About Us
| Story So Far |
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IMPORTANT READ THIS FIRST!!!!! Our story so far He is extremely healthy, very very fit, 4 long walks a day, the one on the afternoon was a good 2 - 3 miles all the way around a huge park. We have been mountain climbing together, to London, Scotland, the lakes everywhere. He has no fat, and is mostly muscle, I'm trying to say that it wasn't his body that caused this problem. Also neither of us smoke in this house, and we are walking distance to a beach, so have no problems with air pollution. Just before christmas 2007, we noticed when he was passing stools, he would cough, like he had something stuck in his throat, we mentioned this to his vet on a regular checkup, and she just laughed and said i dont know. So we just left it assuming that there will be nothing to worry about. Just after New Year 08 he started getting out of breath very easily, but never thought much of it, then he developed a cough. His cough was mostly when he was exercising, not during the night or when he was at rest, so we put it down to a very simple cough that we all get from time to time. A few days later, under heavy exercise, like running up hills or stairs, or welcoming us back home he would start to choke as if he had something stuck in his throat. Then he would drop to the floor, not all the way, just hover at about an inch of the floor, so he wasn’t laid down, he was still under his own power not unconscious. But he would act as if he wasn't aware of anybody around him, and just stare into space. This was in Mid Feb 08. We booked an appointments at the vets, but had to wait a few hours so took him for a gentle walk in the park and this happened again, falling down. Happening in the same sort of way that a person would fall down in a film being shot... staggering around and then falling over then lying there with his legs out like he had just been dropped out of an airplane. We took him straight to the vets, and they diagnosed him with Epilepsy, and told us apart from a few test drugs and an MRI scan to check his brain for anything that shouldn’t be there, there was very little they could do, this was all to cost £2000!!! So we left it and said to ourselves, if he gets any worse or it happens again, we will try anything the vet told us, but to be honest we weren’t really very confident in the vet, as he had already diagnosed him once 12 months before for a limp in his front leg with severe arthritis, needing scans, x-rays and pain killers that came to the cost of £1200 plus £30 per month, to have his groomer find a ball of hair matted on his paw. Once it was removed his limp miraculously disappeared. We changed vets (27th Feb 08) and immediately the new vet diagnosed the coughing and throat problems with chronic bronchitis that had spread to his lungs, and had been there for months. The reason for the passing out, he wasn’t getting enough oxygen to his brain and made him either have mini fits or just pass out. He was put on a dose of antibiotics, as his chest was so wheezy he couldn’t hear his lungs clearly (constant barking in the vets didn’t help either). A week later (5th March 08) we went back to find his chest was much better but still wheezy and all fits had stopped, so he gave him one more weeks antibiotics. By the next Monday evening (10th March 08) his breathing was so bad with a crackle sound to it, that we took him to the emergency vets at midnight, the vet said she wasn’t worried mortally for him, but said he was in a very bad way, so gave him a steroid injection that lowered the swelling in his chest to help him breath. His appointment was already booked at his normal vets for the Wednesday afternoon (12th March), so we took him then. We were told then that he has a form of Emphysema, that wont heal and is basically scar tissue that forms in the lungs. He then changed his medication from just the antibiotics to a steroid, saying it will lower his immune system, but it will ease his suffering. I then spent probably about 12 hours on the Internet looking for anything at all, to find information was very sparse, and spread around but not really collected in any way together. The next Wednesday (19th March 08) we went back to the vets to be told point blank by the vet, we WILL loose this battle, all we can do is try our best to help him through it. What he has is Westy Lung also known as Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (Idiopathic means unknown cause) It was at that point I decided to make this website; to share what is happening and at what stages with scamps, allowing others in the future to know what’s happening. I’m hoping to collect all the information together into one place, giving links and any advice I possibly can to visitors. There is a mixture of anger and being upset, as you are constantly thinking if the other vet diagnosed it earlier, would he be OK, but then from what I have read, this problem isn’t caused by anything, it just happens for no found reason, so being realistic, I don’t think we could have been in any different situation. I'm not sure why, but human have this horrible appetite to blame anybody around them for anything, to just relieve the pressure. Even though i know deep down it wasn't the other vets fault, the drive you have to want to do harm to them personally or their business is massive. I'm saying this to try and tell anybody else reading it, that it isn't anybodies fault, nobody is to blame, and it will happen at any point what ever you do. Please keep viewing our blogs and join our forum to help other with your stories Regards |