ChanceHans


	Age & Sex: 1 1/2 yr. old Male


UTD: Yes


	Weight: 47 lbs.


Other Dogs: Yes Cats: Yes


	Color: Fawn


Children: Under 5: Unknown


	Ears: Natural


Children Over 5: Yes


	Tail: Docked


Professional Training Req: Yes


	Neutered: Yes


Microchipped: No


	Owner Surrender


Location: Stockton, NJ

Adoption Donation $300
Special Needs: Congenital Heart Disease

4/1/06 - Some troubling news from Hans’ visit to the cardiologist on the 29th: the cardiologist determined he has a condition called sub-aortic stenosis. This is a congenital condition, meaning it was there since before birth, that is a bump or thickening of the aorta where it exits the heart chamber. The added thickening in the vessel wall causes a narrowing of the aorta and an increase in his blood pressure at this site. This causes the heart to work much harder than it normally would. As a result he has a very severe murmur, rated a 6/6, a thickened heart wall, and regurgitation of the mitral valve as well. The bottom line is, he was rated as a category of “severe” for heart disease, with a 70 % chance of sudden mortality within the next 3 years. Some medications will help extend the quality of his life but there is no treatment for his condition. The murmur worsened in severity since he arrived to our foster home 3 ½ weeks ago. ( He started as a 4/6, and is now a 6/6.) He will need periodic ECG’s run to evaluate the function of his heart. The medication he will be started on is Atenolol. He does currently have some exercise intolerance and an occasional cough, which are symptoms of his condition. Not that this sad news has done a thing to alter his flamboyant personality! Hans remains as charming and “clever” as ever. As we said before, he his quite smart and a quick learner, so is making daily progress. He went for a nice walk yesterday with minimal issues of trying to chase squirrels and trucks. On a good note, 1½ miles didn’t seem to slow him down or tire him out any.

And now for the best news in the world for Hans, his foster family, a veterinarian and her husband are going to adopt him. We wish them all the best.

3/29/06 - Hans continues to do well. He put on several pounds in the past few days – 47 this morning! As you can see from the pictures, he’s looking so much better – and cohabitating with the cats just fine. Although he does try to mount two of them who don’t keep him in line – the other two have no trouble keeping him in line. He’ll take a little scratch to the nose and back off without thinking it’s a game, so that’s good. Main thing is he’s quite smart, so knows what he get away with depending on each cat. Amy took him today to get neutered, so we’re hoping some of the mounting of cats and more aggressive-type behavior will go away in a few weeks. I took him for a real walk the other day, and he did mostly okay. Listened and heeled when I told him, but larger trucks and school buses present something new and interesting, so he still wants to chase them. A stern word and short leash to control him works nicely. He also has become very good at sitting and staying when told. Main thing is he’s young, energetic, and inquisitive, so you need to stay on him and make sure he knows who is in control, otherwise you’re likely to get dragged all over the road as strong as he is. Not that he is a bad dog at all, just that he needs some structure and discipline. According to Amy, his heart murmur has not improved much with the extra 10 lbs or so he’s put on since being rescued, but she’s hopeful it’ll become less of an issue as he gets more weight and healthier. He still needs an official cardiology workup, so we’ll see. It doesn’t appear to slow him down, but he does seem to tire quickly. However, being so skinny and tied up for so long, that’s to be expected. Hans does love to run and explore (hopefully that urge will lessen with the neuter), so he really needs a good-sized fenced in yard and/or regular exercise outside – that should help some with the separation anxiety. He was getting so loud and a bit self-destructive at nights in the crate that we set up another crate in our room for him to sleep in. 25% of his issue seems to be getting confined – he’s still panting and restless in our room, but not whiney and trying to bite or chew his way out. The other 75% of his issue is normal separation anxiety. He seems to do just fine out of the cage when we are not in the room, but that’s only for short periods of time since he has relieved himself in the house a few times before. So, if you have a nice fenced yard and someone at home most of the day to keep him occupied, you shouldn’t have any other major issues with Hans at all.

3/26/06 - Hans continues to show improvement. As of 3/25, he’d put on another 2.5 lbs. We had to go out of town for a few days, so left him in care of Amy’s vet clinic. He became the unofficial mascot for the past several days, greeting customers and animals alike. They kept him leashed at the front desk, and all reports have him being very well behaved and no issues with all the comings and goings of other animals. They did say he was having separation issues again and was causing quite a ruckus in the kennel, so that’s when they let him come up front. After “working” all day, he was much better to go to the kennel at night with minimal separation issues. It seems if he’s kept occupied and exercised – surprise, just like any other dog! – then the few issues he does have are minimal. The girls at the clinic enjoyed having him around and everyone remarked what a sweet boy he is. Amy’s scheduled to neuter him this Wednesday.

