Britesparke Boxers
Sue Lott, Norfolk
E-Mail: susan.britesparke@btinternet.com

Una (Britesparke Over to You) died of Leptospirosis on Friday 23rd December 2011 aged 3 years and 4 months.  She was a fit and healthy dog, the speed in which this disease took hold and ultimately killed her, has left me reeling. 

On the Monday morning 19th December she trotted out to the kennel and there were no obvious symptoms of what was to come. Later that day when I came in from work she had been sick, hadn’t eaten her breakfast and generally didn’t look too well.  If she had been bloated you would have guessed she had Gastric Torsion going on the symptoms.

For some reason and don’t ask me why ( although I do feel we have a sixth sense when it comes to our boxers) I knew she had something serious and phoned my vet immediately for an emergency appointment. 

On arrival, Trish my long standing vet of 12 years examined her and at this time was not unduly worried although she was a little flummoxed as to what was wrong with her.  Una’s temperature was normal and so was her heart rate yet she seem slightly spaced out.  Blood tests were taken and she was administered with an antibiotic injection and something to stop her from being sick. 

On Tuesday morning she seemed to perk up and was wagging her tail, when the results of the blood test came through there was nothing obvious with the exception of her liver function being a bit raised therefore a mild liver infection was suspected so a course of antibiotics were prescribed. 

However by the following day Wednesday she went downhill and was unable to keep anything down including the antibiotic.  I phoned Trish and it was therefore suggested she may have pancreitius, fortunately they still had some blood left from the day before and yes it was confirmed she had pancreaitus. 

It was decided that she would be taken to the surgery that evening and would be kept in overnight on a drip to rehydrate her, scans would be taken and she would be given antibiotics intravenously. 

I called the surgery the following day (Thursday) expecting to be told she was getting better only to be told she was getting worse and by this time had started to show signs of Jaundice.  I had several conversations with our vets in the course of Thursday and instead of making a recovery Una continued to get worse.  On my last conversation with our vets that afternoon it was suggested that she may have Leptospirosis and that I should consider having her put to sleep.  I was not going to give up on her that quickly after all she had walked into the surgery the day before. 

I called the surgery first thing on the Friday morning, 23rd December to be told that she was so ill I needed to have her put to sleep as she was now semi comatose and unresponsive.  As I would never let any of my dogs go without me being there I asked Trish to give me an hour to get to the surgery. 

On my arrival at the vets I shall never forget the sight of my fit healthy boxer lying there so ill, it was heartbreaking.  I called her name and she lifted her head so I bent down to give her a cuddle and with that she gave one big gasp and died in my arms.     

In five days she had gone from a fit healthy girl to dying in my arms. 

The following week after Christmas we received confirmation that it was in fact Leptosipiros she died had from and the shock news that the form Una had (Leptospira Copenhanegi) is not covered by either the Lepto 2 or Lepto 4 vaccination. 

It appears we were just very unlucky.

Sleep tight my darling girl, I will love you forever x