sandra_slayton
Posted : 3/5/2006 1:04:06 PM
On Oct. 16, 2003 I lost my 4 year old golden retriever, Hunter, to autoimmune hemolytic anemia and liver damage brought on by his Proheart6 injection. I had never used a computer, but quickly learned so I could find information on Proheart6 and it's reactions. As I typed in ProHeart6 warnings, a quote from this site came up and I came here. I did not even know these forums, etc existed and I LOVED it. Imagine a group of people all talking about their dogs and trying to help each other with problems!!!! I had lost my dog AIHA because of the PH6, so i knew I could talk about those two things as i had totally experineced them. Also, Hunter's sister had had to have both knees operated on because of luxating patellas, so i could offer advice on that also. There were various other things i could give advice or discuss--bone cancer (I had lost my 12 old irish Setter to it), allergic reactions to vax--we had almost lost KayCee to that, etc. Being almost 60 and having had dogs all my life, I had gone thru various things with them. HOWEVER there were a lot of things I had never experienced, had no knowlege of and could only offer best wishes. BUT there was always someone here who knew about that particular problem and could offer correct advice.
A few months ago a lady from England came to this board looking for help. her dog had AIHA and she was desperate for help. Apparently her vet had not told her what could bring it on and she had no idea. I told her about my Hunter and that things like oridnary vax could bring it on--and her dog had received vax shortely before the onset. I told her of a couple of dogs I knew of that had survived and where to find their stories. One thing i did not tell her was that 50% of the dogs die within a week of diagnosis and anotaher 30% within a month. I saw no reason to discourage her as long as her dog was alive and there was hope. I did tell her it is never cured, just goes into remission and they can have a relapse at any time. some do live for many years before another relapse. Maybe I was wrong for not telling her there was only a 20% chance her precious dog would make it thru the initial onset, but I just wanted her to have hope and to pass that hope onto her dog.
In my opinion, this is what this forum is all about--helping each other. When i first joined there was one on who seemed to KNOW everything and he/she often put others down. I ignored his/her posts after I figured that out.
There will always be disputes over feeding raw, store bought kibble, home cooked, high dollar food, middle of the road food, cheap food. But you don't tell someone who feeds their dog middle of the road food they don't love their dog because they do not feed raw or home cooked food.
There will always be disputes over what supplements to give the dogs, which vax are really needed, to titer or not, etc, etc. But look at it this way. If everyone thought just alike, we would all drive green Impalas, all live in pink brick house with white roof, have one pine tree and one oak in the front yard, have brown carpet, dark blue sofa and light blue recliner, wear black on Monday, brown on Tuesday, etc, go to the Baptist church, eat fried chicken on Sunday, stew on Monday, etc. own a golden retriever and a doxie and a black & white cat. Wouldn't that be boring! We have have to have different opinions, ideas, thoughts and we need to share them. BUT we do not need to get nasty about it and expect everyone to think like we do.