truly where he considers home.

I mentioned we felt our Bangor may have sent Chipper. You be the judge. We were told Chipper liked to sleep under the bed. Each night, our other Bichon would get on my wife's side of the bed and go to sleep. During the night, he would move to the foot and eventually to my side. Five months into our lives together, Chipper goes to the same spot and lays the same way. He then moves in the night to the foot (same side) and winds up on my side. Is it a coincidence. You be the judge.

All I can say is, God had touched Small Paws and because of that, Chipper is our new family member. Yes, we miss our Bangor, but Chipper has our hearts.

Van and Carolyn Starling

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17. Nikki


Nikki had a grade six PDA that was repaired at Texas A&M! Nikki has been adopted!

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Number 18. Cherie.


Cherie was 12 weeks old when her Grade 5 PDA Heart Murmur was repaired at Texas A&M University. She is 100% well now! Cherie was our 21st Heart Murmur Repair.

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Number 19.

This is our 22nd Heart Murmur Repair.
The Heart Murmur Reunion Page

Read Baby Daisy's Story!

She is a happy healthy baby girl now, thanks to all of you!

Daisy after surgery at home!

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Baby Buffy, our 23rd Heart Murmur Repair! Meet Buffy and her new Mom, Patty Shearer. Buffy is going to be a little heart healer!

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Number 24.

Meet 16 Month Old Kacey. She was recently sold at this Amish Puppy Mill Auction.

They were trying to sell her to another puppy mill to have more babies in this condition. She would have died if Small Paws had not intervened.

Number 25.

Meet 10 week old Lily. Lily came from Dallas Texas and had a grade 5-6 PDA heart murmur. Texas A&M did her surgery and put two coils into her chest. Now she has a new Mama and a new life to live!

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Number 26.

Number 27: America the Beautiful


Meet 4 Month Old "America" named in honor of the 4th of July. She was born on 2/19/05 and she weighs 5 pounds. She was recently rescued from an
Amish Puppy Mill.

Numbers 29, 30, and 31


We got word of a litter of four, (there were five, one already died) who had heart murmurs, in a commercial kennel in Mo.

We have named the quads! We have named them after...the doctors who will save their lives.

Texas A&M has three cardiologist now. They are....
Dr. Sonya G. Gordon, Dr. Matt W. Miller, and Dr. Ashley B. Saunders.

The female puppy is named "Ashley"...the males are named..."Matt", "Gordon", and "Miller". We hope the doctors will be honored with our choice of names for the quads!

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Numbers 32. 33. and 34


URGENT MEDICAL EMERGENCY
January 27, 2006

With everything else we have going on, we just got word that THREE more heart murmur babies are on their way into Small Paws from a commercial kennel in MO. We have enough to take care of ONE surgery...not three.

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Number 36

Holly Sweet
Feb 10, 2006
9 week old Holly Sweet came to us from a commercial kennel in Mo. She has a grade six heart murmur. We are rushing her down to Texas A&M TODAY. Her brother died last week...before we knew about them.

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Number 37
Beemer


Update Feb 28, 2006
Sadly, Beemer isn't a candidate for surgery. He has this heart defect, which is not correctable.
Subaortic Stenosis

We found a wonderful forever home for Baby Beemer in Dallas Tx. Please pray for this special baby boy as we love him for as much time as he has with us.

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Number 38

Saturday, April 22, 2006


Four month old Jolie has one of the worst heart murmurs we have seen. We rushed her down to Texas A&M this morning. Her vet called her heart murmur.."horrendous." This is the first heart murmur we have ever seen that can be seen from the outside. Her body "buzzes" and her heart shakes her whole body.

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Number 39

"Baby" is a three year old female, who was an owner surrender.

An echocardiagram told us that Baby had a grade 5-6 PDA heart murmur, and it's a wonder that she had lived this long. She was already way past puppy hood, when these heart defects are usually diagnosed and repaired, surgically.

Baby's heart had been under tremendous pressure now for three years, before we repaired her murmur at Texas A&M.

Baby is part of a bonded pair. Her sidekick, 6 year old Missy, was very happy to see Baby's return, after her heart surgery, to our Small Paws foster home, with Sharon and Stu Midgol, near Kansas City.

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Number 40



Our 40th heart murmur baby is Carrie Small Paws! She is a little six month old baby girl, with a grade six PDA heart murmur.
She was in Atlanta, Ga. where an all breed rescue took her in a few days ago from a breeder that was closed down by the authorities. The breeder was probably saving this little one to breed once, and get one litter before she were to die, and no I am not kidding. She came through her PDA surgery with flying colors!

