Abbi Came into our lives when we needed her the most!

Abbi was a beautiful fawn female boxer. She came into our lives when we needed her most. You see the year we got her we lost my dad, my husbands mother, and I was diagnosed with breast cancer. My husband felt that we needed a pet at this time, to keep us busy and our minds off of this year that could not get any worse.

My youngest son wanted a "Taco Bell" dog and we did start out looking for one. We came across Abbi's little face peering at us through the cage, which stopped me in my tracks. Something told me that this was the puppy for us. I was right. We brought her home and she brought nothing but joy into a home that had lost all of its smiles.

We made sure that we did everything right with her, as far as vet appointments, walking her, etc. We did go against the rules at times and feed her people food, but she was one of us!

We had six wonderful years with our girl. I walked her in the park everyday and would laugh to myself when people would steer way around us, in fear of Abbi? She was the most gentle, sweetest, loving animal I have ever known, but others were not to sure of her. She would wait patiently for me to come home from chemo treatments, or radiation treatments, always there to make you smile.

Abbi was a big part of our family, always greeting each family member as they came home from work or school.
We had taken Abbi for her annual visit to the vet and the vet offered the ProHeart 6 injection to us.
He assured us that it was fine and had no problems with it.
We allowed him to give it to her.
She did not have any problems from that injection, that we can recall.

We ended up having to skip the next annual visit, due to personal financial problems, so took Abbi in for her visit on August 10, 2004.
We went through the usual routine of her being overweight (101.5 pounds at the time) and diet control.
Again he offered the ProHeart injection and again we asked if he felt is was okay for her and he said yes...
"its great, you dont have to worry about making sure she gets her monthly ones."
So again, we allowed it.
He drew blood for her heartworm check pretty much at the same time he gave the injection.

We took Abbi home and she was laying around a lot, but we figured it was her injections and figured she would get better soon. We began to realize that this was going on too long and when we would take her to the park to run, she wouldn't run, just walk, or lay down.

I heard about the recall on the news that Saturday evening, of course it was Labor Day weekend so the vet wasnt open until Tuesday that week. I called first thing Tuesday morning and made an appointment to bring her in the next day and that I felt she was having a reaction to the injection. At this time she was very lethargic, drinking excessively, and really panting all of the time.

We took Abbi in the next day and I asked the vet if her symptoms could be due to the PH6 injection. He told me no, "her symptoms are due to the fact that she is "fat", she either has diabetes or a thyroid problems." I asked him, but what if it is the injection, his exact words were "well not like I can take it out of her". I took her home to monitor her for a couple of days.

I then found the wonderful people here when I went onto the Internet that day. I dont know what I would have done without them. I did call FD from that point and told them the symptoms, asking if they thought it was a coincidence, as my vet did. They said they "highly doubted it was a coincidence and called our vet." FD called back and told us that Abbi needed tests and that they would pay for it, even though they didn't feel the injection had done this. We had Abbi tested for diabetes, thyroid, and cushings.

I waited for over 2 weeks to hear from my vet, only to find out he was out of town. I called FD again and they got the results for me. They said she had cushings and that she would need further testing. FD then washed their hands of us, as we washed our hands of our vet, being we felt he had no compassion for Abbi.

We found a new vet and internist, having more test run, blood work, ultrasound, EKG, and they found it was 'putuitary cushings.' This was good, because it was treatable with medication. We started the meds right away, but Abbi didnt seem to respond, although she was not excessively drinking anymore. She was still lethargic, so the vet put her on Prednisone for a couple of days. Low and behold we got our Abbi back, not quite a 100%, but it was good enough for me.

This only lasted a couple weeks.

The week before Christmas 2004 Abbi became ill again. She wasnt eating or drinking much, so again I called the vet. We took her in on 12-20-04 to see what her levels were for the cushings. The tests results came back that her cushings was under control and stim levels were normal. I called FD and they refused to believe this was caused by PH6, and blamed it on the cushings and/or the Lysodren she was on. Our vet ran more tests and could find nothing. They injected fluids into her, gave her a shot of penicillin, and something for nausea. Nothing changed.

By Christmas day she had completely quit eating and drinking and began pacing the floor. From the front of the house to back, and back again. I started feeding her through a large syringe, baby food, Pediolyte, water, yogurt, etc. We talked to the internist and our vet and decided to take her off of the Lysodren, and try Prednisone again. We did just that and nothing changed. She got worse.

Abbi would pace and fall, pace and fall, and still had to be forced fed. In January she fell more often, still paced, but seemed really out of it. She started to fight the feedings and began having seizures, down to 65 pounds then.

I called our vet and she said it was time to make a decision. She said this was no life for Abbi to live.

So we made the hardest decision of our lives that day, and put our baby girl down on January 21, 2005. My husband and daughter had to take her, I couldn't bring myself to go. I felt like I had failed her! She got me through cancer, but I couldn't get her through this.

The whole family's hearts ache from our loss, but we know we did the right thing. I will always believe that it was not the cushings that was killing our Abbi and I know in my heart that if not for giving her the PH6 injection in August, we would still have our girl with us today.

We always will love and miss our Abbi, she will forever in our hearts be our baby girl...

Sandy