Story told by Leslie

I just endured possibly the worst 3 days of my life. My husband and I had an 11 year old Dalmatian named Domino. We got her from the local animal shelter in Jan. 1996. She was a product of over breeding by greedy people during the 101 Dalmatian movie craze. She was on Thyroid medication for about the last 6 years of her life.  Over the last 2 years we noticed that she was shedding quite alot and her fur was getting dingy and she struggled to get around at times but nothing that was that alarming. She had allergies throughout her life and at one time was taken to the emergency vet hospital for some type of kidney infection that was treated with anti-biotics. In the time we had her she was the most loyal, loving and compassionate pet I have ever had. During her time in our home she saw my husband through 3 major surgeries and helped to raise 2 additional Dals added to our home. Our lives turned upside down on Monday, Sept 24 2007.

I had gone into town for a couple hours and on my return home I let the dogs upstairs, Domino made it half way up the stairs and just stopped, she could not go up or down. I eventually got her up the stairs and outside to let her do her business. She struggled coming back into the house and I knew there was a definite problem. I took her to the vet and they wanted to do some blood work and a radiograph of her abdomen. Her skin, gums and eyes were all a yellow color and she was struggling to breath and even sit up. I left her at the vet and waited for them to call me with results. When they got back to me they said her body was literally attacking and destroying her own blood cells and felt the best thing to do was take her to Kansas State Veterinary Hospital which is about 60 miles from my home. I got her there at about 7:30 pm that evening and left her in their care. On my drive home I was notified that her blood was clotting and that there was a chance that she would die from a clot going to her brain or heart during the night. By some miracle she made it until morning and the care and medicine they had her on seemed to perk her up a little. As the day progressed her health once again began to decline. I received a call at about 5:30 Tues evening from the Dr. that the additional test they had run were extremely discouraging that it was likely that she had Malignant Histiocytosis, although not conclusive until further testing. He told me he would keep me posted on her condition. In just 15 short minutes I received a call and was told she developed brain damage. I asked him if she would make it until morning because I wanted to be by her side when we euthanized her. He said it was most likely she would not. I asked if she was in pain and he said that yes she most likely was. At that time my husband and I opted to have her euthanized and would pick her up on Wednesday morning. We picked her up and brought her home to be buried on our property were we could say "Good Morning and Good Night" to her everyday.

The blessing in this is that she was happy and outgoing until that Monday. I don't know if she did that for our benefit or not, but I will always believe she did. She really never showed any outward signs of her illness until that time. Kansas State was never able to give us a definitive answer to her illness but MH was what they thought was the most likely cause, but I will never know for sure. This site gave me some insight into this terrible disease.
She is loved and missed.

Naar onze Histio website in het Nederlands