My sweet Ziggy Bear has passed away from sudden heart disease

[Kristen and Ziggy!]

Hello, I just wanted to inform everyone that my sweet ZIggy unfortunately passed away last week. About a month ago, he was being treated for "kennel cough" which in turn was actually congestive heart failure. When his "kennel cough" got worse 2 nights later, we rushed him to the VEC where they took chest x-rays expecting to find pneumonia and in turn they found a severely enlarged heart and fluid filled lungs. Ziggy was put on oxygen and iv's where they administered multiple heart medications and then we were transferred to Dogwood Emergency Center where we saw a cardiologist. The echo revealed that he was suffering from Dilated Cardiomiopathy which is genetic and kicks in as soon as they are born. His valves were super dilated and barely functioning. He was hospitalized for a couple days and then we had him on all the necessary, expensive medicines and he was doing great! We were told that with his case of heart disease, it could be weeks but generally we were looking at 6 to 9 months left of his precious life. Worst 48 hours of my life. Then a couple weeks later, Ziggy died very peacefully in his sleep one afternoon while my mom was watching him. She said that he let out his usual dreaming squeaks and my Mom tried to wake him from his dream, but could not get him to respond to her. He just kept dreaming away not making any noise. She got down on the ground, put his head in her hands, felt his fluttering heart, and then stroked his head and told him how much we all loved him. It was then that he opened his eyes and looked at her, as if to say "i love you too" and then went back to sleep but to never wake again. This has been the hardest week of our lives. The house feels empty. My fiance and future father in law buried ZIggy in a beautiful pasture on my in-laws land and we ordered him a beautiful headstone and I plan to plant him some flowers once the ground settles. My heart aches everyday for him.

I am curious if anyone else you know has had a doodle suffer from congenital heart disease? Ziggy never showed any signs, and they said they usually don't until their first bout of heart failure. He did pant A LOT but our vet always attributed it to all of his fur and that he was just a "hot" dog. He also was very laid back and had bouts of energy bursts, then he was just done playing. You don't really realize that these could be warning signs so I just wanted to share so that we could spread awareness. I am interested in possibly putting together a Ziggy Foundation to help raise money for research on prevention and CURE! Unfortunately there is no cure at this point, trust me I asked everyone and everywhere. I would have done anything to save that dog but we did everything we could with all of the medicines. The Dogwood Veterinary staff/atmosphere/ technology/everything was marvelous and I highly recommend it to everyone! Its near Willow Lawn right off of Broad by the Arby's.

I hope that one day we can find a cure or prevention or something for this because 3 years was not nearly enough time with my sweet darling doodle bear.

[Deb Stanton]

I've been off the site for quite a while and just read your posting. Your Ziggy Bear looks so  much like my Wakefield, I just had to tell you how sorry I am that you lost him so soon. I know you will give your new one all the love and attention he needs.- and then some!

[Dawn B. Roy]

Kristen,

We are new to Doodlkisses are wanting to be doodle owners.  I am so sorry for your loss with

Ziggy.  We had a deposit on a little boy and were notified last night that he has a serious heart

defect that was detected during his initial vet visit.  We are heart sick that he is so sick.  We can

only imagine how devastated you are.  I know your new dog can't replace Ziggy, but, hopefully

new precious memories will be made.  We wish you the best.

Dawn