Tammy McDowell

Just returned from a vet visit for little Annabelle, the runt of our Malinois Litter, they are 4 weeks old today. Need advice, thoughts and input from experienced breeders and such if possible.

Little Annabelle is apparently a medical mystery. Annabelle urinates and defecates out of the same opening, my veterinarian and the others in his practice had never seen anything of the sorts but seemed to think that she'd probably still be able to live a normal life w/ the exception that whomever she stays with may have to clean her off occassionaly after going potty. BUT that isn't her only problem.

She also has a significant heart murmur. He said as a puppy she'll probably get along just fine but as she gets bigger it will probably cause her more problems. He said we can do an ultrasound to find out how severe the heart problem actually is and that maybe it'll show that she could possibly live 4-5 years or more if we are lucky.

IF this were a puppy from your breeding, would you do the ultrasound and find out the extent of the heart defect, would you do a wait and see (knowing that obviously she will not leave your home unless some unusual person come along that wants to take on such a thing), or would you go ahead and have her put down?

If you go ahead w/ the ultrasound, and the heart defect is really bad, do you go ahead and put her down then? If the heart defect isn't too bad (but still not good), what do you do then? I can see good points on each decision but ultimately I don't know that myself nor my family would handle keeping her knowing that possibly in a few months or years we will have to make the ultimate decision...but then what if that didn't occur for many, many years? *sigh*

Other littermates are healthy as horses and turning into little biting, growling, barking, fighting hoodlums. Puppy is currently growing and 'looks' and acts healthy just like her littermates.