Jade was 3 years old in February 2002 and I had been showing her from 6 months of age. I became worried about the amount of times Jade brought Kennel cough home to my 7 year old slate Beardie Jenny, and my 13 year old Shih Tzu. I did what I thought was best and started giving her the Vaccine
every 6 months. Jade had her third Kennel cough vaccine December 18th 2001

On the 5th of January 2002, we did a small Open show and she went up the ring like a sack of potatoes, no interest. I thought she didn't like the Venue. Exactly one week later she was hiding away from me and when I persuaded her to come to me and reached out to touch her head, she cried out in pain. A visit to the vet produced a negative result. They treated her with a long acting antibiotic and also a painkilling injection on the basis that it might be an abscess brewing somewhere. Jade appeared initially to respond to the treatment, but 5 days later the same symptoms showed up again. She was now producing a huffy cough and trying to heave up mucus. Back again to the vet and once again antibiotics. In all I think she was tried on three different types, plus Metacam (pain killer), everything tried, brought negative results. I mustn’t forget to mention that during the months of this illness, her at rest temperature was 102+ A ten minute walk to the vet (have no transport ) produced a temperature of 104+/105+ and her breathing was compromised. She took two breaths in for one, needless to say her appetite was nil.

The next stage, in early February was X-rays. These showed something, but no one knew what it was and so the next day under anaesthetic an Endoscopy was carried out. This showed the mucus that was seen on X-ray and the most horrendous throat anyone in the vets had ever seen; they could see all the
blood vessels in her throat. A swab was taken from her throat, sent to the lab, came back, nothing treatable by antibiotics. There was nothing further to be done, except give her Metacam to keep her comfortable. Her clinical records were sent to Bristol, it took them 10 days to respond. The longest
ten days of my life. The response when it came, was they would be happy to see her in Bristol, the other alternative was to give Steroids.

After discussions with the vet and Jo Tucker, we decided she was too ill to travel to Bristol, given her permanently high temp, and she now weighed only 17kg, we went for the steroids. My vet spoke with Sarah Gould at Cambridge, as to how to manage the steroids, and so Jade embarked on 10 weeks of steroid treatment. Starting at 6 tablets a day , dropping the dose fortnightly until we were down to one tablet every other day and then full stop. The initial high dose of steroids, brought a rapid drop in temp, but also produced incontinence which was very distressing for both me and Jade.

I thought we were now home and dry, and everything was rosy, and Jade was well for good. Almost a month after she finished her steroids, I began to see symptoms I was not happy about, a huffy cough, failing appetite, back again to the vets. A check with the stethoscope was fine, but much to mine, and the vet's horror, her temp was 106 and a 1/2. It really was unbelievable, she should have been dead. We gave her a quick crash course of steroids, starting high and dropping down to one every other day, in just 5 days and it worked. Late July was when we finally came to terms with Jades illness, that had been on going since early January, and now Jade is fit and well (hopefully for good) maintained almost certainly, on a low maintenance dose of steroids for the rest of her life, but I have still got my very precious girl.

Jades story is over, but I have to say, that without Jo Tuckers support, I don’t know if I could have got through this, without cracking up. I also would finally like to thank a lot of beardie friends who showed concern and helped to boost my moral by telephoning me.

Jean Hickton