SANDY   

                                                                       11/15/94 - 4/11/08

NOTE: if you like the song that's playing (if you don't hear it yet, wait, it takes awhile to load), go here to learn more about the lady that made it for me, Janet McLaughlin.  The song you hear is a personalized version of "My All American Boy".

In December, at my New Year's CPE trial, I noticed Sandy running very funny.  Here's an exerpt from an email I sent to some friends asking advice about what was going with her:

"Sandy has had “fecal incontinence” for about 3 weeks now.  Since early/mid December she’s also had more weakness in her back end; it’s deteriorated such that sometimes she falls down just walking if the footing is uneven or a dog (usually Jart) bumps into her.  She has been walking “funny” – one leg/foot splayed out.  She was always a bit like that, but lately it’s been worse.  She ran wonderfully at the early Nov. CPE trial, and because of that I put her in my new year’s trial, but it was clear the first day (with her condition at home looking worse weeks before, I had guessed this outcome) I pulled her from the rest of the weekend’s runs.

Today I went to the vet’s for some shots for Buddy, and wanted them to look at Sandy, too.  They ended up taking radiographs because the vet noticed some nerve weakness/damage on Sandy’s rear end.  The radiographs showed no space between the last 3 sections of her spine near the back end; she said it was either a traumatic event (unlikely since we didn’t see any fractures on the radiographs) or a possible cancerous growth.  The vet said that likely the nerve damage would get worse, and it meant Sandy didn’t have long before she started deteriorating.  I don’t know (didn’t ask at the time) what would happen, other than losing control of her back end, which may be soon.

She prescribed, for now, the following, even though she doesn’t hold out hope that this will do much to improve her condition:
Prednisone
Tramadol
Gabapentin

I know about pred, it’s for pain.  Tramadol is also for pain, from what I gather.  Gabapentin is to help improve her nerves/nervous system.  I checked online and it’s also an anti-seizure medication.

I’ll be calling my vet back on Monday with a progress report so can ask more detailed questions then.  She’s also a student in my Thursday night agility class, and a very nice lady, so I can basically pick her brain as much as I want.  I currently would most like to know the best and worse case scenarios, I guess, so I can plan for both eventualities.  But, in my heart, I’ve been seeing Sandy not doing good the last month or so, and am worried that it won’t be a best case scenario…"

Then, on Tuesday, April 8th, after discovering some more problems after months of changing her medications and getting some acupuncture done on her as well:

"I have bad news about Sandy.  She had developed a neurological problem due to something impinging on her spine.  That's been going on for about 3 months, and she now has fecal and urinary incontinence, as well as being uncoordinated, no strength in her back end.  Well, I found out at the vet's yesterday that Sandy is now also in Kidney failure.  She'd been having problems eating (but soft food she still could manage) the past few days; this is in addition to getting more and more wobbly and uncoordinated, and very weak in her back end, plus the fecal and urinary incontinence.  Lisa Wiggins, my vet, said she has from a few days to few weeks left, and it will get painful and bad for her.  So, I've decided to take her to the vet to put her to sleep on Friday morning just after our lesson/playtime with Sue and Cami (they've been coming to me for lessons for years).

Lastly, here is the email sent out to my friends on April 11, 2008 at 2:30pm:

She is now with her pal Crystal, playing and running around and climbing A-frames together like they used to (some of you may remember me doing brace agility with them several times!).

Video of Sandy taken on Thursday, April 10, 2008

Video of Sandy's last play date, Friday April 11, 2008

2006 was a good year for Sandy.  In addition to earning the C-ATE (see next paragraph), she also made the CPE Top Ten List for Specialist dogs (even though she didn't start competing and getting points as a Specialist until July), plus managed to crack the Top Ten for Lifetime points, coming in with 7565 points in her CPE career.

Sandy also made the Top Ten in 2007 in the Specialist Class!

Go to CPE Top Ten Page

Sandy achieved a huge milestone in 2006: her CPE C-ATE (Agility Team Extraordinaire) title; she was only the 8th dog to ever achieve this title.  Even though she was running a bit slow the day she got it, it was still a nice run and a nice video to watch.  It's low res because it's 2 minutes long - about 50 seconds for her run, then the post-run celebration :-) 

 In August 2006, several friends surprised me at the CPE trial with a banner showing both the Cleanrun ad for Sandy's C-ATE and several well-wishes and sentiments about Sandy.

If you'd like to see just the run or the post-run celebration only, I've saved those portions in medium-resolution, quick-time format.

                                                                 
Back in 1997, just entering her prime!                     In 1998, in the heat of summer

Crystal and Sandy doing what they love most; chasing each other!  They're playing the USDAA game of brace, where one handlers directs two dogs at once around an agility course.  It's loads of fun for both dog/handler teams and spectators alike!

  At the New Year's 04-05 CPE Trial at the farm.

  From a trial back in 2001, resting in between runs :)

Video of her O-NATCH NADAC run (Gamblers) from 2002

More photos...
      

CPE:

C-ATE

C-ATCH

USDAA:

LAA-Bronze (15 Q's in each class, mixture of Championship and Performance; at least 150 Q's total)

                                     Sandy, Buddy and Crystal, a picture taken back in 2002 by Cindy Telley of Pet Art.