It has been a few days sense the passing of a small mixed breed 4 month old Hudson. One of the worst things one can encounter in the pet industry is dealing with the loss of a pet to a customer. It is even worse to have to talk to them about how it wasn't there fault. It has taken me a while to write this due to my mix feelings on the situation... After suffering the decision was made to euthanize him an autopsy found Hudson was suffering from a liver shunt.
Now for a background on liver shunts. In utero its the mothers that provides the function of the liver because the puppy's has yet to become fully functional. Towards the end of gestation ductus venosus is supposed to close so that the puppies liver is fully functional. If it fails to close its refereed to as a intra-hepatic shunt, a extra-hepatic liver shunt is when the blood flow to the liver is rerouted by an abnormal blood vessel outside of the liver. There is much debate as to them being genetic or nurture. Personally I think it is a little bit of both a dog is predisposed to a disease or condition malpractice causes the condition to develop sooner or with more vigor. This little guys undoing was due to his nonfunctional liver, a build up of ammonia poisoned his little body.
I can say with absolute faith that this woman was doing everything for her dog. Not only did she take advice well and did her own research but everything from this dogs diet to toys was well thought out and planned. He was one of those dogs who you could tell could have become a candidate for the best of canine species. However over the course of a few weeks his condition rapidly deteriorated till after he was finally diagnosed, put to sleep.
I have two deep underlying problems with his story, the first was that he was found online via a craigslist ad. Now I am all for rehoming dogs and craigslist is a wonderful tool for people however when you get a puppy and the breeder/owner has no wish to remain in contact with you its a huge red flag. Liver shunts commonly affect multiple puppies if not genetic from the parents, if this was an intentional breeding chances are one or the other of the dogs is going to be bred again. Meaning more suffering for many more dogs and for the owners of these puppies. The second was the lack of interest the veterinarians had. I know she had gone to the vet on multiple occasions, one because he was peeing a lot without much control, another a distended stomach, then for a rash down his body. A blood pannel would have shown many indicators of a deeper underlying issue. It deeply upsets me that simple bloodwork tests werent done and much of this dogs suffering could have been avoided. He was given plenty of antibiotics some seemed to help, then ended up being told it was an inner ear problem do to a development of wabbling and falling. Multiple seizures proved it wrong. The owner was told to wait... the dog suffered. I cannot express in words how this makes me feel. She was a one in a million owner any dog would have been blessed to have and I do not say that often. The whole system failed her. All I can say to fault her was she should have requested the breeder information and developed a huge knowledge of dog diseases ( the last bit was sarcasm). I am deeply ashamed that the pet industry as a whole failed this woman. Me a part of it, as I take this dogs passing as a personal shame.
~Happy Tails~
