20 October 2008

Lubaya was born in a litter of 10 puppies, 8 males and 2 females.

3 males and 1 female were ridgeless, all the other puppies had correct ridges and there were no kinked tails in the litter.

During the litter period the puppies were checked for Dermoid Sinus 6 times.

All times, we didn't find anything.

At last the Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of the Netherlands came to check the puppies for their usual litter inspection and

they also didn't find anything.

9 puppies were cleared to go to their new homes. Lubaya stayed with us.

29 January 2009

This evening we found a suspicious "thing" in Lubaya's neck.

We got really scared and immediately thought of a Dermoid Sinus.

We shaved Lubaya's neck but we could not find an exit.

Next morning we went to a very experienced breeder to check her again.

She also felt something but also did not find an exit.

She was not sure that it really was a DS.

3 february 2009 

 We took Lubaya to a specialist for a diagnose.

After feeling her neck he diagnosed her with DS.

For all parties it was a complete riddle why we didn't feel the DS before because the puppies were all checked so thoroughly in the litter period.

7 february 2009

To exclude everything, the other 9 puppies of the litter where checked again but luckely we found nothing.

11 february 2009

Lubaya went into surgery today.

After opening her we found the supposed DS, 2 pieces, connected by a small lump. There was no exit to the skin and the DS wasn't infected.

The specialist removed the whole DS successfully.

During the surgery my first doubts raised.

I was present at a DS surgery before and that DS looked very different as Lubaya's DS.

I checked with the vet 4 times if he was sure that it was a DS and he had no doubt.

Because Lubaya already was under narcosis we decided to castrate her at once.

A DS operated Ridgeback can never be included in breedingplans and if not necessary,

I did not want to put her to narcosis more times than needed so we did it at the same time.

12 february 2009

One day after the surgery and Lubaya was doing very well.

She was already walking around if nothing had happened.

We were truely astonished of the ability of a puppy to recover so soon.

The wound looked amazingly well.

No bleedings afterwards and no swelling untill then.

15 february 2009

Lubaya was doing great.

Today was the first day without pain-medication and we did not see any difference on her with the days before.

The wound still looked super.

Her hair (including her ridge and crowns :-)) were starting to grow back.

19 february 2009

The wound started swelling afterall.

It got the size of a tennisball.

26 february 2009

We took Lubaya to the vet because her wound kept swelling.

He gave her infection medication for 10 days.

After the first day of medication the swelling stopped and got better day by day.

2 march 2009

I got a phone call of one of my puppy owners.

They felt something in the neck of their puppy.

They are experienced RR owners and immediately thought of a DS to.

We did not want to take any chance so we took the puppy to the same specialist who operated on Lubaya.

He diagnosed the second puppy with a DS at the date of 3rd march.

 9 march 2009

More and more people (including myself) got doubts about Lubaya's and her brother's "sinus".

To miss 1 DS in a litter, ok, but 2...???

Why didn´t we feel this before? Why at exact the same place? Why so close to the chip?

After gathering information from other RR breeders and Dr. Sjollema in Amsterdam more and more doubts came so I made a decision.

To be sure that it really was a Dermoid Sinus, we sent it to a pathologist at the university clinic in Utrecht, NL.

He (or she) was the only one to make a final diagnosis, based on the tissue itself.

17 march 2009

Today we got the results back from the test at Lubaya's DS.

The pathologist confirmed my doubts.

The "thing" we removed from Lubaya was definitely NOT A DERMOID SINUS!!!

They found nothing more as ordinary bloodvessels, nervetissue and lots of fat.

There were no sebaceous glands, hair follicles, hair of chrotoplasts found.

Ofcourse, we are very happy with this news for Lubaya self, for Tina and Lex & for the other puppies in this litter.

We will hope that RR-world can learn something about our experiences.

Not everything you feel in a Ridgeback is a DS... not even if the specialist tells you so... :-(

If you feel something, please, always check the tissue before your make irreversible decisions!!!

For me is one thing for sure, NEVER in my life will my dogs or my puppies be chipped or vaccinated in the middle line.

We had an appointment with her vet and he apologized for his mistake.

He made us a proposition which with we were very satisfied. We are happy that he acknowledged his mistake and took his responsibility to make it right as good as possible.

22 april 2009

After weeks of sadness we made a hard decision.

Co & Marijke, owners of Nash, a brother of Ravira, were on the puppylist for this litter.

Unfortunately only two girls were born so there was no puppy for them.

The last weeks I talked a lot about Lubaya with Marijke and she told me that she was very welcome in their family.

Ofcourse I wanted to keep her myself but I also knew that I would make the family de Haze very, very happy with Lubaya.

I hesitated for weeks but finally I decided that Lubaya was going to live with Co & Marijke.

This day I brought her to her new family. It was very sad to say goodbye to her but Co & Marijke welcomed her with open arms.

Never, never in my life I could imagine giving one of my beloved dogs to someone else but I know for a fact that Co & Marijke will take care of Lubaya

the same way and with the same love as I would have. I miss her but she is in good hands with her new family and big uncle Nash!