A Sad Ordeal

It should be with euphoria that I greet the dawning of a new bird-hunting season, which opened today for woodcock, Saturday for pheasant and partridge. And, yes, I am looking forward to the exercise, the dogs and wing-shot challenges. But it would have been better with Bessie — that is, Old Tavern Farm’s Brown Bess — a rambunctious, biddable, 2-year-old bitch who wanted to please and would have come into her own this season. The anticipation was intense, the potential immense, and now she is gone, victim of an insidious skin disease that led to euthanasia. A sad ordeal, heart-wrenching, she the product of my other two; the future, swept out from under me like worn soles on a black-ice spill.

What brought on this auto-immune disease called pemphigus foliaceus we will never know, but I have my suspicions. Perfectly healthy and vigorous, a bundle of energy and athleticism for her shots and exam on July 24; then, a month later, a crusty rash, unsuccessful treatment with two antibiotics, a skin biopsy, diagnosis, Oct. 2 (2009) euthanasia. It was a sad, sad song, one I lived every day for two months, helpless as I watched it progress, fearing it would spread to kennel-mates Ringo and Lily, washing my hands again and again after touching her, bathing her, administering oral medication. And when I finally took her to the vet on that final day, the saddest of Fridays, she was still wagging her tail despite significant hair loss that exposed hideous scabs and raw holes which destroyed her beauty. In two months that seemed like five, she went from a stunning animal, something worthy of the national circuit, to a crusty, bloody mess. The meds wouldn’t touch it. Life is strange.

I’m not here to point fingers or gripe about the money lost on a hopeless case. That’s behind me now. But I would like to know what happened. The disease can be caused by a reaction to foods ingested, even seemingly harmless produce like cauliflower or pepper, or by a reaction to medicine.

I’m no doctor or scientist, so I won’t go into a discussion on vaccinations and the potential for side-effects. But I have been told by folks who refuse all vaccinations except rabies, which is mandatory, that their dogs live long healthy lives without immunization against distemper and Lyme. In the future, that’s the route I’m taking. This was the second dog I’ve lost after immunization shots. I was warned on the first one, a dog battling terminal leukemia, and took a chance with little to lose. Had I been warned on this animal — perfectly healthy, vigorous, brilliant, beautiful — I would have gone without. Her affliction may have been a reaction to the shots, maybe something else. I know that. But I have my suspicions, the doctor didn’t dismiss them, and now it’s off my chest.

So it’s on to the marshes, one dog short, the future, my attempted continuation of a special pedigree now lost forever.

I’ll get over it … slowly … very slowly.

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