3/17/06 - Hans (Chance) continues to make progress as far as I can tell – Amy is the vet, so she’d know better. However, his ribs are less and less noticeable each day. He’s on puppy chow for the caloric intake, but it’s causing some soft stool/diarrhea issues, so we’ll be switching him to half-and-half puppy and big dog food this evening. Hans continues to show he is smart, energetic, and doesn’t have many issues with learning new things. He’s already about 75% better on the leash – doesn’t pull our arms out of socket any more, just tugs a bit and usually only when he sees something that looks like fun to chase or investigate – squirrels, the cats, deer, etc. He did have one piddle accident in the house last night, but that’s the first in many days. Really, as Amy said the other day, the only main concern with him is his separation anxiety. It seems worse in the crate, but, with his occasional accidents in the house, we’re unwilling to leave him out of the crate unsupervised. I just introduced him to the idea that not all food put out is for him (cat food). He's respecting what I told him, but seems confused about why he can't have a nice snack when it's sitting right in front of him! This is good, though, because he's shown no food aggression that I've seen even after being nearly starved to death a few weeks ago. He and our older pitbull get along well – this morning they were playing in the kitchen for a bit. Hans is all boxer, so plays like a boxer. He’s shown himself gentle and not aggressive towards the other dog and cats; however, if you’ve had/have a boxer, you know their play can be kind of rough with all the boxing and pawing. Being young and energetic, I’m thinking it wouldn’t be a good idea to have him around older, smaller dogs (probably 30 lbs and under) and children under 7 or so since he does want to play often. However, that's just my assumption - he could very well be gentle and good around kids as most boxers seem to be - I'm just being careful! He’s not a very large boxer – still in the lower 40 lbs range, but he will continue to fill out and might (again, have to have Amy chime in on this one) start growing some more again if he’s younger than we thought. If he doesn’t grow any more, I’m guessing he’ll top out at a healthy 50-55 lbs, so will still be quite small for a male boxer. All in all, he’s a very sweet boy. I have to admit we are growing attached and considering adopting him ourselves! Also, he didn’t seem to respond to the name Hans much, so we went through many, many names in the past week seeing if he showed interest in any one more than others. With a nod to his heritage, we tried a few German names - he seems to respond to Hans, so we’re going with that for now.

3/15/06 - I picked up the boy from Tina last Thursday. Even though he had never met me, he was willing to come along with me in my truck, packed his food, the kennel and all in and back to NJ we went. He settled in the backseat with his head on my arm the last 1 hour of the drive! Made a quick detour to the vet clinic where I work for a bath, weighed in at 41.0 pounds, he was very grungy. My goodness! the black and dirt that came off! What a glistening handsome boy he is underneath! He met my little pitbull very well, was very interested in the cats, but did not pursue them aggressively, just REALLY interested!

Almost a week later now, and he is up to 42.9 pounds. He went to the clinic with me today for work. Minding his manners fairly well. He loved everyone there, all the girls think he is just the handsomest boxer buddy they have ever seen! (Ribs poking out and all!) Chance's main issues are his separation anxiety. He is not a shredder, Thank Goodness! But he drools VERY excessively, digs, bites the cage and barks and whines very incessantly. I hope this will ease in time, but for now, it is a bit dramatic for the boy!

He is doing well lately with the house training. He had 4 accidents the first 2-3 days, but has learned he has a good home, if temporary, and is MUCH better on the house breaking. He will need to have a full cardiac workup by a cardiologist for his heart murmur in the future. We are putting some weight back on him in the meantime to see if it will alleviate some level of the murmur. He does have corneal dystrophy - a congenital condition of the corneas where there is cloudiness, but not excessive. He is fully visual, more of a blemish condition for now. He has an ear infection, and just needs to put weight on. He should be fine to neuter in 2 weeks, and start his vaccines then. He is a love, and a very quick learner! More later.

3/5/06 - Chance was transported to our rescue on Friday night/Saturday morning...he is a victim of neglect and was signed over to a shelter in WV by his owner so as to not have charges pressed against him. Chance is doing well here for his brief stay. He went to the vets for a visit yesterday and of course they all fell in love. He is so sweet and has a great attitude for what he has been through. The vet gave him a once over and took a stool sample for testing. Chances are he has worms of some kind...he was tested at the shelter for heartworm and was negative so a BIG yeah there. Upon listening to his heart the vet heard a heart murmur. Chance will go in for an ultra sound to determine how serious this is. Maybe with time, nutrition and lots of love his heart won't have to work so hard and it will be a bit better. He is malnourished at this point...doc was shocked when he saw him and his condition....still in all he gave those special boxer kisses. It will be a very, very special home that gets this boy....he needs much love and happiness to make up for all the bad in his short life. He has a patch of hair missing of the back of his neck from being chained outside with a very heavy duty chain and it rubbing on him...every bone in his body sticks out form lack of food and care...however he is a happy bouncing baby boy with a lot of life in him...Please say a prayer for this great boy...we want him to end up healthy, happy and live a long life. His Ultrasound will be costly so any donations for Chance or the other two malnourished babies coming in would be greatly appreciated...there is a link on our site for paypal..use our email address of boxerangelsrescue@yahoo.com ....Chance and the gang will be forever in your debt