Hi everyone. Some here on BYC are aware of the story behind our 5 Red Heelers. We rescued them when they were 3 months old from an Amish puppy mill. At first we intended to rehome them to loving homes but instantly fell in love with them and decided to keep them. The first of the year they turned 2 and we love them dearly.
The first of this month one of the two females, Sidney, became ill. Sidney was my angel and happiness to her was sitting on her Mommy and Daddy's laps and giving us more kisses than we needed. So when she started with uncontrollable vomiting we became alarmed and took her to our vet. He checked her over. She was running a slight temp but he thought she had contracted a fungal infection that would be no problem to treat. He gave her a shot of antibiotics, sent her home with oral antibiotics and said to let him know if she was worse on Monday (this was Friday) By Saturday morning she had worsened. The vomiting was almost immediate after drinking water so I called the vet who wasn't in the office. They had us come out for medicine to stop the vomiting. She couldn't keep it down and by Saturday night she was refusing all food and water.
We spent Saturday night spooning water into her at a pace that wasn't causing her to vomit. Sunday morning she started having explosive diarrhea. This wasn't the normal diarrhea that dogs get. It was an odd color and the odor was frankly horrible-like something dead. I'm a retired nurse and I felt rising panic. I called the vet and an associate also a vet returned our call and told us they weren't set up to do fluid replacement and we would have to go to Columbia and the veterinary college at MIZZOU. Our fear was that Sid wouldn't survive the trip at that point which is about an hour and a half away. We found a vet in nearby Kirksville who was set up to do fluid replacement and took her there. The vet immediately started her on IV, did blood work which was very abnormal and an x-ray and told us that she suspected that maybe Sid had swallowed something that was blocking her pyloric sphincter in her stomach. Problem was that she was so weak that she wouldn't survive the surgery and we would have to take her to Columbia where they were set up to do what needed to be done for her. My husband raced her down there making the 90 minute trip in slightly over an hour.
I have to say that the doctors and staff and the University of Missouri at Columbia Small Animal Hospital are beyond the doubt some of the finest, most compassionate people I have ever met. They went to work and worked their heads off trying to figure out what was wrong with her and how to fix it. Finally they did a CT scan and the news wasn't good. They suspected that she had a disease called Pythiosis which is a type of for want of better word, amoebic disease that can be contracted from standing water such as ponds and mud puddles which we all know dogs love. Our dogs have a swimming pool behind our barn in the form of a lagoon that the previous owner of our property used to water his livestock. That was the only thing she was exposed to and her three brothers and one sister so far were without symptoms. The disease destroys the lining of the intestines and stomach and causes them to obstruct. The dog cannot eat. Loses weight and dies a horrible death. Sid had obstructions in her small intestines, large intestine, stomach, pancreatitis, peritonitis and masses in her mesentery. They couldn't save her and we did the only thing we could do because we loved her. We let her spirit fly free.
Her necropsy supported their suspicions. She was dying an untreatable, rapidly progressing killer disease. Once symptoms begin to show it is usually too late to save dogs. A few survive if there is only one lesion that they can remove along with a section of the bowel and then follow up with autoimmune therapy that the University of Louisiana is developing. But the survival rate is very poor.
Pythium can infect and kill dogs, and there is a cutaneious type that can infect dogs, horses and yes even humans. For the intestinal form of the disease the first symptom is weight loss. Sid has always been a slender dog so it wasn't until about two days before she started vomiting that my husband looked at her and said, is Sid losing weight? Since she is constantly running around at warp 8 we didn't think much of it. She was eating well and I said I would step up her calories. But even by then it was too late.
So I'm trying to get the word out to dog lovers and dog owners. PLEASE! Visit www.pythiosis.com and read about this disease. It's mainly in the southern gulf states but Sidney is proof that it is moving north and can be found as far north as Missouri and IL.
Protect your dogs. As much as they may love to swim, ask yourself if it is worth the risk. Pythium infects mainly young animals. 11 case studies in Missouri were done with dogs under the age of 4.
