My Friendly Pets

I received an email from a colleague at my job who had recently lost her dog. In fact, the email was sent to many people in the hopes that the information regarding her dog’s death could be used to educate those not familiar with the disease that took the life of their beloved family dog.

Tammy wrote in her email the following: “On January 20th we had to put Io to sleep because she had been infected with a tick borne disease, Ehrlichiosis and/or Anaplasmosis . She was only 9 years old, strong and healthy, so she did not show symptoms of this potentially deadly disease until 4 days before she died! Unlike, Lyme’s disease this one is quick and sneaky in animals. We brought Io into the vet on Friday the 16th for pre-surgery blood work (we were going to have her dental/gingivitis surgery the next Thursday)…on the way home she got sick in the car, but I thought it was nerves and carsick, as her personality was still fine, by Saturday she had become very picky with her food (again we were thinking her teeth), but still in good spirits…Sunday evening she went down hill very fast …diarrhea and threw up…no blood or anything…so called the vet Monday morning and she said she just got the results of her blood tests and to get her in quick, she was very sick…they did not want her to go home that night, but did not want her at the vet’s alone over night so we transported her to and emergency hospital to be monitored overnight…at 6:00 a.m. Tuesday she had her first seizure, Don transported her back to our vet by 7:30, at 9:00 a.m. the vet told me it is not looking good, tried heroic measures (the vet was great through the whole ordeal), by 11:00 a.m. she called me to say we need to make a hard decision….the hardest one pet owners ever have to make. By 12:00 we had to say good-bye to our gorgeous dog! In 4 days….that fast!
So you know…we take our pets to the vet every 6 months….Io had been treated for Ehrlichiosis previously in August 2007 and was due for further treatment August 2009…at her last appointment in August 2008 she was fine, we use Frontline, we take great care of our animals…you cannot vaccinate against Ehrlichiosis or Anaplasmosis…they are fast and potentially deadly, because by the time an animal shows signs, it is often too late….even with as strong and healthy as Io was, it was too late (because she was so healthy is exactly why we did not see symptoms until it was too late). The vet said even if we knew that Friday that we did pre-surgery testing, it was too late. She believes that Io was re-infested by a tick approximately 6 weeks ago. Our vet lost her dog to this as well, slightly over a year ago, so even the best care sometimes is not enough to protect against the diseases ticks carry.
It doesn’t matter where you live (although our area is quite infested with ticks), you need to be careful. Please make sure your dog is checked for this at every visit and don’t think that any out of the usual behavior/symptoms are not worth bringing your dog to vet. I pray that none of you have to go through this, we are struggling with the “lesson” behind this and perhaps it is for us to spread the information about this disease. Thank you for taking the time to read this and love every minute with your pet. Tammy, Don & Griffin”

I’m sure after reading this, you can feel the pain that Tammy’s family experienced. The loss of a beloved pet is the loss of a family member and the grief is extremely painful. Please take the time to heed Tammy’s words. Love your dog, take care of them the best that you can and give them an extra hug tonight!! Please click here to see more about this disease in detail.