NEWS
Weimaraners
Ryanstock
Weimaraners
2011
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Davey, Sh. Ch. Ryanstock Genteel JW has been extremely ill with a mystery infection, in fact so ill that it was touch and go for some time. Davey is one of those dogs that you would wish to own, he is gentle, kind, inoffensive and would feel mortified if he did anything to offend you. He has had two close scares over his 13 ½ years, both were dealt with successfully by our vet in whom we have great confidence. It all began with Davey finding it difficult to get up from a sitting or lying position, we immediately thought at his age perhaps he is beginning to develop arthritis. So we went down to our vet and asked if we should begin some form of pain relief, he suggested that we should give it a try. Just a couple of days later we noticed a little blood in his urine, this was not unusual as he was prone to develop urinary tract infections following a serious prostrate operation only five or six years ago, as part of this operation Davey had to be castrated. The vet prescribed his normal antibiotic treatment for the urinary tract infection, this had always been successful in the past. On this particular occasion that was not to be the case, Davey just lay in his bed, his pupils dilated, indicating that he was in some discomfort. He refused to eat and he went more than a day without urination, so we got him down to the Vet’s. He had to be carried to the car and carried into the Vet’s surgery, when he took a look at him he was shocked. He did some basic tests and suggested to us exactly what we knew, that Davey was a very sick dog , you could see the whites of his eyes were blood red, he could not even lift his head. The vet initially thought that the urinary tract infection may have spread to his spine as he had no reflex action and his feet turned back if you tried to hold him upright. He appeared to have lost all sensation when prodded by the vet.
We stayed at the surgery whilst tests were ongoing, X rays were carried out first, and after a series of Xrays the vet was surprised and delighted to tell us that Davey had the spine of a six year old, but that did not help with the diagnosis. He then had scans taken of his organs, all of which showed he was quite normal, his blood tests confirmed that he had a raging infection, white cell counts were off the scale and he was full of toxins. The vet suggested they needed to get him on a drip immediately and administer some pain relief, whilst we never leave the dogs overnight at the vets without good reason we could see this was an extreme emergency. We advised the vet that he had not urinated for more than a day and they said they would insert a catheter when we had gone. There was a phone call not long after we returned home to tell us that they had managed to get some urine from him but it was nearly 100% puss. Things went from bad to worse on Sunday morning as the antibiotics did not seem to be working, they suggested they try two types and we said just do it, whatever it takes. Monday when we rang we were told that he had not moved and they were turning him every few hours, he would not eat and could not lift his head. We asked if we could come and see him and when we arrived we saw a very poorly animal that was suffering and showed no signs of improvement. We asked if we could come back on Tuesday and spend some time with him, that was agreed. The vet had provided us with a consulting room which we could use for a couple of hours, we carried Davey with his needles and tubes still attached into the room. Elaine had brought him tinned dog food which he usually loved, denti-rask treats, biscuits, in fact anything we thought might temp him to eat. Elaine managed to get a couple of hand fed pieces of tinned meat which tempted him, we advised the nurses and left the remainder of the tin with his treat biscuits. Wednesday morning the senior partner in the practice who we usually see rang to say that Davey showed no improvement and whilst he would be happy to continue treatment for a few more days we should consider his situation and he expected we might have to let him go at the weekend.
When we arrived on Wednesday we managed to get him up on his feet with our support in our consulting room and Elaine managed to persuade Davey to eat a couple of biscuits and a couple of denti-rasks. Thursday the word was gloomy, Davey had not eaten but he had somehow struggled to put himself in a different position when the nurses went to check on him. We spent two hours with him and managed to get a little more food inside of him, we tried standing him with our support and he could still not place his feet the right way. We spoke to the senior vet and he was surprised that we had made even limited progress but Davey did raise his head when he entered the room.
The vet asked us if we were ready to make any decisions and we both said that we had made those difficult decisions for the right reasons in the past but when we looked at Davey there was still a sparkle in his eyes, just a glimmer of that spirit that is needed to fight. So we asked the vet if we could take him home for the weekend and then we could see if we thought we could provide him with a quality of life, we needed to be with him and see his mobility and capability with our help. The vet agreed so long as I would be happy to insert a catheter and relief him of his urine 3 – 4 times a day, I said that would be fine. After the weekend we rang the vet and told him that Davey had eaten a normal meal with us supporting his head, we had been walking him with our support across the kitchen, he still turned his feet from time to time. We asked if we could continue for another week with his two antibiotics, pain relief and other medication and they agreed. We maintained this regime for three weeks and during that time Davey began eating his normal meals from a bowl, we could get him to stand for a short time and by the end of week three he passed urine in the garden. Since that time we have pushed him a little every day and he continues to progress. His medication has ceased and he is now able to walk normally with no assistance. In fact he now has more exercise than the other dogs most days because we are conscious that he needs to build back the muscle on his hindquarters to help him stand. He enjoys carrying his ragger like he always used to do and he now barks for food and before his illness he never barked at all, he would leave that to the girls. He has shown remarkable resilience, determination and character to fight this illness, all of these qualities he has never shown nor needed to show in the past he was just a quiet easy going dog who loved everybody and everything. It is great to have him back and to be able to make sure that he enjoys the rest of his retirement with us for as long as that may be. We try to make each day special and he seems to enjoy the extra attention, plus he has a new special bed, made just for him and he can curl up or lay stretched out and it is so well padded he can sleep and dream to his hearts content. We still have no idea what the infection was or how it managed to paralyse him but more importantly for us and for him is that he fought it and won ! We took him back to see the vet to have his bloods and urine checked a couple of weeks ago and he was totally amazed with his condition and his progress, he admitted that he and his colleagues were genuine in their opinion that he would not pull through but he was delighted to see that he had and that he looked as fit as ever. The nurses that cared for him were in tears when they were re-introduced to him, as they said , he was never any trouble but they felt that there was no more they could do to help him improve.
Davey was really very ill and could not even lift his head
Davey has made a remarkable recovery much to our relief
Davey in his new bed