El Tanque Grande Es De Sandie

"Sandie's Big Tank"

Born May 25, 1998

We call Spring, Texas our home

Tank has suffered two Cruciate Ligament tears and subsequent repairs on each hind leg. The first one was torn in November of 2002 and repaired in March of 2003. The second one failed in January of 2004 and repaired in March 2004 almost a year to the date of the first one. He will have lost almost two years of just being a dog because of the surgery and recovery time involved with this type of surgery but the alternative would be to have this sweet lughead having arthritis and not being able to ever use his back legs properly and take a chance of having to end his life early due to not being able to even get up at an older age.

Please visit his TPLO picture story page for photos of his post surgery and recovery experience.

Tank's life got a bit more complicated when he contracted encephalitis in the spring of 2006. We almost lost him except for the grace of God and Texas A&M animal hospital. They did a spinal tap and were able to diagnose his problem and then treated with copious amounts of antibiotics and steriods to get the swelling of his brain to go down. If that was not enough it flared up again 6 months later.

Then on to the worse part of his life - January 2007. Again God and Texas A&M intervened and we were able to save him from death due to a ruptured splenic tumor. His speen along with the tumor was removed in middle of the night emergency surgery but unfortunately the biopsy came back as hemangiosarcoma - a terminal cancer. They gave him 2-3 months to live. His incision ended up herniating at 4 months post surgery and had to be completely opened up and resutured and the incision ran from stem to stern on his chest/belly. At this writing he is 1 1/2 years since that 2-3 month life span prediction and still doing well. We never know what tomorrow may bring but each tomorrow we have is a blessing.

Tank at Six Weeks

Diving for his battery operated fish

Tank's favorite place in the pool

What happens after a long day of swimming

Don't wake me up please

His Blues Brothers Look!

Tank's GQ Look - Favorite With the Ladies!

He loves hanging out on his raft

Retrieving his soccer ball