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"LaRue "
June 14, 1994 - December
30, 2004
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LaRue
loved her Walkies and car rides.....
and games of 'what you got 'Rue?'
and singing her growls at us, whenever she was in
the mood
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LaRue
was born in Gary Indiana on June 14th, 1994. She had 4 sisters
and a brother. Her mother was a black lab & Sheltie
mix and Father unknown (at least by me).
I
had been visiting my best friend back home and she asked
me when I was going to get another dog and I said 'when
I find one I want.' She said well what kind do you want?
I replied a lab mix sounds like a good breed because of
the kids. So any way, I looked in her newspaper and found
lab and sheltie mixed puppies for sale. We went to look
at them and one little girl staggered over to me and I picked
her up and she kissed me on the chin and I was in "puppy
love". I named her "LaRue" as a tribute to
John Candy's character Johnny LaRue/food critic. Our favorite
comedian who had died earlier that year as all know .
LaRue
was four weeks old when I brought her home to Michigan.
My family adored her as well as I did. She grew up healthy,
happy and safe in our home (or so we thought). We never
used pesticides/gopher killers or any of that kind of stuff
because of LaRue. We never wanted her to get sick!
Then our veterinarian suggested we try a different heart
worm preventative because I had a hard time remembering
to give her the monthly chewable ones. I asked the vet was
it safe? he said that "it was and only had mild reactions
been reported." I agreed and she got the shot and then
I watched her for a few days There didn't seem to be any
problems with her. Because she had skin allergies, I was
told If any reactions occurred it would probably be there.
That was about a year or so ago.... I can't remember exactly.
I just know she received more than one shot of the Proheart
6 and I wasn't aware enough of the adverse types of reactions
like vomiting (which she did occasionally). But I always
attributed that to her diet, she loved people food!
I
took her to the vet for her next checkup and Proheart 6.
They told me they would not be giving her Proheart 6 because
of the recall I asked why was it recalled? They didn't say.
I asked her to find out for me and let me know and she said
she would. I called the office a few days later to find
out why and was told they still didn't know. I asked them
again to try and find out and let me know. I wanted to make
sure of what to watch out for and have LaRue tested. They
said o.k. Time went by and LaRue seemed like a healthy,
happy as puppy as ever. As I was in the middle of our family's
birthday/holiday season, I had forgotten to check back with
the vet.
LaRue
went in for her November dlhpp injection and I was told
everything was fine. They were sooo impressed with LaRue's
leg surgery and diet and mentioned how puppy like she still
was considering her age. She still loved her Walkies and
car rides and games of 'what you got 'Rue?' and singing
her growls at us whenever she was in the mood (I think now
I miss that the most of all ).
LaRue
started vomiting after Thanksgiving and gradually it seemed
like the reports of LaRue getting sick again, were getting
more frequent. That's when I started watching her. She kept
wanting to go out side and eat snow .
The
day after Christmas I noticed her food bowl hadn't been
touched. I opened a can of chicken breast and when I couldn't
get her to eat more than a few bites and take a few sips
of broth, I finally realized she needed to go to see doctor.
(I worked Christmas eve /day... after Christmas and I guess
I didn't want to see her condition.)
It
was mind boggling how fast the whole thing really happened
.... from approximately a few days after Thanksgiving and
December 30th! Not really that long. That was the first
day I could get her in to see the vet. After a stomach feel,
the vet said she felt a mass and took x rays. She said it
looks like a sarcoma on her liver and did a blood test.
She said she was autoimmune and we could take her to animal
hospital for more testing but it did not look good! We took
her to hospital and after another x-ray and ultra sound
they confirmed the worst. They said there was nothing they
could do, except put her to sleep, which our vet did later
that night.
We
laid LaRue to rest in our back yard in one of her favorite
spots. It NEVER occurred to me to use the Internet to look
up any thing like drug recalls until I saw a magazine cover
at work that read 'A DOGS one aim in life is to bestow his
heart.' Then I remembered the Proheart 6 recall and started
looking for more information.
In
LaRue's Memory.
Sincerely,
Nancy
E (LaRue's Mamma)
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"Chichi"
June 6, 1998 - June 11,
2005
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Chichi
was so sweet!
I
cannot believe she is gone.
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Chichi was born on June 6th, 1998 and the moment
my sister-in-law brought her to us from Raleigh, NC, I fell in
love with her. She was so sweet. Very lovable, playful and protective
of her family.
When
I sat at my computer, Chichi laid on the floor beside me When
I slept, she slept at my feet. I could not wait
to come home everyday to see her greet me at the door. She
knew the sound of my car as my roommate always knew when I
was near.
Even before I was in sight, she knew. She was not my pet, she
was my 'daughter.'
Chichi
was a very healthy girl. She had all her shots, heartguard, checkups,
very well groomed and she was loved
by all
of us.
