Our 1st blog and the start of our story

When Jasper was about 8 weeks old my daughter who has had uncontrollable seizures since she was a newborn, had a really bad seizure while laying on the floor playing with him. Jasper started flipping out, barking like crazy, running in circles and whining. Over the next few weeks my daughter had many more seizures and Jasper did the same thing.  So I did a lot of research to find out why he was doing this. And then we brought him to one of Brittanys neurologist appointments and she just happened to have a seizure in the office. The doctor was amazed and helped us find a place to get him trained as a service dog. We all spent 6 weeks in Nevada with him while he was getting trained and they tweeked the way he alerts us. He now alerts to her seizures up to 15 minutes, usually about 10 minutes, before she has one.  He still flips out and barks like crazy but now he comes and gets one of us and runs back to her and sits with her until the seizure is over and she is coherent. If they are outside on the leash he stays with her until she is coherent.  But he lets her know that she needs to find some where safe to sit down or to tell whom ever she is with that she is about to have a seizure.  Due to her other medical issues (High Functioning Autism) she is not outside alone she always has a caregiver with her.  Before Jasper came into our lives Brittany slept in my room on a twin bed, so that I would hear her if she was to have a seizure. He has given her some Independence and me a normal life of having my own room. ….  Jasper is far more than just a dog… he is my daughters best friend, he is her lifeline to normalcy, he is my fur kid. He is loved so much.

BUT WHAT WAS OUR HAPPY “NORMAL” LIFE CAME TO SKETCHING HALT  

On Monday morning Feb 9,2015 Jasper was hit by a car. We had unexpected company late the night before and when they left, they left our gate wide open even though there were signs posted to please close and latch the gate. So Monday morning when Jasper was let out to go potty, he found the open gate and decided to go exploring. He made it up to the highway was hit.  We found him 15 minutes from the time he was let out. So he was only out for a short time. We rushed him to our vet and on inspection and xrays found nothing broken, alot of road rash, and a laceration to his front right leg that required 5 stitches. BUT he would not bear any weight on the R front leg. The vet told us to take him home and love on him and maybe he will start using his leg… We brought him back on Wednesday for a check up and the vet did some testing and Jasper had no feeling from his shoulder down.  We were given options to take him to specialized vet for more testing or we can move forward with amputation. In my gut I knew he was going to lose the leg one way or another and why should we prolong his recovery any longer so I made the VERY hard decision to have his leg amputated. On Friday Feb 13, 2015 Jasper had his R leg amputated.  When the vet called to let me know how the surgery went she said we made the right move with amputation that there was major artery damage, the muscle was completely severed and there was major nerve damage.

We are now 7 weeks post op and Jasper is doing amazing.  He is the same Jasper as before, he doesn’t seem to mind that he is missing his leg, nor does it slow him down.  He loves to play ball, he rough houses with his lil brother Rosco (a 8 month border collie), thinks go bye bye in the car is the best thing in the world. And of course he still gives wet slobbery kisses but we don’t mind them…much!  He is back to alerting when his kid has seizures and continues to sleep in her room with her.

Before Jasper’s accident he was a hearty 80+ pounds (the vet did say his weight is probably what saved him) and after his amputation the vet wanted him to be between 65-70 pounds preferably closer to 65 pounds… After 6 weeks of being on his diet (7 weeks post op) Jasper went in to be weighed today ….. he is 67 pounds