~ Tara's Page ~
~ One breeder's nightmare, another's
blessing ~
Tara
came as a total and complete surprise. Her mama (Dawn)
was due to deliver, yes, so that was not the surprise. But the surprise came
when Tara was delivered a full FIVE days before we expected her! So unprepared
were we that my daughter came home from school one afternoon to find Dawn in the
corner of the living room with Tara baby tucked between her legs, suckling
noisily - the whelping box had not even been set up yet!
She was born with a littermate sister, but the sister died before my daughter made it home from school. We do not know the cause of death of the littermate - there was nothing obvious wrong with her - but given Tara's special circumstances it is really not so big a surprise the littermate sister did not survive. I am inclined to believe she was born alive, but suffered some malady which was not apparent to the human eye, and was immediately rejected by her mama and left to succumb to hypothermia. A very sad fact, yes, but unavoidable, since the litter delivered so early and caught us so off-guard.
From
the beginning, however, Tara appeared, acted, and grew as any normal newborn
whelp might. And was she ever beautiful, carrying her mother's beautiful blue
coat with lots and lots of flashy frosting! And the older she got, the more like
her mother she became, a little barky, sassy, bite-your-face and
get-away-with-anything bitch. Her favorite game quickly became a game of chasing
my shoe laces, which she would untie every chance she got, for just that purpose
- to chase them! Play with her mama Dawn would inevitably turn to Tara running
up to Dawn and grabbing a mouthful of fur and tugging - hard - with all her
might, then scampering off to hide under a table or behind a chair where she
thought Dawn couldn't see or find her. She was, by far, the happiest, spunkiest
and most promising puppy to enter our lives at Ailea's Place.
By
the time Tara was about 4 weeks of age she had begun stealing food from her
mama's food dish, so out came my concoction of puppy mush - puppy
kibble moistened with canned goat's milk, with a bit of canned Pedigree puppy food and baby oatmeal mixed in. She
loved the mush and took to diving in, all four feet, and rolling in it as she
lapped it up. When her appetite was sated she would collapse on the floor of the
playpen and in would come Mama Dawn, to snack on the goodies coating Tara's
little body as she lay sleeping soundly.
Still nursing on mother's milk until she was about 5-1/2 weeks old, Tara showed no sign whatsoever of having any problems of any kind. She was a typical sheltie puppy growing up ornery and getting into everything she could find.
The
time finally came, though, when Dawn was finished nursing her, and Tara was fully
weaned just shy of her 6-week birthday. Within days of weaning Tara baby became
terribly, fatally ill for no reason we could know or guess. She started seizing.
Massive, grand-mal seizures that would stiffen her little body like a board and
leave her incontinent and limp as a wet dishrag when over. The first seizure
came on a Saturday afternoon, but we were not aware it was a seizure since it
occurred while she was crated. All we found was an exhausted puppy lying on a
very damp crate pad. We dried her up and cleaned her off, cleaning the crate and
putting in a fresh blanket. She napped awhile and then, at supper time, gobbled
up her supper as usual, running and playing afterward as she always had.
It
was not until the following day - Sunday - when she seized again, this time
before my very eyes, and I realized what was going on. A call to the vet and an
emergency meeting at the vet's office produced no diagnosis, reason or
explanation for the seizure. Suggestions of hypoglycemia and the administration of Karo
syrup was suggested and we were sent home. She was fine for the evening.
But she seized again, this time in the early morning hours on Monday. Off to the vet again. This time she was administered a valium injection, and after consulting with the other two practicing vets at the clinic and coming up empty on causative factors, we were once more sent home with another valium injection and no explanation. "Watch her" he said. So off we went again. Before we made it home she seized again - this time under valium sedation - so we turned around and headed back.
My
vet was very sad to see me return so quickly, and knew immediately why I was there. Since
they had no idea what could possibly be wrong with her, there was only one thing
we could do, and that was to put her poor, tired body to rest, where she might
never know the pain of such a seizure again. She was, of course, sent for
necropsy.
Tara puppy died from a massive, systemic infection which she acquired while in utero - while she was a fetus developing in her mother's womb. This infection, which is passed to the developing fetal whelp, does not make the pregnant bitch sick, and is not even detected in the pregnant bitch at all. Nor is this infection detected in the puppy while nursing and mother-dependent. Rather, this infection makes itself known when the puppy has been fully weaned. Onset of the problems (grand mal seizures are the most apparent of them) occurs mere days after the puppy has been completely taken off mother's milk. In Tara's case, the cause of the seizures was not known until the post-mortem necropsy was completed. This little girl didn't have a chance.
A
couple of years after my experience with Tara I
received a correspondence from a fellow
sheltie-breeder who seemed to be experiencing a similar instance with a young
puppy. This breeder, knowing Tara had died only weeks old, wrote me to inquire into the circumstances surrounding
Tara's early death. Lo and behold, the symptoms of this little puppy and Tara's
symptoms were the same. Armed with my information, this breeder was able to
present this puppy to her veterinarian before the seizures became so debilitating, and an antibiotic
regimen was immediately implemented, forestalling further development of the
infection and, ultimately, I am pleased to say, avoiding death entirely.
This puppy's name is Amber, she lives today, and is proudly owned and loved by Canadian sheltie breeder Bonnie Saul of Islewind Shelties. Her website may be found at http://www.islewind.org/ and the information about Amber, the little sheltie that was saved from this devastating infection, is located at http://www.islewind.org/shelties/medical1.htm.
So, breeders, beware and BE AWARE. I am excited we could save Amber, and can only hope and pray we might save others down the line.
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