Bella

We got our German Shorthaired Pointer Bella when she was about 11 weeks old in April of 2012.  For the first 4 months we had her she was the picture of health, typical high energy, nonstop GSP who took to training extremely well, great appetite not to mention very loving. On the morning of August 11th 2012 she had gone out for a walk, came in the house and for no reason at all just laid down and would not move.  It was obvious her breathing was extremely abnormal and it appeared her heart was beating at a very fast rate.  We scooped her up and rushed her to the vet and he was under the impression she must have swallowed something and he gave her a shot to calm her down which put her right to sleep and continued to sleep for about 6 or 7 hours.  When she woke up she pretty much seemed back to herself until the next day when the same symptoms reappeared and again she was lethargic, wouldn't get up, would not eat, wouldn't go out, etc.

Long story short over the next week or so the vet we took her to kept telling us he was going to do all these different tests however whenever we brought her in he never did anything. I think this was just beyond his scope of experience and did not know what to do at all. At that point we decided to go see a different vet.  Within minutes of getting Bella to the next vet she suspected a condition called tachycardia and referred us to a heart specialist who was about an hour's drive away and we were on our way that afternoon. 

At that point her EKG reading was almost 400 beats per minute and it was clear that our dog was in danger. They immediately started her on a medicine to bring the heart rate down some but not enough.  After a few days or so they added in a 2nd medicine which again worked a little bit better but still not enough. Although the heart rate had somewhat stabilized over the couple weeks, Bella was simply not returning to normal activity, appetite etc.

I believe at this point it's when this New Hampshire  heart specialist contacted Doctor Kathy Wright and Dr. Wright suggested adding in a 3rd medication which at that point corrected her heart beat however this was just a temporary fix as she still had not resumed normal activity or appetite.  We were told about a catheter ablation procedure that Dr. Wright had developed for dogs however we would need to drive from New Hampshire to Ohio for the procedure so we began to make arrangements to do just that.

After consulting with Dr. Wright on the telephone we made the appointment and headed out to see her.  By this time it was November and we were very anxious to have this procedure done hoping it would be successful.  We arrived at the facility on a Thursday, they took Bella in and began to get her off the meds she was taking so the condition she had would come into full effect so they could properly map her heart.  The procedure took place the following day on a Friday and we waited with anticipation until we finally got the call from Dr. Wright that the catheter ablation procedure had been a success.

The very next morning we picked up Bella and made the 10 hour drive back to New Hampshire and she has been completely normal, as good as new and the picture of health ever since and as I write this it's been over 5 years since she had the procedure.  In 2014 we got Bella a little sister, another German Shorthair Pointer named Lena who is 2 years younger and ever since the 2 of them have had a wonderful life playing together, sleeping together, etc etc.

To this day we could not have been happier with Dr. Wright, the facility, staff and the procedure we thank God that we were lead to her and she was able to save our puppy.