ALWAYS FAITHFUL
Remaining true to the focus of this blog today we honor our K9 hero, our furry veterans that have been too long forgotten by the military, but never forgotten by the men that they saved.. K9 team handlers say over and over that the difference between life and death often was the war dog that alerted the men that the enemy was right in front of them, often charging into the fray and losing their lives trying to save their handlers.
Incredibly war dogs were classified as 'ancillary equipment' till very recently. If a handler wanted to give the dog a home, they were told that they needed to pay the cost to get the dog home~ the military wouldn't. It would cost thousands and thousands of dollars, and it wasn't till handler and private citizen outcries that the laws changed.
Sadly, our military has left our War Dogs on every place on the planet where we have been in combat....since WWI. As our unknown solder at Arlington reminds us, the War Dog memorial reminds us that courage isn't just for humans.
There is a beautiful sculpture on Guam, of a Doberman, named "Always Faithful". He represents the hundreds of special canines that helped make the difference for our troops there. It's such a beloved sculpture, that it has been reproduced and put in parks, and canine campuses, even here in Knoxville, at the University of Tennessee Veterinary School, on the banks of the Tennessee river, meandering through the center of the campus, and of the town.
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Every six months we bring Frax to have his beautiful brown eyes examined, he has a precursor to
GPRU, a canine eye disease sweeping through the Golden Retriever ranks in the U.S. It leaves the dogs affected blind eventually, and shortens their working time with the people they've been tasked to help. A canine pharmaceutical company ACVR-Stokes offers free screenings at Veterinary teaching hospitals once a year for any working service dog that gets on the list for a screening. This started seven years ago, and Frax has gone every year.
Frax scared us, we thought initially he had the disease. He was a first unable to get in to screen at UT Veterinary School, and had to see a local veterinary optometrist, who misdiagnosed him and wanted to do surgery on his eyes! We immediately were in touch with Canine Assistants and our local vet at Central Veterinary Hospital. Research was done by them as they reached out nationwide and shared Frax's chart and pictures. Meanwhile, we took him to UT, where they diagnosed a 'per-cursor' to GPRU, but no active disease.
Every six months we go to UT, and his eyes are scanned and monitored. Around the colored part of his eyes, little 'bubbles' form, one even formed a 'stalk' and a bubble formed on the edge of the stalk...they pop, and reform. They don't hurt, and they haven't affected his eyesight thank God. Without the screenings we would never know this. Frax helps the students there recognize what the disease actually looks like....when it's dormant. There's no cure for it at this time. We are blessed in his case that there has been no progression. The guess is that since he is a hybrid, 3/4 Golden and 1/4 Labrador, the disease, for whatever reason cannot progress, since it's usually only associated with Golden Retrievers.
This time when we went, there were students in orthopedic and in behavioral health that were doing studies and asked if they could evaluate Frax for their studies, since he is so easy-going. So he got really checked out.
We couldn't help but swell with pride as one of the residents said, "Wow, he just floats down the hallway....he's beautiful!" as another student ran with him up and down the hallway, everyone in orthopedic evaluating his gait. Then someone asked "how old is Frax?". When we answered "nearly nine" there were gasps of disbelief. "That's just so unusual in a nine-year old dog!" they smiled. We smiled back. Good to know we are doing things right. Kinda affirmation that Frax has had a good life with us. He turns nine at the end of May.
I've written before about our adventures with GPRU, and you can look in the past articles to pull it out and read about it. If you love Golden Retrievers and Service Dogs in general, you'll be interested in knowing all about it. A very bright veterinary researcher figured out the disease existed in Golden Retrievers in California in the late 1990's. Veterinarians reached out to the show and breeding communities at that time, encouraging anyone with a dog that was GPRU positive NOT to breed and spread the disease. They were not listened to. And so the disease has spread since then to the Service Dog community, where Golden Retrievers have been very popular as helpers.
There is nothing more sad to see than a lovely Golden Retriever....go blind. Because people wouldn't listen. How many dogs have been blinded? How many Service teams broken because of GPRU? Unknown.
What is known? The absolute stupidity of the human race. When I first heard of how this started I was enraged. It's bad enough to have your beloved dog go blind from a disease that is incurable. But to know that it could have been stopped, and all the dogs that have suffered and will suffer from this disease could have been prevented...It's beyond a shame.
Every six months we go. Every six months we pray that things remain the same. And God has been so good, Frax remains stable. He has taught several dozen new vets what to look for and perhaps given researchers a jumping off point for a cure.
As we walk into the facility, there is the War Dog statue. I can't help but get a lump in my throat as we walk past, and remember the ones that came before, that saved our men from dying in foreign lands...and allowed them to come home and enjoy the freedoms we have today. So on this Memorial Day weekend, remember it's not just grilling hot dogs and sharing a tidbit with your furry buddies. It's not just the two-legged heroes we honor, but the four-legged ones too.
ALWAYS FAITHFUL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_War_Dog_Cemetery
https://nypost.com/2016/02/14/troops-betrayed-as-army-dumps-hundreds-of-heroic-war-dogs/
http://animaleyecare.net/diseases/grpu/
https://www.acvoeyeexam.org/
please view video link below picture
https://youtu.be/NtKKrgq8P4E?t=2