I
was informed by her vet (Banfield Hospital) that a new medication
was available and that instead of giving Chichi a chewable monthly
...... she could
get the ProHeart 6 injection every six months. I was assured it
was safe and it would help my ChiChi not kill her.
I trusted that the
vet was a professional and knew more than I did so ChiChi would
be okay. I was SO WRONG.
The
second shot ChiChi got, was in August 2004 and then I received
a letter the following month that the
ProHeart6 has been recalled due to causing some adverse reactions
including
liver damage. I immediately took ChiChi to the vet (Banfield
Pet Hospital located inside Petsmart in Bradenton, Florida.)
They looked
at the letter and stated it was just a formality that if ChiChi
was not showing any signs, she did not need to be checked. I
asked what kind of signs? They stated vomiting, diarrhea, etc.
Again
I trusted that they knew what they were talking about. ChiChi
did not show any of these signs so I went away.
Months
passed and Chichi was still her playful self but something
was not right. Then she
would not poop for days at a time. I thought she was constipated
so again I take her to Banfield. The vet takes one look at her,
a substitute vet cause the normal vet was not there and she tells
me, this doggie has jaundice, liver damage. Her eyes are yellow,
her skin is yellow and I said I been bringing her here for months
and no one ever told me she had anything like this. So I ask
them, what can I do for her.
We took all sorts of blood tests and they
gave me this special Liver dog food antibiotics and prednisone.
She went from bad to worse. From 13.5 pounds she was now down to
8. I brought her back and told them she stopped eating and they
suggested giving her a B-12 shot, putting pedialyte in her water
and giving her anything she wanted to eat. So I started to give
her chicken, hamburger, steak ... anything she wanted and she began
to eat a little more.
Then Chichi pooped one day and there I saw blood.
I took her back and they said there was not much more they could
do without an X-ray. By this time, I had exhausted all of my funds,
hocked my jewelry, my car, and borrowed money from everyone I could.
I did not have the money for the X-rays.
Chichi
got worse, next time she pooped it was dark tar blood and I decided,
I would put her
to sleep because I knew, I could not save her. So I go to the vet
and kept thinking, I cannot do this. I cannot kill her. So I took
my rent money and got an eviction notice with a 3 day notice to
vacate. At this point, the only thing I was worrying about was
saving her life. I got the X-rays done which just confirmed
she had liver damage. Which we already knew.
The vet all of
a sudden says we just got this new pill in for liver failure that
has reversed liver damage in other dogs and this would be her last
shot. I wanted her to have that last shot so with the rent money,
we put her on IV for 2 days and gave her the liver pill.
On Friday
at 1:00 am she was gone.
I asked the vet, why didn't they give
her this 3 months ago. "OH, we just got it in and we had to be
sure she had liver damage before giving it to her."
On
CHICHI'S last day:
I take her home after being at the vet with an IV in her from
noon until 6 pm and she is so weak. She looks worse then when
I brought
her in. I carry her home and breakdown, my doctor gave me some
Zanax as I was un consolable. I knew it was only a matter of
time. I passed out and fell asleep. At this point, Chichi is
so weak
she cannot walk so she dragged herself with her front paws to
my bedroom to be with me. My roommate then picks her up and
places
her on the bed with me, unbeknownst to me. I am still asleep.
Little did I know this would be the last time we would sleep
together.
A bit after 11:00 my roommate takes Chichi and tries to give
her some food and water as she has had nothing all day. She
was so
weak she could not even lap up the water so we had been feeding
her through an eye dropper. Blending the food with pedialyte
and giving her the food that way.
I
hear my roommate and God-daughter scream as Chichi looked like
she passed out. I wake up and
I take her in my arms and rub her belly. Chichi kept looking
up at the
light and trying to focus on me. My roommate then burst into
tears and gets up to walk away as she could not bear to see anymore,
we are all crying. As she gets up, Chichi follows her with
her eyes and my roommate looks back at her and meets her eyes
for
the
last time, Chichi then looks at my God-daughter and then focused
on me and continued to stare at me. She was frightened and so
weak, but it
looks like she was fighting death. Chichi did not want to leave
us. I began to rub her belly and told her, "Chichi go to sleep,
it's
okay baby, I love you, let go." I continued to talk softly
to her and she took one deep last breath, and she was gone........
I cannot believe she is gone and still think that
I am going to come home and she will be there to greet me.
I know in my heart that Banfield, killed my baby with that ProHeart
6 injection.
Chichi was perfectly healthy and now I have a hole in my heart.
I will never forget her.
Her dog tags are on my key chain and I sleep with her ball under
my pillow, but this pain is so great, I feel I am going to die
at times.
I hope my story helps save someone else from making the mistakes
I made.
In memory of ChiChi Rosa Martinez
6/6/98 - 6/11/05.
We will love you and miss you always:
Her loving family.
Tina, Janet, Jasmine
Her aunts and uncles
Arlene, Fernando, Brandon, Manuel
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