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Welcome to Amber's Page!

Amber's Story

Amber (Amarilla by Morning) is an AKC registered beagle. Amber's parents are: West End's Sami (dam) and Ch Alamo Briarcliff's Maxx Outt (sire). She was born on April 18, 1998. Amber was 8 weeks old when she was introduced to our family in June. The day after picking her up, her ears became red and wet with fluid. We took her to the vet where she was diagnosed with Juvenile Cellulitis or "Puppy Strangles." Amber's case was very severe according to the vet. He said Puppy Strangles can last anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks.

She began to get lesions or ulcerations under and around her ears, on her face, legs, paws, belly and later on her body and neck. The first week she was lothargic and the lesions were so bad on her paws that she could hardly walk. The vet put her on oral antibiotics, prednisone, eye ointment, ear drops, directed us to give her a bath every night for two weeks with medicated shampoo, and to keep the area under her ears clean with diluted hydrogen peroxide (twice a day). Although Amber wasn't going to be a show dog, we were concerned about her scaring where the lesions were. As it turned out, 6 months later she was not scaring and her hair, where the lesions were, was growing back! Boy was it a rough summer.

Due to Puppy Strangles, Amber was susceptible to other diseases from dogs. We were therefore not able to socialize her as much as we had liked when she was a puppy. I take Amber everywhere I can. She tends to be a little shy around strangers but once she gets to know you she is very sweet.

Another Amber Story

One warm evening in mid August Amber layed down on the lawn and didn't move, not even for a treat - that's unusual! We picked her up and she was kind of limp. She definitely was not acting right. I opened her mouth to look at her tongue and it was blue and pressed down to the bottom and back of her mouth. We had no idea what had happened. We tried to make her lick ice cubes to get some liquid in her mouth/throat and it seemed to help. We also tried to keep her airway open so that she could breath by putting a hand in her mouth. It was off to the vet emergency hospital again, a 25 minute drive. Her face began to swell so we were thinking maybe she got stung by a bee. As it turned out she did get stung by a bee and is allergic to them. She was given a shot of cortisone and a shot of anti-inflamatory. We were instructed to keep some Benedryl on hand in case it happened again.

The following are some pictures of Amber with Puppy Strangles: