This blog post is dedicated to a very special husky. Spreading love and joy to everyone he met was his thing. He did it so well. He had striking blue eyes along with adorable white paw socks. Seeing him in photos always had me in awe. Meet Thor. You can see all of the hearts he's touched here: @lihuskybrothers
Thor was a healthy five and a half-year-old Siberian Husky therapy dog. He spent a lot of his time with his mom Jodi Ekberg volunteering at Northwell Health's Long Island Jewish Medical Center and Zucker Hillside Hospital. I also work for Northwell Health and one day I came across a photo of Thor on Instagram at one of our hospitals volunteering. When I found out about this handsome young man spreading joy to the patients at Northwell Health, I wanted to learn more about him. I followed him on Instagram and learned that Jodi was the administrator for The Empire State Snow Dog group on Facebook, which I am a part of.
On October 1st, 2019, I was sitting at my desk at work and thought "Hmm. I wonder if Thor is volunteering at any of the hospitals today." Sure enough, I saw a photo of Thor on Instagram at one of our hospitals. He was there filming for a video about Therapy Dogs! A little later in the day, I learned from The Empire Snow Dog group that something had happened to Thor and he was rushed to the vet. People were saying it was probably a heart attack. A few days later, Jodi made an announcement that Thor had suddenly lost his life to a deadly condition called spontaneous pneumothorax. I was shocked. I couldn't believe it. How could this be?! He looked fine in the Instagram photo the day he was filming!
Yes, spontaneous pneumothorax can happen just like that. It also can happen to cats and humans too. Did you know that large, deep-chested dogs, such as Siberian Huskies are believed to be more susceptible to spontaneous pneumothorax? Petmd.com and Purina Pro Club both mention the Siberian Husky breed.
According to an article from the Pethealthnetwork.com, "Spontaneous pneumothorax, usually occurs because of a weird disease in the lung called a bulla. Think of it as a bubble in the lung that pops and causes an air leak. Again, the air cannot escape from the chest and makes the lung collapse. It’s spontaneous because we don’t know what causes the problem." After doing some research and from seeing Jodi's announcement on the Facebook group, I've learned that there are signs and symptoms we can watch out for so we know when to rush our dogs to the vet in order to prevent this deadly condition from taking our dog's life.
Here are some noticeable signs to watch out for below. If we can catch this early enough, the vet can have a hole punctured into your dog's chest to drain the air. After that, a breathing tube will be inserted until the holes are able to close up on their own.
Broadening of the chest (the air leaks into their pleural space which makes the chest appear broader)
Gums will turn blue
Unable to eat
Unable to lie down
Additional signs to watch out for:
Short of breath
Respiratory distress
Abnormally rapid breathing
Labored breathing Shallow breathing
Dull breathing sounds
Coughing
Hypoventilation
Restlessness
In honor of Thor, I am asking all of you to please share this piece of information to anyone you know who has a Siberian Husky or those with a large chest and deep-chested dogs. According to Jodi, after raising awareness about this condition in other dog groups on Facebook, another husky parent recognized the signs Jodi spoke about and took their female husky to the vet right away. The x-ray and sonogram confirmed she had spontaneous pneumothorax but she will live since it was discovered early.
Thor did not die in vain. Now that we know what happened to him, we can help him spread this awareness and save lives together.
RIP Thor...
Until next time,
Elaine
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