"Gimpy"

Rescued 2000 - April 22, 2004

I hope that his death will not be in vain. Please pass this information on to anyone that will listen.

I must preface this tragic story with my boy's unfortunate beginning.

My dog Gimpy (an American Staffordshire/Rottweiller mix) was rescued from a drug dealer, who had thrown the dog over a fence, breaking its leg. Instead of getting the dog medical care, the drug dealer left the dog for dead in an abandoned shed.

I will never forget Gimpy's eyes when I opened the shed and saw this little emaciated dog with this huge head. Gimpy was trusting, even though this world had not been kind to him. He was my "Mr. Big head." My Vet suggested amputating his (broken) hind leg due to the expense of surgery, but I would have none of that. Somehow I would find the money.

I took Gimpy to the best Orthopedic Vet in Cincinnati and we saved the leg. Hence the name "Gimpy" . . . owing to his permanent limp. Everyone who ever met Gimpy, instantly fell in love with him. The local Orthopedics office called him "handsome," which he seemed to love so much . . . his butt would shake so hard every time someone called him that.

He had more personality than most people that I know. He was my world.

I saved him in the summer of 2000 and killed him in April of 2004. He was only 5 years old.

Make no mistake about it, I take the blame for his death. In the end, Gimpy was my responsibility. He had no voice. He had no choice.

It all started when Gimpy had a little trouble getting up steps. When I say trouble, I mean to say that he was slower than usual. Then again, he had a gimp leg. Gimpy was nevertheless active most of the time, so I am not sure why his sudden decision to take a bit more time on the steps made me think that something (needing a vet's intervention) had happened to him. I wish I hadn't given it a second thought.

Here is where I made my first mistake, one of many to come.

Thinking that medication (a NSAID) was as simple as glycosamine, I gave my Gimpy the medication that was previously prescribed for my Labrador retriever for hip discomfort. The medication was Deramaxx (100mg/day).

My thought process at the time was that both dogs weigh about the same, both have the same symptoms, so why not the same drug? Boy was I ever wrong! I am not a Vet and I should never have acted like one. That was day one of the Deramaxx tragedy.

The next day I took Gimpy to the Vet with the medication in hand, and told my Vet that I had given it to him. The Vet said that it was fine and prescribed a new bottle for Gimpy. I followed the vet's directions and didn't ask any questions. Blind faith, the downfall
of mankind.

That night Gimpy had his second (perscribed) dose of Dermaxx. The next morning I knew something was terribly wrong. Gimpy was hypersalivating, vomiting and lethargic. I called the vet and the nurse suggested withholding food for 24hrs and to call them if he didn't get any better. I decided not to wait and took him to the Vet's office. Upon arrival, the vet decided to do blood work and give Gimpy IV fluids. The lab work showed increased WBCs with a left-shift and increased Alk-Phos. (Alkaline Phosphitase).

The next morning, the vet suggested that I get Gimpy over to the C.A.R.E. (Cincinnati Animal Referral & Emergency) Center, a local vet center for critical care. I couldn't understand how my dog that was fine two day's earlier, was now in need of an emergency care center. When I got to the Center, the Vet there suggested that we do an exploratory (laparotomy) surgery to see what was going on. I explained the sequence of events, but no one was listening to me. I allowed an exploratory laparotomy to be performed, during which, they removed my Gimpy's spleen. The reason given for the spenectomy was that discrete nodules were noted on the surface that looked "suspicious."

Once the excised spleen was sent to Histo-path (Histology-pathology), the lab found evidence of idiopathic inflammation, yet nothing to suggest cancer or a systemic infection. The "suspicious" nodules consisted of massive infiltrate (well differentiated plasma cells and eosinophils) with a small focus of pyograndulomatous splenitis. Not a "normal" spleen, but nothing that would have killed my dog.

Over the next few days, Gimpy was supported with IV fluids, IV antibiotics (Ampicillin 20mg/kg TID, Enrofloxacic 5mg/kg BID, Clindamycin 15mg/kg BID, Doxycycline 5mg/kg BID) as well as Reglan and Sucralfate. Mind you, the vets admitted to me that they had no idea what was wrong with Gimpy and were treating him for "everything." Nobody would entertain the idea that my dog was having a reaction to the Deramaxx.

Gimpy's temperature remained elevated and the blood work came back again with a high WBC count with a left-shift. The vets continued (because of the high WBC with left-shift) to think it was an infection. I explained again the events that led up to this situation and that I thought that he was having an adverse reaction to the Deramaxx. Again, no one listened. I went home and got on the Internet and found a wonderful website http://home.insightbb.com/~e.murray/ . I then called Novartis (the manufacturer of Deramaxx) and started Gimpy's adverse reaction report. All the while, Gimpy was still not eating and continued to have an elevated temperature, with high WBCs with no explanation or apparent cause. Here is the list of tests that were performed:

Nothing came back that could explain what was wrong with my baby. Nothing could explain the reason for the high WBCs. They finally put a NG (nasogastric tube) in for nutritional support. Then, slowly, Gimpy began to eat on his own.

I would visit him a few times a day. Gimpy seemed to be improving, but the labs remained elevated. Here is where I made the fatal mistake.

Without a diagnosis and despite his much improved spirits, I allowed the Vet to put him on high dose prednisone for a so called "immune mediated" disease. He didn't have an immune mediated disease. He had an adverse reaction to Deramaxx.

If my Mr. Big Head had any chance at all to recover, I should have refused to start this therapy. I was too scared. My Vet was a specialist, a Diplomat of the A.C.V.I.M./A.G.B., but he stopped treating the patient and started treating the labwork.

Gimpy was getting better, but the WBCs remained high. Maybe the WBCs would have come down once his body got over the insult of the drug reaction, but I will never know. In my mind, I was a wonderful pet owner. I followed my Vet's instructions to the letter. I never skipped one dose of the 100mg/day of prednisone. My sweet Gimpy, trusted me to do what was in his best interests. He took the pills that were killing him without hesitation, as I was his master. The prednisone did nothing to lower the high WBCs, so the Vet added another drug (still lacking a diagnosis) Azathloprine. The vet was still treating Gimpy for an immune-mediated disease and nobody would blame the Deramaxx.

Gimpy was on this therapy until his body just melted inside. The morning he died, he had defecated blood on the floor and was laying in the corner. His tongue and mouth had open lesions. The incision site (from the earlier exploratory laparotomy) had opened due to the suppression of the natural wound healing from the high dose prednisone.

After Gimpy's death, an autopsy was performed. Blood was found in the abdomen. The colon was found to have lost the mucosal epithelium. The stomach showed extensive thrombosis in the large sub-mucosal veins. The liver showed swelling and hydropic degeneration, without hepatitis. The lungs also showed extensive thrombosis. In short, my Gimpy had died of DIC (Disseminated Intervascular Coagulation).

I hope that his death will not be in vain.

Please pass this information on to anyone that will listen.

I love you, Gimpy!

Kelli