Butchie, Butchie, Butchie... What can I say about Butchie? Butchie is a very special dog, he is from our last litter out of Lucy x Brix.

It was a great delivery, Lucy was doing fine at home, I was all alone because Tom stayed overnite in Philadelphia for a surgery the next day at Hahniman University Hospital. She started late in the evening, and by morning she was resting, but I knew there were more pups in there. Her radiographs were amazing- so many babies crammed in there. The girls at work were guessing 12 or more, I was saying maybe... but by morning only seven babies were out and she was done. I was on the phone with the doctor I work with and also gave her a few rounds of Oxytocin, she would push, and this pup would come out a little and then slide back in. I could not grab it. Dr. Smith said take her to the vet, so off we went to my local vet I use for emergencies.

Radiographs showed three giant pups and a small one, the small one was blocking the way. We tried calcium, that did not work, so we went in w/ a C Section. I was expecting dead pups, but was amazed when they told me all four were alive! And there he was, the little guy blocking the way. He had the most amazing kinked tail you have ever seen. He has five deviations in his tail! This little bugger was amazing.

After a week though, I noticed his urine was very dark and thick. Hmmmm, could he have kidney issues? I gave him a little bit of fluids under his skin and went out for the day. When I came home I stimulated him to urinate and it was clear, until the end, again, dark and thick. Then something just popped in my head, I never checked if these pups were all pooping, does he have a "butt hole"? No poop... I tried to take his temperature rectaly, I had not taken the temps of any of the pups because they were all doing well, in the kitchen, heat going, mistake! I could not get that thermometer in his rear. This little boy had no opening!

I called my work and asked Dr. Scali if she ever saw this, she said she heard of it, but never saw it, and she is sure he has an opening. So I packed this little boy up and took him to my job. I had a gaggle of doctors looking, trying to get things in his rear, small french catheters, nothing would fit, he had no opening, of course nothing would go in! Dr. Britt, a surgeon, was on at the time as well, she decided the best route was to see if we can find the extent the development of his digestive tract and move on from there. We did a bladder contrast to see what things looked like, he had a complete digestive tract, but a "fistula" or connection, between his urethra and colon, and no opening. Through the miracle of modern day veterinary medicine, two fantastic surgeons gave this little guy an opening! They did a stab incision and small rectal pullthrough. Dr's Jill Sanmarco and Tara Britt are credited with giving my boy a chance. But because of his size, they could not find the fistula and repair it, we hoped it would seal itself. His name was Butchie, he needed a name before surgery, because of the risk of anthesia and surgery, we did not know if he would make it, he was named "Butchie" after Tom's dad, whose name is John but everyone calls him Butchie. He was one week old when he had his first surgery.

When I arrived at work that evening, and fed him, and he pooped out of his new anus - I was never so happy in my life to see dog poop! We all cheered, we all felt good about this. The next hard part was I was leaving for North Carolina in a few days. I had total trust that my dog sitter, my sister, who took care of new born pups and geriatric dogs for me would do fine in nursing the new surgical patient. He did fine, but he was thin and not nursing well, but again, he held on and did ok, with supplemental feeding and getting the good nipple, he thrived. His opening though, started to close up. His sutures dissolved within a few days, it was not right. Again, back to Dr Sanmarco and Dr Britt.

This time they put various sizes of red rubbers (french feeding catheters) in his opening to "stretch" it. My task was to do this 3-4 times a day, going from a size 9 to a size 14. It was hard on the little boy, it hurt, we gave him pain medication but not too much because that would cause other issues. Each nite at work Nancy Beck held him and I did the red rubbers. To this day he is scared of Nancy, all he saw was her face and pain. But I can jump forward and tell my readers, that after 3 months of doing this, his opening stayed open, was appropriate in size and no longer needed to be stretched. If you looked at his butt today, you would think it was the one he should have had when he was born. We were worried that if he needed another operation on his anus, he would loose all anal tone and be totally incontinent with his bowls. Luckily we did not have to operate there and he is ALMOST normal!

The fistula did not seal itself, he would urinate through both his penis and anus, and also had issues with digestion, so he would still sometimes leak feces through his penis, so when Butchie was 6 months old, we choose to try to correct the defect and neuter him at the same time, so he did not have to be subjected to further surgery. His neuter worked great, and we thought our problems were solved, the fistula was found and removed, his urethra and colon now separate and sutured. Within a few days though, his sutures failed, his neuter was fine, but his urethra and colon sutures opened. We were all devastated. We tried to repeat the surgery, and yet again, it failed. A third time we had plan to use a graft (sheep mucosa) on the colon and urethra, place a urinary catheter, give him the runs. This way there was no pressure from feces on his colon, and no acidity from urine. It would have worked great, if an inexperienced technician did not remove his urinary catheter that evening. She deflated the internal balloon and he was urinating around it, so she removed it. No one called his surgeon, when I came in that evening, it was too late to replace it, when we tried, the sutures were already gone.

Words cannot express how angry, how upset, how frustrated we all were. This little man was fluctuating between 22 and 30 lbs between surgeries. He would have wrappings, and catheters and e-collars, be on vitamins and holistic and on and on. He would go to a show with me all done up in his "gear" - my little special man, I would not board him when I was away, and I could not burden my sister with his care, he had to travel with us. We thought for sure this third surgery would work, but it was ruined. Dr. Sanmarco was willing to do it again, and the fourth time, we did it all right. He had his gear on for two weeks. Then the day came, his u-cath came out on its own, probably just from time, ok, lets go pee! He squatted... he peeded, out his penis... then out his anus. It did not work. Butchie is now 16 months old as I create his page, he is about 35 - 40 lbs. He still urinates out his anus, he gets butt baths everynite, he will have chronic urinary tract infections, and ultimately we will probably loose him to kidney failure. But for now, he is a happy guy, plays rough with his sisters, he is the new man of the house (after loosing his buddy Levon this past winter). He thinks he is 140 lbs - what he probably would be if he was "normal". We love him very much, we deal with his mess, and his smell. We keep a close eye on his health and his quality of life. We love him dearly and he is my special man.

I would take Butchie to work with me every day, I even bought him a carry bag, he was so tiny. Even when he outgrew it, he would sit on the seat of the truck for the ride to and from work, but I always brought his bag, he would squeeze himself in there to sleep. He is one of the most popular pets at my job. He would visit all his friends before leaving, the day nurses and doctors, leaving a trail of pee and poop leaking out his butt. He is very much loved, for all the pain and suffering he has gone through, he is a happy dog with a great personality.

His condition is called Imperforate Anus or can also be called Atresia Ani. It can be congenital, if it is, I don't know. I have never heard of another Dogue de Bordeaux with it, and I do know the breeder of his father and his mother, and it has never been mentioned that this is has happened before, or with any Dogue de Bordeaux breeder. Unfortunately, for our breed, many things are secret, or overlooked, so has this happened in our breed? I don't know. I do know that I am diligent and keep track of my dogs and what happens, so it will be interesting to see if this happens to any dogs down the pedigree in the future.