Spartan
lived a short but wonderful life, given all that
was wrong with his health. My husband bought our
dog from a pet store. Within 24 hours of bringing him
home, we had to rush him to our vet’s office
where he stayed in intensive care for 2 weeks. He pulled
through, only to develop severe arthritis at the ripe
old age of 6 months.
Spartan
received the Lepto vaccine at approximately 6 months
of age. Within 3 weeks he began having severe
arthritic symptoms. My vet told me that he probably
had a bad reaction to “a vaccine”. As his
symptoms worsened, the vet informed me that he had
done some research on the Internet and was positive
that the arthritis was caused by his 6 month vaccine
series. It just boggles my mind that my vet didn’t
even know about the risks of vaccinating an Akita with
the Lepto vaccine.
At that point, the vet gave our baby 2 years to live.
We immediately put him on Deramax to alleviate the
pain. He was in so much pain, he would drag himself
outside, fall down and urinate on himself. We continued
to up the dosage so he could function and be an active
happy member of our family. When he was old enough
I was determined to give him a better life and found
a fantastic surgeon who began to replace his knee
joints with artificial ones. Unfortunately, the long
term usage of the Deramax caught up with him and
his system shut down. He went into cardiac arrest
this past Monday, June 27, 2005 and died at the vet’s
office. He knew he was going, and didn’t want
to die in our house.
Spartan
was so smart, had a great personality and was very
handsome. He could fetch (which I thought
amazing, Akita’s aren’t supposed to do
that), and he LOVED other dogs (another non Akita trait).
I know I’ll never be able to replace him, and
I didn’t realize how awful it would be to lose
Spartan. I kept thinking if I could replace all of
his joints in time I could get him off the medication
before it killed him. I kept that thought with me on
those long nights where I had to sit up with him when
he was crying. He was only 2 ½ and it breaks
my heart knowing that these pet stores and bad breeders
are in it for the money, never once stopping to think
about the pain and suffering of the animals and their
owners.
I
ended up losing my job because I couldn’t
stay away from the house. I would come home on my lunch
breaks and baby him. He was such a wonderful animal.
I will never regret the amount of time and money spent
on him. I am now thankfully retired, and Spartan only
had to deal with me working the first 2 months of his
life with us.
Our next dog will have as much, if not more loving
attention now that I know how precious their lives
are. I will never EVER purchase another animal from
a pet store. Now I know that this just feeds the greedy,
heartless people that own the pet stores and puppy
mills.
I beg everyone who reads this to educate anyone who
is considering purchasing a pet store animal. We all
have the power to help stop the pain.
Pet
Store Puppy: $1,500.00
ACA Registration (worthless): $50.00
Deramax pills: $1.84 each
(2 years + various other meds)
Emergency Vet Bills: $3,900.00
Regular Vet Bills: $4,000.00
Artificial Knee Replacement: $2,381.00
Shopping Trips To Pet Supermarket: Priceless
(They adopt out rescued pets and do not buy from
puppy mills!)
Watching
Spartan Die: HEARTWRENCHING
Denise Samouilidis
Three Strikes:
Puppy mill puppy
Vaccines
Deracoxib
OUT!