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Number 41


Baby Buttercup
7 week old Buttercup had a grade six heart murmur. She weighed only 2 pounds and is too small to be coiled at Texas A&M.

They did the crack the chest open surgery (ligation) on her. This was a medical emergency and they got right on it, not waiting until the usual surgery day of Wednesday.

Buttercup is healthy now, and has been adopted by her foster Mom, Rosie Welch, who lost her Mom this past July. Buttercup is helping to heal hearts!

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Number 42


Columbo is 14 weeks old and is in Ohio. We need to fly him down to Houston, so we can drive him over to Texas A&M. His eyes tell me this is most urgent.

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Number 43


"Sadie" was 14 weeks old when she came in from the puppy mills of Missouri. Her previous "owner" was going to hit her over the head with a hammer, to euthanize her. When he casually told someone he was going to do this, thank God that they told him about Small Paws Rescue.

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Numbers 44, 45, and 46
"BonBon", "Truffles", and "Candy"

February 1, 2007
URGENT PRIORITY ONE

Folks, we need your help. We brought 12 Bichons from the commercial kennels of Missouri yesterday, into the loving arms of Small Paws.

Three of them are young puppies with serious heart murmurs.

They will not survive without having these heart murmurs repaired.

These will be heart murmur repairs numbers 44, 45, and 46, if we can raise the funds to have their heart murmurs repaired down at Texas A&M.


We have named them in honor of Valentine's Day.
"BonBon" is 11 weeks old and has a grade 5-6 heart murmur.
Her eyes do NOT look good.


Truffles and Candy are both 10 weeks old. They too, have heart murmurs ranging from a grade 4 to a grade 6. These puppies are very sick and will not survive for long without our help.
____________________________________________
Number 47
Bon Jovi


Bon Jovi was not surgically repairable, but is doing well today in a loving home.

Bon Jovi was born in a Missouri puppy mill on November 10, 2006. After being rescued, he was diagnosed by the cardiologists at Texas A&M University with “severe pulmonic stenosis with a severely hypoplastic annulus.” This means that Bon Jovi’s heart is so defective that there is no surgery (or treatment of any other kind) that can repair it.

The cardiologists have prescribed a beta blocker for Bon Jovi that they hope will help to stabilize his condition; he will most likely require this medication for the rest of his life. There is no way of knowing how long Bon Jovi will live, nor can we predict how his life will end. He could die a very sudden death, or he could have a stroke or fainting episodes, or he could live for many years.

Right now, however, Bon Jovi is living life to the fullest! He is a very happy, playful, mischievous, and loving puppy. He tires somewhat easily because of his heart condition, but after a quick nap he’s ready to burn some more energy. He sleeps in bed with his foster parents and he stays in a large crate when left alone. He loves giving kisses to people, and he washes his foster sister’s face. He does not like being alone and he will cry and bark if he can’t be with you in the same room.

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March 06, 2007
Baby Mandy
Number 48


Baby Mandy was born in a commercial kennel in Mo. Dr. Russell says she has a grade 5-6 Heart murmur. We need to get her on down to the experts at Texas A&M University.

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Heart Murmur Repair Number 48
8 week old "Elle" has a grade 6 heart murmur. We are hoping that she can be coiled at Texas A&M.



This will be our 48th Heart Murmur patient.
We have done this life saving surgery many times before.
The Heart Murmur Reunion Page
June 2, 2007

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Our 50th Heart Murmur Baby.


Savannah is 11 weeks old. She is half Shih Tzu and half Bichon and was born in a commercial kennel. She has a grade 4 PDA heart murmur. Small Pawsers in Wisconsin are helping to get her from there, all the way down to Texas A&M where the experts reside.

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June 16, 2007

Numbers 51, 52, and 53
Patty, Maxine and Laverne
The Andrew Sisters Heart Babies

All three of these babies have heart murmurs. Two white Bichon pups and one black and white beeshey-poo. All at once. Uno, dos TRES. Trio. THREE.


Maxine and Patty



Laverne sadly died on June 7, after becoming to ill to travel to Texas A&M. Godspeed little Laverne. You were loved.

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Number 54
July 07, 2007
Johnny


14 week old Johnny has a grade 6 PDA heart murmur. He was successfully coiled at Texas A&M.

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Number 55
July 07, 2007
Isabelle




07-30-09 Updated picture of Izzy at her new home with Mom
Terrie attsirvin@comcast.net!

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Number 56
August 07, 2007

Isabella (Izzy) is a 4 year old Bichon/Cocker mix puppy mill rescue from MN.This is little Izzy with Melinda Sosa's Rottie, Tori.

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Number 57
September 09, 2007
Strudel

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Number 58
September 09, 2007
Weezie

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Number 59
Baby Starbucks


Baby Starbucks was diagnosed with the worse case of Ventrical septal Disease that the dogtors at A&M have seen in recent years. He wasn't a candidate for surgery. He has been adopted by a new Mom who will love him for as long as he has left.

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Number 60
Baby Gatsby


Gatsby will be our 60th Heart Murmur patient.
We have done this life saving surgery many times before.
The Heart Murmur Reunion Page

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"Kelly" will be our 61st Heart Murmur Surgery. She came to us with a grade 6 out of 6 PDA heart murmur from Amish Puppy MIll country.We hope to raise funds for her to have surgery with Dr. Thaibinh Nguyenba, at Medvet in Columbus Ohio. He says she is not medically stable enough to travel to Texas A&M.

Update on Kelly's Heart!


Kelly (on left) celebrating her 1st birthday thanks to the PDA procedure which allows her to live a normal life :)


Kelly and her new Mama! (in green)

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Binti Hoffman



Binti was our 62 heart murmur repair.Dr. Thaibinh Nguyenba
repaired her little heart at Medvet in Worthington Ohio, and she was adopted by a wonderful family in Maine. They covered her entire vet bill. Animal Planet just filmed Small Paws and Binti's story for a new series which will be airing this fall called "Dogs 101." Binti is doing so very well and loves her two new little girls!

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Number 63

Five Year Old Pansy has severe pulmonic stenosis and needs a balloon put into her heart or she could drop dead before our eyes.

July 23, 2008

From: Dr.Thaibinh Nguyenba
To: Pup3@aol.com
Subj: Pansy
Hi Robin,

Just saw Pansy earlier today. No PDA, but I did find severe valvular
pulmonic stenosis, an obstructive disease of the right side of the heart.
Severe cases should be addressed, if possible,
via balloon valvuloplasty
(dilation) to avoid complications of right-sided congestive heart failure,
collapse, exercise intolerance, and even sudden death due to arrhythmias.
The degree and permanence of relief
afforded by this procedure depends on
the spectrum of valve abnormalities
encountered in this disease. Aside from
having rather thick leaflets,
Pansy's overall pulmonic valve structure does appear amenable to balloon valvuloplasty.

Unlike PDAs, success here isn't cut and dry.
The goal is to reduce the
pressure gradient across this stenosis by approximately 50%. For Pansy,
this would hopefully bring her squarely into the moderate severity
category, where her ultimate prognosis would be much better off. This would
also be important for her because she has some degenerative valve disease
creeping into both sides of the heart. If this becomes significant on the
right side of the heart, the severe pulmonic stenosis will only make the
resultant valve regurgitation even worse. So it's better to correct this
sooner rather than later.

We can, of course, perform this procedure for Pansy, and I'm sure we can
whittle the cost down to about the same for PDA cases (approx $2100 -
$2200). Please let me know what you think. We're working to move
appointments around so that we can tentatively schedule the procedure for
7/25. I know that you're probably very well versed in this disease, but
I'll certainly try calling up sometime tomorrow to chat more about this.

Overall, I typically think that for any dog with an extremely loud murmur,
PDA and valvular pulmonic stenosis would be the two best diagnoses (in that
order), since minimally-invasive therapies are available for both. As an
aside, I would like to commend your veterinarian who sent Pansy on over. This
is not a PDA but still is an important congenital cardiac defect that we
can help with.

We'll be in touch soon. I just wanted to give you a heads up beforehand.

take care,
Thaibinh>

So, this little one made bunches of bucks fora puppy miller before she came to us.

I was wrong.She didn't have four puppies after she same into rescue with Small Paws.

She had FIVE BABIES! Those babies have all been adopted but for one little male, I believe.

Pat Morgan, here in Tulsa, fostered the whole kit and caboodle of them.

So she has done her time for sure. (Both Pansy AND Pat! Ha!)

Now Pansy is ours.

If we don't do this for her, she could well drop dead on us from this disorder. Bam. Assuming room temperature. And there isn't much of a market for adoptive Bichons that have done that.

We have seen them drop dead from heart murmurs before with little or no warning.

It will run between $2100-2200.00 to save this little flower's life.

---

Heart Murmur Number 64


4 1/2 year old Mattie was recently rescued from an Amish Puppy Mill in Ohio. She is very loving despite all that has happened to her. Delivering puppies and being this ill. Yes, she probably passed this down to each puppy she had.

She has a severe heart murmur called pulmonic stenosis.

This is what Dr. Nguyenba, her cardiologist at Medvet Speciality Hospital in Worthington Ohio said about Pulmonic Stenosis in one of our last heart murmur babies, Pansy. He says this is the exact same diagnosis in Mattie. By the way, Pansy is doing just fine!

