What's Happening To Our Cavaliers

Hi

It has not been a happy time reading CT over the last few weeks it seems so many of our Cavaliers
have been suffering with problems of one sort or another .:( And I am not helping as the majority of my
posts recently seem to be about lost/found/stolen boys and girls .:(

As I now know I have to take my Daisy to Chestergates for a consultation and possible MRI I have been
reading up as much as I can about SM and CM ,its causes, its treatment and especially C.T. members
threads about how each one copes day to day and the various medications they give . I have found these
threads all compulsive, though not nice reading.,with individuals explaining there own journeys from when
they first suspected their Cavalier was suffering from SM/CM and how they coped from daily and weekly and
detailing their trials of various medications to assist some successful some not .

One thing puzzles me though ? how is it I can come to C.T. and read and learn from real peoples experiances rather
than a newbie like me having to trawl through many sometimes complex websites for information ,but when I look
in other places there is nothing there ! Are these problems exclusive to CT members ?as I cant see anybody on
other forums writing about their own personnel journeys and by that helping others who have to travel down
these same horrendous roads ,or as I say is it only us who face these problems are others not be affected.
It would be so helpful if all breeders whose dogs are suffering pulled down their own facade and made available to all
their own stories so as to help us many pet owners and their Cavaliers cope and understand the increasing
problems of SM and CM.

It is sad and I'm sorry you are going through this. There are also sm yahoo groups than many breeders are on also and also karlin has a yahoo sm support group (I think she's moderator), another cm/sm support group for all breeds on yahoo.

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It is sad and I'm sorry you are going through this. There are also sm yahoo groups than many breeders are on also and also karlin has a yahoo sm support group (I think she's moderator), another cm/sm support group for all breeds on yahoo.

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By far more people on CT and the yahoo groups are different but its always good to have different places. The group for all breeds (I think sandy smith is on) has several pet owners that have had dogs from the beginning. I joined toward the end but there were some very supportive people and caring

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brian M

Are these problems exclusive to CT members ?as I cant see anybody on
other forums writing about their own personnel journeys and by that helping others who have to travel down
these same horrendous roads ,or as I say is it only us who face these problems are others not be affected.
It would be so helpful if all breeders whose dogs are suffering pulled down their own facade and made available to all
their own stories so as to help us many pet owners and their Cavaliers cope and understand the increasing
problems of SM and CM.

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I just want to say that the first person to help me with ella was actually a breeder from one of the yahoo forums. I didn't know it. There have been breeders that have been very helpful to me and shared their stories, heartache, and I called many times in tears.

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One last thing :) I thought the all breed group was very supportive. There were people on there that were some of the first to go through this. I think they said they didn't have much information 10 years ago etc and so they just had to depend on each other. You can tell there is a very strong bond.

They especially helped me when I was needing support about ellas scar tissue. Even if it was someone contacting saying they knew what I was going through and now 5 years later etc. Just touching how many people cared.

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When I went looking for other resources, CT was always the best option in terms of easy to find information on Cavalier health issues in a forum with open discussion. I did find some other helpful information in other places, but pretty limited. I do not think that many forums encourage deep discussion on this issue. Even as a member of a group on Facebook for Cavaliers that I dearly love, I had a breeder and a regular member ask me very pointedly NOT to share so much information on Gracie's SM and her surgery. It shows the discomfort and even anger about bringing up these issues. One challenged the statistics, even after I linked to the study of scanned dogs. A couple of breeders have been very supportive and helpful as Annie noted, but still not sure they will change their breeding habits. Not sure what it will take!

My own breeder seems to be more responsive than the breeder who provided the stud dog... And not really surprised because that dog has been widely used. As a result, I do not expect any site with breeders to have the type of resources offered her, even if they have other assets to offer.

Another small member site that I visited briefly ages ago, a person posting fairly regularly about MVD problems was told that the forum was a "happy place" and she was getting too maudlin and to do more private messaging on the heart issues.

I am not as optimistic as Anniemac about what may change for the better here in the USA. It is still way too hard to find out how prevalent the health issues are, especially SM.

I'm not optomistic, but I don't know who else do you want to breed cavaliers, work with researchers, and learn more? the fb group is not a good place, but there are specific yahoo groups set up to specifically talk about SM. I will only find or support breeders scanning, health focused etc but I don't understand how people think we can learn anything without them. Once we have an us and them, it goes nowhere.

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What I meant was they should not breed unless the follow protocols and I try to not lump them all together because there are *some* great breeders working against odds.

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I applaud the breeders doing their best, but I only see a very small group of breeders out of 1000s willing to follow the protocols. I know we need breeders to work with us to get out of this mess. I am not expecting others to do it... That is why I also am not optimistic. I just have not seen or heard of any major movement here that will have a have a major impact. I wish there was a way to better recognize the ones doing their best other than just buying from them exclusively...as so few of the buying public even know who they are to do this. It took me weeks of phone calls to find 5 breeders who are MRI testing in eastern USA. Should not be that hard to do the right thing.

I wish that i had answers Annie... I do not. Just a lot of questions as to what really will get us out of this situation.