A fun-loving dog who “wasn’t expected to reach Christmas” after a devastating diagnosis two years ago is defying expectations as he heads to the grand finals in a national agility contest.
Flat-coated retriever Ocean, four, from Runcorn, faced what was an uncertain future when vets found he was suffering from a tricuspid valve dysplasia with Ebstein anomaly - a rare congenital heart disease. His owner Joanne Sanderson, 39, said Ocean was referred to a specialist who told her: “You’ll be lucky if he makes it to Christmas.”
Joanne said that far from succumbing to his condition, Ocean has thrived and lives such a “fit” and “active” life that it’s helped to avert disaster. She said Ocean is like a “clown” and loves to lark around, and that playfulness has been channelled into agility sessions at which he’s excelled - even earning a place in the Dogeria Performance Challenge contest at the UKA grand finals.
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Joanne told the ECHO: “For a two-year-old dog it’s quite a shock, especially as he had no symptoms. He does three walks a day, he goes out with a dog walker, he does agility.
“He was an active dog - to be told that [diagnosis] was quite a shock. The vet can’t understand why he’s showing no symptoms.
“He should be coughing, he should be really poorly, and he’s not on any treatment - he’s on six-monthly heart scans. They can’t understand how he’s so well.”
Ocean is a patient with The Laurels vets in Runcorn and Leahurst, and trains with K9 Brats on the Wirral.
Joanne added: “He’s done agility since he was quite young. They’re saying that’s the thing that’s keeping him well, he’s so fit.
“This dog runs around like crazy, he’s so active. It’s ‘tricuspid valve dysplasia with Ebstein anomaly’ - he’s got a big heart, his heart’s too big and one of the valves leaks.
“He should have all these symptoms, and when we first started doing agility he was known as the ‘clown dog’: he liked stealing a welly or a rosette, anything to get a laugh.”
Ocean is now heading to the UKA finals.
Joanne said: “We had qualifiers this weekend, I didn’t hold out much hope. He did two rounds and came second overall.
“For the UKA grand final they had 10 heats and only two dogs (from each) go through and this clown dog with a heart condition is one of them.”
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