My 10 week old Vizsla pup was gorgeous, sweet, and broken

From day one she was a “hard keeper”, never finishing meals, soft stools, and off the hook restlessness, literally all day and night. We invested in the best dog foods and supplements, added pumpkin and coconut oil.

She developed chronic ear infections and was dramtically underweight for her age group. So we finally consented to a small dose of prednisone to resolve the ear infections once and for all.

That was when the real trouble began.

At 10 month old she had her first collapse episode: the emergency vets were convinced it was a bee sting despite no evidence. Although she recovered quickly, in my heart I knew something was very wrong.

On her first birthday she was diagnosed with kennel cough and allergies. She was given antibiotics and recommended to try one of the new designer drugs, Apoquel or Cytopoint. Allergies are not normal and I was determined to find a root cause.

After seeing multiple traditional vets without a diagnosis, we saw a Hollistic vet. We started an elimination diet, acupuncture, and added a host of herbs.

She got worse. The coughing came back and her appetite all but disappeared. She now had four different skin infections which resulted in more antibiotics and the addition of antifugal washes.

Her feet developed open, bleeding sores and her pads turned white and crusty and would not heal. The Dermatologist insisted it was allergies despite her limited food sources (organic turkey and potatoes) and complete lack of exposure to any environmental sources of irritation (she was now a latch-key dog). We had a blood allergy panel done and with one exception to Birch, she was non-reactive.

She got worse. She refused to eat more than a mouthful of food daily, threw up each morning, and continued to toss and turn all night. We saw yet another specialist, Internal Medicine. I knew there had to be a single underlying cause for all of her symptoms, I could feel it in my bones.

The breeder said she was as confused as I was and had never seen anything like this before (oh, the painful truth will out). All blood work, ultrasounds, X-rays, and more came back normal. There was one small thing though; a pre-ventricular contraction, a heart arrhythmia.

She got worse. She was officially diagnosed with a potentially life-threatening PVC arrhythmia by 2 separate Cardiologists. So I took her to the best Vet-Med hospital in the County, UC Davis. They agreed that she should begin medication immediately. It didn’t help.

I got worse. The heartache and heartbreak of watching my baby, dying in front of me and not being able to help, or find a vet, any vet, to help was the most gut-wrenching experience of my life.

She got worse. A midnight trip to the emergency vet on my birthday ended in pneumonia and more antibiotics. She went into near liver failure and was taken off the antibiotics.

She wasn’t improving on the current heart medication so the cardiologist changed the meds and her arrhythmias improved. So they increased the dosage and within days she had another collapse episode.

I knew we were losing her. I called the breeder again in tears, begging for some insight. Heart disease is not something found in Vizslas, the breeder had to know something.

The breeder confessed that Glory’s mother had skin itching as well, that it was “a little parasite” that was clearing up. She swore up and down that she had never had a single health issue with any pup, well almost…

Part II: https://medium.com/@hmwe46/the-breeder-factor-59750275a140

What is Neosporosis:

https://medium.com/@hmwe46/could-this-deadly-parasite-be-quietly-killing-your-dog-6ac0dbc5b365?source=linkShare-888491cd9d22-1536532925