JEWEL - Page 1

Just as I thought, Mom has taken her to Critical care and Internal Medicine. She had more urine and blood work, (they love her, such a Very sweet temperment). She has very mild azotemia. The ultra sound shows very small changes in the kidney. Blood gas shows Creatinien 1.8, Bun 26, normal glucose,electrolytes, and acid-base balance. Liver, spleen, gall bladder, lymph nodes all normal they talked about a biopsy, but it would only prove what is the cause and not help in the long term management of, (so Mom has chosen not to put her thru the Biopsy at this point). The Vet told my Mom, they were glad she brought her in, because it is in the early stages and feel this can be managed, they are taking more Blood and Urine today to see if any changes again. The vet told my Mom she was very smart in bring her in now, because most of the dogs they are getting in right now, it is already to late. They are talking about doing IV fluids under the skin. Unless Mom does a biopsy, I do not know if it is the food she was eating. However, it is very convient timing.

Good luck with her. Your mom is one nice lady to do so much, as it should be.

Glad she is doing well.. I applaud you mom for doing so much for her, not too many people like that today. Best of luck to your family and Jewel. -Andrea

Damn those dog food manufacturers. I really wonder just how many dogs and cats are/will be effected by this. We will never know, some dogs will die tied to a dog box and replaced the next day. Not all are as lucky as Jewel.

My granfathers dog died last Friday after 6 days at the vet. I am not sure what the cause was, the dog was very old, almost 13. He went in due to vomiting and diarrea, was put on IV's but never came home. I can't talk to my grandfather yet about what the vet said, he is still too upset about T-Bone's death. I can't imagine such a huge number of animals, going through this same thing, all over North America. I hope Jewel has no lasting ill effects.

Blitzen, I have the same thoughts, How many dogs are not showing signs of being sick but in reality are having damage done to the kidney's. Whatever is going on, it is in the begining stages. Jewel was not showing any signs of being sick, My Mom just panicked because she lost a dog 40 years ago to poison and did not want to go down that road again. They are fine, until one day they are VERY sick and it is to late to save them. So, she understood the process. I wish she would do the biopsy, so we would know the source. But I also understand not wanting to.

4-pack, I am so sorry for your Grandfather. I think it is VERY hard on our elderly when they lose their dogs. If it was the food, he has to keep the bag of it to be able to report it and reimburse medical expenses. Do not let him throw it out. Plus the proof from the vet.

My Mom took Jewel in again Yesterday to the Internal Medicine for pets, she stoped by on her way home. She was crying, she told me it was so depressing in the waiting room, it was packed and alot of them were crying over their pets and how sick they were and all they could talk about was the food and what it was doing to them. She told me it was so sad because most of the people in there were elderly. She also said her vet and vet tech looked like hel_. We know the gal at the front desk and Mom asked her what was going on, She told her it was a very rough day and they lost alot of them today. We are never going to know the real numbers, if you do not have the actual food bag with food to be tested by the FDA, and do the testing on the dog/cat, they will not count them in the numbers. This makes me sick. alot of our elderly are on fixed incomes and can not afford this.

Oh my, I can't imagine how I would feel if it were Blitz. A friend lost 3 of her Malamutes to the Diamond contamination; she will never get over her grief. I think we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg, it seems as if it is never going to end. Something new every day. I wish we would grow our own food in this country instead of either paying our farmers to not grow it or making it a hardship to try to earn a decent living farming. I'm in an beautiful rural agricultural area, mainly fruit orchards. These farmers are really up against tough times due to the imported fruits. Some are talking about selling out to developers and these farms have been in the same family for 4 or more generations. There goes the rural charm of south central PA. What have we done?

We have been thru the bouts of diarrhea and vomiting and fluids under the skin. Today her Creatinien levels and Bun levels are back in the normal range. She has returned to normal range Kidney enzemes. The vet does not know what the long term damage to her Kidneys will be. The vet wants to do 1 more fluid treatment, and check her again in 2 weeks. I went with my Mom today, I could not beleive all the people there that had done Kidney transplants at UC Davis. One elderly couple, was there visiting their sick pom (one of those mop dogs). They drive 30 miles 2 times a day to visit and the vet was trying to tell them thier dog was not a candidate for the transplant. They were just not wanting to understand, it broke my heart. They have been doing the drive twice a day for over 2 weeks. Bless them and their pooch. The vet tech did say that the number of new cases has dropped to almost nothing and that for awhile they were getting in 4 to 5 dogs a day, that they feel was food related.