So Angry at myself

CockerCharlie · Post by **CockerCharlie** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 9:19 am

I have been tearing my hair out since Thursday, Our little 8mth old Belle was rushed to the vets as she was fitting for 5mins. The vets have had here there ever since the fits keep on coming. She has also got very very low blood sugar levels and we are awaiting her to have an MRI as the vet is not happy with the type of fit that she keeps having. She is also awaiting more blood tests.

What has made me so mad is that we have found out that the place we brought her from has been closed down by the RSPCA for the owner being a puppy agent and buying from puppy farms in Ireland.

Now I know that you are all going to shout and scream at me for buying her from somewhere were we didnt see her with her parents but she looked health and other than a cough our vet gave her a clean bill of health and when she heard where we had brought her from which was a place called The Animal Retreat Centre said ok no probs. What we didnt know was that there name was almost identical the another one that is a rescue centre so we were duped by a name. When we went to look at this place the dogs there seemed happy and health no pot bellies no poo in the cages it was clean.

Since we brought Belle the place has closed and they are awaiting a court date for animal crultey.

I was just wondering if anyone else had heard of this place at all????

Mattie · Post by **Mattie** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 1:22 pm

Stop beating yourself up, that won't help you or Belle. Nobody is perfect, I know I have made lots of mistakes in the past, how we handle the mistake is more important than the mistake. Hope you understand that.

Can you let me have a photo of Belle and I will send Reiki to her, it may help.

Ocelot0411 · Post by **Ocelot0411** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 3:04 pm

Oh no how awful

. I am certainly not going to shout at you, nor do I think anyone else would. With hindsight, yes you probably wouldn't have got her from that place, but that's the problem with hindsight, by the time you get it, its too late.

When I got Ellie, I was a total doggie novice (still am really) and if I had known some of the things I know now I would do many things very, very differently, however as they say frequenty at my office 'we are, where we are'. i.e. no point worrying about how we got here, lets deal with the situation we are in.

There is nothing you can do about it now and also you can never be sure that Belle's problems wouldn't have happened anyway, its not necessarily a direct result of where you got her from. As Mattie says, beating yourself up won't help Belle or you. All you can do is do the best you can for her, which it sounds very much as if you do already.

So chin up, try to be philosophical about it and just crack on with looking after your girl. I hope she is better soon and my thoughts are with you all.

Keep us posted and best of luck.

DawnStorm · Post by **DawnStorm** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 5:34 pm

Mattie wrote:Stop beating yourself up, that won't help you or Belle. Nobody is perfect, I know I have made lots of mistakes in the past, how we handle the mistake is more important than the mistake. Hope you understand that.

Can you let me have a photo of Belle and I will send Reiki to her, it may help.

I agree. Put the frying pan down!

I had a shepherd mix that had a pancreatic enzyme deficiency and it was not diagnosed until he about 8 years old. After that an enzyme supplement was added to his food and he was on a low dose of phenobarb. He got along fine and lived to 14.

Mattie · Post by **Mattie** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:00 am

Can you describe the fits please?

Joe doesn't have normal fits and I have recently heard of another dog that didn't.

CockerCharlie · Post by **CockerCharlie** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:11 am

Hi vets have just called Belle should be back home with us tomorrow. She is being put on a drug to hopefully prevent anymore fitting till she can have a M.R.I scan on the 9th may.

From what i can remember and put into wods Belles fitting started with her licking her inside of her lips then frothing and loads and loads of saliva she then stated to shake and her eyes glazed over she then seemed to flip on to her back and her legs went ridged and it looked like she stopped breathing but thankfully she hadnt. she then just shooked and foamed at the mouth, she also bite the nurse when fitted the seconded time.

pat · Post by **pat** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:48 am

No-one's going to shout at you. You've done everything you can for Belle and it sounds to me as if she has a wonderful home with very caring humans to look after her. Good luck with the MRI scan and I hope it all goes well.

Mattie · Post by **Mattie** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 9:48 am

Thanks, Belle's are different to Joe's, his are caused by food alergies and low blood sugar.

CockerCharlie · Post by **CockerCharlie** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 1:08 pm

Vets are not letting us have her home yet she is still gotta have an MRI and is due to have that on the 9th may so im hoping that we will get her home b4 she has to have that done. at this moment in time im waiting for this evenings update. it is so quite here without her.

I also wanted to say thank you for not shouting at me.

emmabeth · Post by **emmabeth** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 8:59 pm

No ones gonna shout at you... we reserve that for people who dont care that they make mistakes, or who refuse to learn from them (same sorts of person).

Quite clearly.. you are not that kind of person.

Unfortunately whilst there is LOTS of information out there on how and where to buy your new/first puppy... its NOT at all easily available to people buying their first dog. So like you, many many people only discover that they went wrong after the fact.

It is a shame but i am yet to come up with (asides from mainstream tv which is not exactly easy to achieve) a way of getting the useful information across to potential dog owners.

Even those of us who do know teh pitfalls and the 'right' and 'wrong' way to go about things make mistakes, struggle to find really REALLY good breeders or rescues etc...

Soo..... dont beat yourself up!

Fingers all x'd here for Belle!

Yoshi · Post by **Yoshi** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 9:38 pm

emmabeth wrote: It is a shame but i am yet to come up with (asides from mainstream tv which is not exactly easy to achieve) a way of getting the useful information across to potential dog owners.

I had an idea on how to remedy this a few weeks ago. While reading my dog books, one suggestion was to offer different kinds of classes. I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be great to host a seminar about dogs before the owners got one?" I was thinking more along the lines of making sure they wanted the dog and "puppy-proofing" the house, but I can see this fitting right in!
Only thing is that it's a good idea in theory, but it's gonna be a good while before we see it in practice. Hey, I'm working on it

CC: It's really awful how people treat animals for profit. But now you have a wonderful little dog, and I can tell you really care for her. The world needs more dedicated owners like you! I wish all the best for you and her

CockerCharlie · Post by **CockerCharlie** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 4:01 am

Vets are letting her home today we are going to pick her up at 5.30pm all being well between now and then. she is on some meds to try and stop anymore fitting between now and when she has her MRI scan in may. Im so happy to be having her home it is so deafering without her here. Thank you all for your support. Il let you know anymore information when we have been to the vets.

Mattie · Post by **Mattie** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 5:01 am

That is good news, I have send her Reiki and hope it helps.

Carrie · Post by **Carrie** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 12:23 am

Oh my! You must be so worried about her. I do hope they'll find out what is causing these seizures and that it can be treated. I am so sorry you're going through this.

No. Don't beat yourself up. Listen. I got my Doberman from a very reputable breeder. She, in fact won the breeder of the year award more than once. She has been breeding Dobermans for some 40 years and has the foundation dogs of many, many champions. Her lines are very well known and are traced through many other lines. The grandsire of my Doberman was top Doberman of the country a few times over.

My dearly departed Doberman developed masticatory myocytis or trigeminal neuropathy...didn't know which (which didn't progress badly), two types of liver disease; chronic active hepatitis and copper storage disease, (which was being managed fairly well) he was affected with sub clinical Von Willebrand's disease and he died of stomach cancer at age 4.

I have two Chihuahuas that are from a back yard breeder who are healthy at 6 and 8 yrs. old, all except for patella luxation (knee problem) in one of them.

I have an 8 yr. old mix breed who was taken from her mother at 4 weeks of age and found in a garbage bag on the side of the road with the rest of her litter mates....all dead except for her. She's healthy as a horse and well adjusted.

The point I'm trying to make is that there are no guarantees and as careful as one is to find a good breeder, bad things can still happen. Of course, it's generally in your favor to avoid puppy mills and of course, now that you know, you won't be supporting them again. But, you can not dwell on what you didn't know. So, move ahead and love your dog. I pray that her problem can be diagnosed and treated effectively. Hang in there. (((hugs)))

CockerCharlie · Post by **CockerCharlie** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 6:51 am

Hi all just a quick update before we go to the vets. Belle hasnt had anymore fits to date however she has become clumsy and had a fall this morning so phoned the vet and told to come in and check her over due to the fact that she is slightly limping on her back legs. Il let you know more when i do and thank you for all your kind words.