I'm Rocky's rescuer and I'm going to tell his story. The love I have for
this unique little creature is beyond words. I'm going to give you an assessment of just Rocky when I arrived to the home that was releasing him. Since this is his story I won't get into the horrible conditions of the females.

When I arrived at the house the owners preferred not to be there when I picked up the dogs. The dogs were behind the house with only ½ inch water in their bowl that was full of mud. They were in a very small holding area with a make shift fence that I had to peel back and get them out. They had no grass no shelter just an area of 7 x 10 feet. They were so excited to see someone and the smell of them over powered my car when getting them to their foster Mom for a cleaning and grooming.

Rocky wasn't quite a year old yet. He had little human contact or manners and didn't know how to walk on a leash. After being in our care we kept noticing that Rocky kept having nasal discharge and quiet a rumble in his chest. He was taken to the veterinarian for antibiotics to clear up all that what we thought was an infection going on.

When Rocky was cleaned up and ready for placement I brought him home with me. I fell madly in love with him but noticed this on going green stuff coming out of his nose and how tired he seemed to be for a puppy of 10 months old.
So several placements were put on hold because of his on going nasal discharge.

I made an appointment with my Vet to have his ears and sinus checked. You can see how much dirt was in his ear canals. This is a before and after. We had to a biopsy done to see what was going on with all the mucus secretion.

Rocky and I made numerous visits to different specialists with no explanation of what was going on from every Vet we had seen. I sat and cried at one office because the diagnose the Vet made thought putting him down might be
the best option. I was emotionally stripped and so was Rocky from so many tests and so many Vets.

We finally went to The Specialty and Emergency Clinic In Overland Park Kansas. I can't say enough about this clinic as they have helped with all our special Rescue cases. Dr. Dennis diagnosed Rocky in 10 min's. 3 Veterinarians later and 1200.00 spent before seeing Dr. Dennis. We had an answer "Kartagener's Syndrome" which is a birth defect caused by a recessive gene characterized by chronic pneumonia, chronic sinusitis and all of his internal organ's being on the wrong side… (reversed) All these things are because the cilia in the body don't function as they should so the body produces no cilia to help sweep out infection and mucus. Dr. Dennis could see
that Rocky's Heart was on the opposite side when reading the X-rays.

Rocky's treatment is a low dose of antibiotic daily along with doing some coupage on his lungs to keep them clear.

I was so Thankful to find the help of another lady with a Westie name Twink. She had the same problem. Click here for Twink's story.

Rocky lives a Happy life with 3 other Westie's and is doing the very best he can. He is such a love muffin and one love muffin that touched my heart in a very special way.