From: Dr.Thaibinh Nguyenba
To: Pup3@aol.com
Subj: Pansy
Hi Robin,

Just saw Pansy earlier today. No PDA, but I did find severe valvular
pulmonic stenosis, an obstructive disease of the right side of the heart.
Severe cases should be addressed, if possible, via balloon valvuloplasty
(dilation) to avoid complications of right-sided congestive heart failure,
collapse, exercise intolerance, and even sudden death due to arrhythmias.
The degree and permanence of relief afforded by this procedure depends on
the spectrum of valve abnormalities encountered in this disease. Aside from
having rather thick leaflets, Pansy's overall pulmonic valve structure does
appear amenable to balloon valvuloplasty.

Unlike PDAs, success here isn't cut and dry. The goal is to reduce the
pressure gradient across this stenosis by approximately 50%. For Pansy,
this would hopefully bring her squarely into the moderate severity
category, where her ultimate prognosis would be much better off. This would
also be important for her because she has some degenerative valve disease
creeping into both sides of the heart. If this becomes significant on the
right side of the heart, the severe pulmonic stenosis will only make the
resultant valve regurgitation even worse. So it's better to correct this
sooner rather than later.

We can, of course, perform this procedure for Pansy, and I'm sure we can
whittle the cost down to about the same for PDA cases (approx $2100 -
$2200). Please let me know what you think. We're working to move
appointments around so that we can tentatively schedule the procedure for
7/25. I know that you're probably very well versed in this disease, but
I'll certainly try calling up sometime tomorrow to chat more about this.

Overall, I typically think that for any dog with an extremely loud murmur,
PDA and valvular pulmonic stenosis would be the two best diagnoses (in that
order), since minimally-invasive therapies are available for both. As an
aside, I would like to commend your veterinarian who sent Pansy on over. This
is not a PDA but still is an important congenital cardiac defect that we
can help with.

We'll be in touch soon. I just wanted to give you a heads up beforehand.

take care,
Thaibinh>

Mattie will be our 64th Heart Murmur patient.
We have done this life saving surgery many times before.
The Heart Murmur Reunion Page

---

Number 65
Heart Murmur Repair Number 65

January 14, 2009

5 month old Isabella has a severe PDA heart murmur and she is already "wet" meaning in congestive heart failure. This is a medical emergency. We are hoping she can have the procedure THIS FRIDAY.
Dr. Thaibinh Nguyenba at Medvet in Worthington Ohio, wil be doing her surgery.



Isabella will be our 65th Heart Murmur patient.
We have done this life saving surgery many times before.
The Heart Murmur Reunion Page

---

Number 66


Hollie's PDA was corrected at Medvet
in Worthington, Ohio!
Thanks to all of you for helping us to help her!

---

Number 67

Baby Bumper is only 3 months old and has a PDA heart murmur. we would like to be able to repair it at Medvet in Ohio on Friday, July 30th. We need your help to do that.

We attempted to save six other heart babies that did not survive. Millie, a five year old Puppy Mill rescue, (It was a miracle she had lived to age five, and sadly, she had several litters of puppies in this condition.) died on the operating table at Virginia Tech with the oldest PDA we know of.
Little tiny Stetson died on the operating table at Texas A&M. He was so very tiny (around one pound) and so very sick.
Mikey died after surgery on Long Island, in New York City due to complications from the PDA repair.
Bear-Bear had an inoperable birth defect which caused a lack of oxygen to get to his heart and other organs. He was humanely euthanized at Texas A&M.
Stetson, Millie, Mikey, Laverne and Bear-Bear are now resting in the arms of God..with perfect little hearts. Of this, I have no doubt.")

Here are the babies we lost.

Precious Baby Stetson weighed under one pound and was already very sick when we got him to Texas A&M. He died on the operating table.


Little Millie is the one in the center, on her Mom's (Nan) lap.
Millie was known as "Tabatha" at Small Paws® Rescue
She died at the Virginia Tech Vet School
Small Paws® Rescue: Bewitched


"Mikey" 4/30/02 - 9/12/02 He died in New York City at the office of a private cardiologist.


BearBear
BearBear had advanced inoperable heart disease caused from a birth defect, He was humanely euthanized at Texas A&M as he was already collapsing from a lack of oxygen to his major organs.


Baby Laverne never made it out of our Tulsa vet's office. She became too ill to travel and sadly, died in Tulsa, Oklahoma.


Megan weighed less than a pound and had to fight internal parasites on top of her heart murmur. She came from a puppy mill in Mo. We tried with everything we had to save her life. It was not meant to be.