Laurelin_429
Posted : 8/20/2008 5:51:45 PM
Thanks guys, it was a very trying ordeal an I know I didn't post much about it here...
Basically he slowly became paralyzed starting with just a slightly off gate we noticed 2 weeks after getting him. We talked to the vets who said it was a neurological problem. We ran every test we knew of (blood tests, toxins, parasitic disease, MRI, x-ray, etc, etc etc.... literally everything) , consulted several vets and universities and geneticists. The only thing we could come up with was something that had never been recorded in papillons and is not well studied anyways in other breeds. The latest vet called it a 'storage disorder' and thought it had to do with spinal fluid... one thought it could've had something to do with a disease passed through the placenta... We'll never know basically. Slowly we went through every test known to man and each thing came back completely normal in every way. The doctors thought it'd stop progressing eventually but it didn't. They said it's very very very rare to have a disease that progresses so rapidly. He slowly lost function until he couldn't move his legs at all. We kept him alive in hopes that his last really thorough blood work would show something. It came back normal, of course and we decided for his sake to end it. The only other things we could do would be post mortem. My sister and father took him in and held him while they put him down. He was her first puppy after all.
The other two pups we've had pass have also had neurological problems but very different than this. None have ever been able to be explained. I don't know if part of our purpose in life is to love on these pups that aren't going to make it or what, but he couldn't have had a better home. This one was so trying on us, though...
Right at the start we were offered another pup as per contract but we chose not to get it and to stick by him. We thought we were supposed to have him for some reason. He was a great guy, very very sweet and VERY smart. Now, the breeders want us to take another pup but my sister is unsure if she's ready for another just yet. She definitely wants another dog, though she is not sure when.