We want Sid's life and yes her death to stand for something. I don't want anyone else to suffer like she did with this illness and the way we did with her death.
In Memory of Sidney: Please Spread the Word!
The first of this month one of the two females, Sidney, became ill. Sidney was my angel and happiness to her was sitting on her Mommy and Daddy's laps and giving us more kisses than we needed. So when she started with uncontrollable vomiting we became alarmed and took her to our vet. He checked her over. She was running a slight temp but he thought she had contracted a fungal infection that would be no problem to treat. He gave her a shot of antibiotics, sent her home with oral antibiotics and said to let him know if she was worse on Monday (this was Friday) By Saturday morning she had worsened. The vomiting was almost immediate after drinking water so I called the vet who wasn't in the office. They had us come out for medicine to stop the vomiting. She couldn't keep it down and by Saturday night she was refusing all food and water.
We spent Saturday night spooning water into her at a pace that wasn't causing her to vomit. Sunday morning she started having explosive diarrhea. This wasn't the normal diarrhea that dogs get. It was an odd color and the odor was frankly horrible-like something dead. I'm a retired nurse and I felt rising panic. I called the vet and an associate also a vet returned our call and told us they weren't set up to do fluid replacement and we would have to go to Columbia and the veterinary college at MIZZOU. Our fear was that Sid wouldn't survive the trip at that point which is about an hour and a half away. We found a vet in nearby Kirksville who was set up to do fluid replacement and took her there. The vet immediately started her on IV, did blood work which was very abnormal and an x-ray and told us that she suspected that maybe Sid had swallowed something that was blocking her pyloric sphincter in her stomach. Problem was that she was so weak that she wouldn't survive the surgery and we would have to take her to Columbia where they were set up to do what needed to be done for her. My husband raced her down there making the 90 minute trip in slightly over an hour.
I have to say that the doctors and staff and the University of Missouri at Columbia Small Animal Hospital are beyond the doubt some of the finest, most compassionate people I have ever met. They went to work and worked their heads off trying to figure out what was wrong with her and how to fix it. Finally they did a CT scan and the news wasn't good. They suspected that she had a disease called Pythiosis which is a type of for want of better word, amoebic disease that can be contracted from standing water such as ponds and mud puddles which we all know dogs love. Our dogs have a swimming pool behind our barn in the form of a lagoon that the previous owner of our property used to water his livestock. That was the only thing she was exposed to and her three brothers and one sister so far were without symptoms. The disease destroys the lining of the intestines and stomach and causes them to obstruct. The dog cannot eat. Loses weight and dies a horrible death. Sid had obstructions in her small intestines, large intestine, stomach, pancreatitis, peritonitis and masses in her mesentery. They couldn't save her and we did the only thing we could do because we loved her. We let her spirit fly free.
Her necropsy supported their suspicions. She was dying an untreatable, rapidly progressing killer disease. Once symptoms begin to show it is usually too late to save dogs. A few survive if there is only one lesion that they can remove along with a section of the bowel and then follow up with autoimmune therapy that the University of Louisiana is developing. But the survival rate is very poor.
Pythium can infect and kill dogs, and there is a cutaneious type that can infect dogs, horses and yes even humans. For the intestinal form of the disease the first symptom is weight loss. Sid has always been a slender dog so it wasn't until about two days before she started vomiting that my husband looked at her and said, is Sid losing weight? Since she is constantly running around at warp 8 we didn't think much of it. She was eating well and I said I would step up her calories. But even by then it was too late.
So I'm trying to get the word out to dog lovers and dog owners. PLEASE! Visit www.pythiosis.com and read about this disease. It's mainly in the southern gulf states but Sidney is proof that it is moving north and can be found as far north as Missouri and IL.
Protect your dogs. As much as they may love to swim, ask yourself if it is worth the risk. Pythium infects mainly young animals. 11 case studies in Missouri were done with dogs under the age of 4.
We want Sid's life and yes her death to stand for something. I don't want anyone else to suffer like she did with this illness and the way we did with her death.
In Memory of Sidney: Please Spread the Word!
