Story told by Yadira from Arizona.

Our sweet Schitzu/Schnauzer baby Andy was born on June 6, 2000 and we just lost him on July 24, 2010. I want to share our story about him with you so maybe it can help anyone with this awful silent killer.

We noticed Andy wasn't himself a bit more lethargic and stopped jumping on the bed, started taking naps in a different area - changed some simple habits around. He didn't want to eat his regular dog food anymore. We just thought he was getting sick of his food (he still liked red meat and ham) . . . he was slower on walks we figured it was summer and he slows down in the heat normally plus he was 10yrs old.

His belly started getting bigger and it was not a weight gain belly. We took him to the vet, first they thought it was a tumor, then a tick born illness, bacteria or fungus from here in AZ - he was very anemic and we took him to a special hospital where he'd have the best care. They gave him a blood transfusion and he looked good for that day - made him strong enough to get more testing done.

The doctors were stumped when nothing would come up. All organs were fine they called it a "strange " case. He had no red blood cells and they didn't know what was destroying them. Finally they did a bone marrow test and Andy had histiocytic sarcoma. This liquid in his stomach was from the proteins not getting to his body he had a very very low red blood cell count. They told us Andy had 3 to 4 weeks to live when he left the hospital that Friday and he died 30 hours later. He was in my arms with us right there with him, he took his last little breath, let out a sound of release and is now in a very happy and amazing place. They said once the symptoms come up it's too late.

The doctors said he was not in pain. He gave us no signs that he was in pain but how can we know for sure. He was our sweet baby boy and there will never be another Andy.

Thank you for your website.

Naar onze Histio website in het Nederlands