We lost our fight

[bellsaad]

My daughter found a old dog about two months ago just sitting in the middle of the street, of course she took him right away to the vet had him checked out, our vet said that he looked like someone had abandon him, and his blood worked was not great. We got him all fixed up this including removing most of his teeth, they were rotten and I can imagine painful. Three weeks into bringing this dog into my home I noticed strange behavior from him, vet said he was blind in one eye, but he still had enough site to get around, but the dog would run into walls, get lost, and seemed confused. I went back and forth to the vet looking for answers, I had to finally dig around and figured he has cognitive dysfunction syndrome. Just about this time I noticed he started a new habit, he would get his paw in his mouth, like he had something in his mouth, it got so bad that he tore his tongue, and that was a trip to the vet, who examined him, even sedated him to really look in his mouth and throat, nothing. I started the dog on anipryl, at this time the vet also started to sedate the dog, since he would go at his mouth. The sedative was Acepromazine, started with 1/4 of a pill, now the dog only weighs 8 pounds, went from a 1/4 to a 1/2 to finally it took a whole 10mg to get him settled. I even left him in hospital to be observed, he was seen by 5 vets and not one of them ever seen anything like this. The clawing continue to progress till he had open and deep wounds on both sides of his face. It was the worst thing I have ever seen, I resorted to the Elizabeth collar, so he would not get to the wounds on his mouth, he would just go nuts, he would grab the collar and do actually flip completely over, I was fearing he would break his neck or have a heart attach, since he was 13 years old and not in good shape. It was very bad, the last time we went to the vet we tried again another antibiotic, we had done steroids, everything, and the vet gave me a 30 supply to keep the dog clam, well when we rushed him into hospital, it was 7 days later, and I had only two pills left, that is how bad this situation became. At the hospital they again ran tons of tests, and I was told they had no idea what was wrong, they had never seen something like this, the dog was actually harming himself, it was disturbing, we put him down, which broke my heart, even though I only had him for a little over two months, he had my heart. I wanted him to have a nice happy life after being on the street like that, and I feared he suffered so very much at the end. I just want to know what happened, what did he have wrong with him, I did every test known and nothing turned up, the doctor said that the behavior looked almost like his wiring in his brain was going haywire. So if you all know of anybody that has seen this in their animal, please let me know, I just never want to see another animal suffer like that.

[Christine]

I am so sorry. You probably gave him more care and love in the few months you had him than he had in his whole life and bless you for that. I have never heard of anything like what he was doing. It must have been so painful for you to watch and desperately want to help. Rest assured that you went above and beyond to make life up to him and he knows that as he runs free and healthy at the Bridge.

[GabrielDeafBlindPupFamily]

The one thing they take with them to the Rainbow Bridge is the love of their family. He was so lucky to find you. He found YOU. I am so sorry for what he endured, and what you endured trying to give him comfort. I was tryin to capture a wild dog on the side of the highway and 7 ace didn't knock him out, just made him wobbly. Still couldn't catch him. Depending on the 'fight' in the dog, the wilder ones do not sedate very easily, because their life on the street (or highway) depends on quick thinkng and quicker reactions.

I am so sorry for your loss, but beyond touched that he had a family to die with. THANK YOU SO MUCH for loving him, caring for him, giving an abandoned dog a family and all the love he ever wanted. Tears for all of you today.

I lost a dog in NOvember to full-blown OCD, and your pup may have had some hardwiring of destructive behaviour (just like in humans). At first it is a behavior. Then it is an indesirable repetition of a behavior. Then after a period, it becomes hardwired. We tried to crackc that hardwire for a year and a half. We fought like mad.
You can see the fight here:

http://www.handicappedpet.net/helppets/ ... 14&t=10816

[bellsaad]

Thank you for your kind words, I was reading about your dog with OCD, the only difference with my dog is that he would attach himself. Once he started with his mouth it went down hill fast, by week 4 he had deep raw wounds to both sides of his face. It was horrific, those wounds must have been painful, I had him on the e-collar and he got out of it one day in the yard, he was out of it maybe 5 minutes tops, and in that little time he had reopened the wounds and was full of blood, just digging into those wounds, that had to be painful. Like I said before I hope I never have to witness that again. I just so want to know what the real problem was, and if there was something that could have been done. I know he was seen by 5 different vets and they all said the same thing, they had never seen anything like this in their career. The last vet sent out a alert to other vet's in the city to see if they had ever witness anything like this. He was my little pork chop, that is what I called him his name was Roosevelt, my daughter gave the name to him, reminded her of the old president since we knew he had some problems. I never got to see Roosevelt normal, healthy, he was such a sweet little dog, looking around with his blind eye, adorable. I miss him very much, I have my little Gus who is a rescue chihuahua, whom is a sweetie. I just won't rest until I know what the problem was and why my dog attached himself.

[puremutt]

You are a true angel!
At least the dog got a home before passing on, bless your heart.

[LisainCAN]

That dog hit the jackpot when he met you! Not many people would do what you and your family did. Your daughter deserves praise too since she showed the compassion to begin with and did not just ignore him or leave him where he was.

It sounds to me like the cognitive dysfunction syndrome idea fits and that unfortunately he may have had some dementia or brain damage that caused his behaviour to go haywire. If it comes from the brain itself, then it is impossible to cure and you did the kindest thing possible by letting him go. I am sure that he felt your warmth and kindness despite his self-aggression and I have no doubt that he passed on with relief and deep gratitude and love in his heart.

[Bendy Kitty]

There is a human disorder which makes an individual claw at themselves, they ahve to be kept in restraints. It is not a concious act on their part, a friend of mine has a relative with it. She said otherwise he appears quite normal, but has to be in soft restraints all the time and his hands can be see pulling against them soemtimes. he is unaware of it.

I wonder if it was some kind of brain tumor, or other neuro disorder, it certainly sounds like one and those are unlikely to show up on standard tests.

you gave this little guy your all, and even though he couldn't express it, I'm sure he felt it.
I wonder if his previous owners saw him acting strange and abandoned him. We'll never know.

We only know the end of his story, which was that he found a wonderfully kind, loving home who gave him peace when they could not do anything else.

many purrrs to you.

bendy

[janeiro]

I'm so sorry to hear about your loss but it seems to be that nobody could have done more to save the dog. My dog had a central brain lesion. I found her unconscious in a pool of vomit and rushed her to the vet. He thought that she had been poisoned and treated her for this. When she came round she started to bash her head against the concrete kennel wall at the vets. She knocked out her front teeth and severely battered her head. She was in utter panic. The vet had no conditions to treat her, so we drove seventy kilometres to another better equiped vet who had 24 hour facilities because by this time it was night and the other vet said she couldn't stay there alone because she would probably kill herself when the sedatives wore off. The other vet kept her heavily sedated for 15 days. When they tried to bring her off the sedatives she would lay quiet on one side, but if they tried to lay her on the other side she would use her neck and head to violently flip over to the other side. Her whole body except for the neck and head was paaralysed. She had to be expressed by tube, fed by tube, and couldn't even wag her tail. We took her to a neurologist who diagnosed the brain lesion and explained that she was probably seeing a distorted version of the world. He even said perhaps everything was upside down or spinning to her. He said he couldn't say whether she walk again or not. Wait and see. I noticed that if I blindfolded her she could lay on the oposite side and didn't flip violently over bashing her head again. Well my story did have a happy ending. It took her a year to relearn everything again. We carried her out to the garden on a blanket every day and watched her begin wobbling around after about six months. It took her a year to walk like a drunk. She got steadier and steadier and finally two years after this awful day she runs and plays. Her back legs aren't great and she is disabled to a certain degree even though she is still young. The neurologist didn't know why this happened. She is a rescue dog in Brazil and arrived with a scar and bald patch on her head where the vet assumed that someone had beaten her. I often wonder if this was some kind of delayed reaction. I think you did everything possible to help this poor dog.