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Ali died eighteen days after he was born, of a congenital heart defect known as PRAA or Persistent Right Aortic Arch.
In normal foetal development the right aorta should attrify to nothing. When it does not, it effectively strangles the esophagus and the animal can not feed. It is more common in German Shepherds than any other breed of dog, but none the less Ali had it.
He was too young, too small and too weak for surgical correction. The condition (shown via a postmortem) was too severe for surgey anyway.
Why did we give him a name? He deserved it. Why did we call him Ali (as in Muhammad Ali)? Because he had such a strong will to live; even to the last moment; he fought all the way, but it was not to be.
It normally shows up when weaning of the dog is attempted and they start their first solid foods. The constriction of the esophagus does not allow food to pass into the stomach and it is generally regurgitated. Ali's case was so severe that he had difficulty in even keeping CoCo's milk down. Some dogs are lucky enough to be able to survive long enough to get strong enough that they are a candidate for surgery. One such example is Angel.
For a complete medical description of the problem, from a teaching presentation, please see University of Pennsylvania - Persistent Right Aortic Arch.
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