Nicki
Moderator
"who says Cavaliers don't live long and healthy lives?" - Cavalier Club yearbook
After losing Teddy and Fufu in the same week, it was hard for me to read one of the adverts in this year's Cavalier King Charles Spaniel yearbook.
There is a lovely photo of their young Ruby, saying that her Great Great Grandmother passed away last August aged 16, the advert goes on to say "who says Cavaliers don't live long healthy lives!!!”
Well I do, as this has NOT been our experience.
Of course I'm pleased for them that their Cavalier lived to this age and sincerely hope that all their other Cavaliers since and in the future have also led and will continue to lead long and healthy lives.
Our experience to date:
We have lost 7 Cavaliers of our own, aged 3; 5; 6; 7 {two}; 8 and 12 1/2. Also Fufu, our long term foster, at 12.
ALL of them have been lost from illness/disease - two with Syringomyelia, one with epilepsy, one with cancer, two with pancreatitis, one sudden death {suspected to be snapped chordae tendineae in the heart} , and one whom suffered with MVD {full story below}.
All except one rescue Cavalier came from Cavalier Club members - two {and Fufu} from the same breeder. One we bought as a puppy and one was bought for showing/breeding. The rest have been rehomed at between 7 months and 6 years of age {either show run ons or retired show/breeding dogs}
We've now lost 5 of our beloved companions in 20 months.
I don't understand it, we feed a quality diet; they have the best veterinary care {with specialists as required, I've travelled hundreds of miles to see cardiologists and neurologists. Fortnatley most of them have been insured...}
They have walks every day – off lead running; free access to a huge garden and lots of fresh air; they are with us nearly all the time.
We did make the mistake of allowing our first Cavalier to become overweight after neutering - he then attended a clinic at our vets to lose weight. Since then I have been extremely careful, our dogs are regularly weighed and I also weigh all their meals - so they are not overweight as I know this leads to problems.
Some years back we were very friendly with a breeder - she had a beautiful Tricolour girl with whom we fell in love. She very kindly gave her to us as a Wedding present {she had tried to breed from her unsuccessfully}.
A few years later Peaches developed a heart murmur at the age of 5 - the breeder blamed us - she even said that Peaches' harness was too heavy and that had caused the murmur!! {Actually her litter sister was discovered to have a murmur too when she visited the vet later that week...}
Soon after we noticed that Peaches would run for a bit, and then stop and refuse to move. We took her to the vet and discovered that she had luxating patellas on both sides, also she was x-rayed and discovered to have moderate/severe hip dysplasia
She was referred to an orthopaedic vet - and underwent surgery on one of her knees. He actually described her rear construction as a disaster
The knee cap was running down the inside of the knee, there was no groove for it to run in. The surgery was very successful and we hoped to carry on and do the surgery on her other knee and then for her hips, however her MVD became substantially worse and the vet did not want to operate.
Peaches developed arthritis which she coped with for a few years, but eventually we were unable to control the pain effectively and she was put to sleep to prevent her suffering. Peaches was the 2nd Cavalier we lost, Fillipa had did suddenly two years before.
Peaches' breeder continued to blame us for all Peaches' problems - and when told of the sad news, actually sent a card saying "First Fillipa, now Peaches" - to us it felt like she was accusing us of murdering them So cruel when we were devastated at losing a 2nd beautiful girl. Needless to say, we are no longer friends.
So part of me feels worried that people will think we mistreat our dogs and that is why we've lost so many so quickly...
After losing Teddy and Fufu in the same week, it was hard for me to read one of the adverts in this year's Cavalier King Charles Spaniel yearbook.
There is a lovely photo of their young Ruby, saying that her Great Great Grandmother passed away last August aged 16, the advert goes on to say "who says Cavaliers don't live long healthy lives!!!”
Well I do, as this has NOT been our experience.
Of course I'm pleased for them that their Cavalier lived to this age and sincerely hope that all their other Cavaliers since and in the future have also led and will continue to lead long and healthy lives.
Our experience to date:
We have lost 7 Cavaliers of our own, aged 3; 5; 6; 7 {two}; 8 and 12 1/2. Also Fufu, our long term foster, at 12.
ALL of them have been lost from illness/disease - two with Syringomyelia, one with epilepsy, one with cancer, two with pancreatitis, one sudden death {suspected to be snapped chordae tendineae in the heart} , and one whom suffered with MVD {full story below}.
All except one rescue Cavalier came from Cavalier Club members - two {and Fufu} from the same breeder. One we bought as a puppy and one was bought for showing/breeding. The rest have been rehomed at between 7 months and 6 years of age {either show run ons or retired show/breeding dogs}
We've now lost 5 of our beloved companions in 20 months.
I don't understand it, we feed a quality diet; they have the best veterinary care {with specialists as required, I've travelled hundreds of miles to see cardiologists and neurologists. Fortnatley most of them have been insured...}
They have walks every day – off lead running; free access to a huge garden and lots of fresh air; they are with us nearly all the time.
We did make the mistake of allowing our first Cavalier to become overweight after neutering - he then attended a clinic at our vets to lose weight. Since then I have been extremely careful, our dogs are regularly weighed and I also weigh all their meals - so they are not overweight as I know this leads to problems.
Some years back we were very friendly with a breeder - she had a beautiful Tricolour girl with whom we fell in love. She very kindly gave her to us as a Wedding present {she had tried to breed from her unsuccessfully}.
A few years later Peaches developed a heart murmur at the age of 5 - the breeder blamed us - she even said that Peaches' harness was too heavy and that had caused the murmur!! {Actually her litter sister was discovered to have a murmur too when she visited the vet later that week...}
Soon after we noticed that Peaches would run for a bit, and then stop and refuse to move. We took her to the vet and discovered that she had luxating patellas on both sides, also she was x-rayed and discovered to have moderate/severe hip dysplasia
She was referred to an orthopaedic vet - and underwent surgery on one of her knees. He actually described her rear construction as a disaster
The knee cap was running down the inside of the knee, there was no groove for it to run in. The surgery was very successful and we hoped to carry on and do the surgery on her other knee and then for her hips, however her MVD became substantially worse and the vet did not want to operate.
Peaches developed arthritis which she coped with for a few years, but eventually we were unable to control the pain effectively and she was put to sleep to prevent her suffering. Peaches was the 2nd Cavalier we lost, Fillipa had did suddenly two years before.
Peaches' breeder continued to blame us for all Peaches' problems - and when told of the sad news, actually sent a card saying "First Fillipa, now Peaches" - to us it felt like she was accusing us of murdering them So cruel when we were devastated at losing a 2nd beautiful girl. Needless to say, we are no longer friends.
So part of me feels worried that people will think we mistreat our dogs and that is why we've lost so many so quickly...