Poor Kona; One of Those Designer Dogs With Major Problems

     For years we have been reading about dog breeders pouring out “Designer Dog” puppies for big money.  One of the current dog trends is “doodle”dogs, mixes of other breeds with poodles.  There are Labradoodles (Labrador Retriever-Poodle mix), Goldendoodles (Golden Retriever-Poodle mix), Bernedoodles (Bernese Mountain Dog-Poodle mix)...you get the idea. 

    These are all very popular because they are very adorable dogs.   However, in the attempt to make a killing breeding cute dogs, genetics is often overlooked, and that can cause severe physical problems in those cute dogs.

    Our dog Kona is one of those doodle dogs.  She is a Bordoodle, a mix of Border Collie and Poodle.  Last week we found out about the severe genetic problem causing her pain, something that she will be forced to live with for the rest of her life.

     Last week we took Kona up to the Vet in Prince George because she has been limping so badly, and some X-rays were done.  The results were devastating.

    The X-rays show that poor Kona doesn’t really have hip sockets for her leg bones.  There are small indentations, but not proper sockets.  It has been scar tissue that has been keeping her legs in place.  

    While Kona is a stoic dog and doesn’t really yelp or complain vocally, we can tell she is in pain when she tries to walk, because she now hardly walks at all, and when she does she walks awkwardly.  I now have to sometimes carry her from place to place.   Not much can be done for her except try to try to control her pain.

    We adopted Kona from a local family who were having other problems and needed to find another home for her.  They had purchased her from some dob breeder down in the States.  The previous owners told us Kona had join problems, which we accepted.  When we got her Kona was young and energetic, now that she is aging, those problems have finally started to show in an obvious way.

    Even with her pain, Kona still has a zest for life.  Yesterday morning when we first went outside, she spotted a deer in the yard, and despite her pain, went barking and running toward it, ignoring my yelling for her to stop.  She just forgets herself.  Of course then later, she suffers.

    Sadly Kona lives to eat, and now with her hip problems, we have to make her lose weight to lessen the impact on her legs.  That is a hard thing to do, because she constantly demands food, and because of her condition, we feel sorry for her and want to spoil her, but have to be hardcore about not doing it with food.

    Kona has always been a very high-maintenance dog, now that maintenance has become even higher.

                        You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca