Torteval Irish Wolfhounds

24 January 2005
Bert is unwell and the vet thinks he has poisoned himself by eating daffodil bulbs from the garden. He's lost 6lb in three days, has severe diarrhoea and is off everything except his bed and all his blankets at once! The vet thinks he will be OK, and he'll hopefully be on his way to recovery in a day or two, but if you have a young puppy, or even an older dog who likes to dig, please make sure that your garden doesn't contain any daffodil bulbs - all parts of the daffodil are poisonous to dogs.

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2 February 2005
Bert has now been diagnosed with a severe campylobacter infection. Although there is some improvement in his condition he remains very unwell, has lost a lot of weight, and is still not eating. However, now that he has commenced antibiotic treatment there should be some real progress.

15 February 2005
Bert has now been given the all clear from the vets - hooray! He has been getting better by the day, more energy, more playing and has that puppy-up-to-mischief look back in his eyes. And although his appetite is still poor, it certainly looks as though he's enjoying his convalescence!

7 March 2005
Bert has slowly gained weight, and now, at nearly 42kg, is back to his pre-illness weight of six weeks ago, but refuses to eat any form of dry kibble unless he's absolutely starving, then has just a few mouthfuls. He shows little enthusiasm even if it's mixed with something tasty. If he has more than 250g in one meal, he throws it up undigested after a couple of hours. He eats a few dog biscuits with tinned tripe, but the only food he's really interested in is apples with natural yoghurt - you'd think he'd been stranded on a desert island for six months, but it's hardly a balanced diet!

13 March 2005
Bert has taken a turn for the worse. A veterinary specialist has diagnosed a small, dysfunctional liver with many shunts, one of them major (abnormal vascular connections between the blood vessel connecting the gastrointestinal tract with the liver and systemic circulation, so that blood from the gut bypasses liver, mimicking liver failure. Click here for more information.)It is thought that Bert was born with a rare congenital abnormality of his liver and that the shunts formed later as a result, so that the problem escaped detection when the litter was tested for liver shunt at eight weeks old.

Surgery is not an option, so all Saffron's efforts are now directed at maintaining the best quality of life possible for Bert, with the help and support of Jo, his breeder. During the day he's fine, playing and chewing toys like a normal puppy, more so than he has done for the last two months now that he is on medication, but in the evening he becomes wobbly and disorientated. He is on a low protein diet with added pasta, which he's actually enjoying, and has small meals every 1.5 hours so that it's easier for his stomach to digest.

From here, Saffron tells the story in her own words:
15 March 2005
Good news!!! Bert has suddenly shot up about an inch and now has to duck when the top of the stable door opens! We're amazed, we thought he was going to be our forever puppy. I love the fact that his body must be feeling better, but I hope that getting bigger doesn't mean more work for his liver.
tomorrow we'll add a small amount to see if there's any change.

As if that weren't enough to celebrate, suddenly, 'upside down dog' has reappeared! He hasn't lain on his back baring his abdomen since about Christmas, but it seems as though he now feels his tummy is not as vulnerable. We had braced ourselves never to see that again, and all through the campylobacter infection we kept saying, 'When he's better we'll know because he'll do the upside down dog' but he didn't - till now! He's obviously feeling so much better that now I think that maybe his sleepy times aren't a sign of a puppy old before his time, but a hungry, eating, growing, playing, sleeping Hollyhenge hero!

And . . . he's hungry! He sits by his bowl and now he can reach to nudge it on the sink rack! We were concerned about adding pasta to his diet in case it overloaded his gut, but the vet has said that it's good carbohydrate and high quality protein, and unlike the bad protein that is harder to breakdown and produces more ammonia, like eggs. So tomorrow we'll add a small amount to see if there's any change.

If there is such a thing in healing through positive thought, we are all doing a great job! With the back-up of wolfhounds and their families around the world as a trampoline to bounce back from, he'll stand the best chance anyone could have! Thank you!

17 March 2005
Bert hasn't had a good time the last couple of days. I stopped the pasta as he seemed to go downhill after having it and has been rather mopey. He's still quite interested in food, and has been lying in the garden in the sunshine, but is wobbly sometimes when he walks.

My heart skipped a beat when I heard him whimpering in the other room - I rushed in, but he was just telling me the postman had arrived. This seems a positive sign as surely if he was really deteriorating, he would have little interest.

Out in the garden, he has played a little with his toys, not with the usual energy, but playing none the less. Hooray! He was also trotting around with a stick, but I confiscated it despite my joy, as I don't know if his tummy could cope with tree. What's more, he tackled the wobbliness head on with an attempted walk along the wall, which he almost managed! It seems as though just as I was beginning to brace myself for some tough decision making, he's decided to fight another day.

Because he's been sleeping today, I have fed him 1/2 a tin when he wakes up rather than every hour and a half. He's just woken up now and gone to lie down in the garden. Offered him dinner and he immediately got up and came to eat - so the feeding front doesn't seem to be deteriorating at the moment.

Argh! This is just so painfully difficult, and it's impossible to know what to do for the best. Maybe the bit of play is a sign that he has fought through another dose of ammonia and toxins - I just don't know.

18 March 2005
Bert didn't improve last night or today. He slept most of the day and wasn't interested in being outside. He continued to be wobbly and when he was awake he didn't seem at all there.

We spoke to the vet who said there is little we can do to help (although he did love his raspberry cordial!). We could put him on a drip to flush out some of the toxins, but really we would only be buying ourselves days. He is having the smallest amount of protein he can, and his liver is just not coping.

We have taken the decision to put him to sleep tonight. I have decided that it is better this way for him because I don't want him to get to the stage that he doesn't know who we are, or for these petit mal episodes to turn into full blown seizures. We know that he is terminally ill and I don't think it's fair on him to let him continue to deteriorate by the day. It's very hard to know when to draw the line but I've reached the point where I don't want him to go further down the road he is on.