[Keldal]

My dog Sarge is my service dog and will be 2 years old next month. Per our purchase agreement, we agreed to do a full cardiac work up at 2 years old. Sarge had an echo, ECG and a Holter. While Sarge's echo was normal, his ECG revealed single and couplet abnormal beats. His Holter results showed over SIX THOUSAND abnormal beats (single, couplet & triplets). Sarge has been started on 2 cardiac drugs and 2 supplements. And yes, he has honorably retired as my service dog and will continue to live a spoiled life with me. (We have to limit his activity as well).

When we were looking for a Breeder, we REQUIRED that both parents had FULL cardiac testing. Both breeders had four generations of testing, but we are trying to find how/why this hasn't appeared in any of their other dogs. we did all we could to get a healthy puppy. In the end it didn't matter.

We are beyond devastated!! I've spent 22 months training Sarge to be an awesome, obedient puppy and service dog. He is AKC CGC, too. He's just awesome. I'm still in shock over this nightmare!

ALL boxers should have a cardiac work up EVERY YEAR! Sarge is very young to be this sick. While meds won't prevent cardiac death which he will succumb to, they can decrease the abnormal beats. If you own a boxer, please have cardiac testing yearly.

He is our last Boxer we'll ever own and we are loving &spoiling him daily as if it's our
last day together! I pray fewer people will have to live with this horror of a diagnosis. Thanks for reading!