Darwin

We were lucky enough to be given Darwin as his owners were finding it difficult to help him overcome his many problems. He was reportably aggressive towards other dogs, and had snapped at people. After being let down by a behaviourist it was agreed that we would take him on and try and rehabilitate him so that he could go to a forever home rather than being put to sleep.

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On taking him to our vet for a once over it was discovered that he had severe Hip Dysplasia coupled with chronic arthritis. (Also a really bad hatred of vets). This made us realise why he snapped when anyone of us or the other dogs went near his back end. He was trying to tell us to be careful. We put him on Cod Liver Oil and Glucosamine and Chondroitin and his life seamed to get much better. He turned into a smashing dog. He could be let off the lead and his interaction with the other dogs was extremely good. Unfortunately his one habit we could not break was his "penis chasing" (Phimosis). Similar to tail chasing but it was his engorged penis that distressed him so much. We took him back to the vet and he was put on metacam as on re examining the x-rays it was discovered that he also had Spondylosis of the spine giving him neurological pain. His quality of darwinball

life was greatly improved.

To overcome his fear of vets I took him on a daily basis just to sit and watch the comings and goings whilst I caught up with the gossip from the receptionist. It certainly seemed to be doing the trick as his whole demeanour was calmer and even when we started venturing into the consulting rooms his whole behaviour was greatly improved from earlier visits

He was enrolled into training classes and began to respond very well but his failure to gain weight was worrying. On another visit to the vets it was suggested that he also suffered from Endocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency. Just as we began to change his diet we had occasion to rush him to the vets as he was obviously very seriously ill. On examination it was found that he had chronic kidney and liver failure. His condition was so bad that the decision had to be made to end his suffering and put him to sleep. Sadly this was the saturday before Christmas 2006 and Christmas was just not the same having lost such a beautiful canine companion. We have the consolation that prior to his last few days Darwin had enjoyed a full and active life and brought something very special into our lives during the months he was with us. He had made great friends with Chloe and enjoyed many hours of fun. Having spent many weeks sitting and watching the boisterous play of Kane, Bongo, and Bonnie he ventured to join in and they eventually allowed him to enter into their games. He had the time of his life running round the garden with his new found mates. We miss him, RIP.