Vaccine Induced AutoImmune Hemolytic Anemia - Melly's story
Hello, My name is Robert Grizzle and I just lost my baby......Melly...my female Airedale Puppy of 4 1/2 months and I am so devastated.....heartbroken and yes very angry!
I just spoke to Jay Atwood and he advised me to send you an email explaining the events that led to my Puppy's death. When I got Melly, she was 8 weeks old and I took her to my vet of some 8 years and she the received her 8 weeks shots on 11/16/09...the Polyvalent multivalent Distemper,Hepatitis,Parvovirus,Parainfluenza,Coronavirus and had a fecal exam. The next set of shots on 12/5/09 were the same boosters in addition to the inhaled vaccine Bordetella...the vet also administered a heart worm pill the same day.
The next set of shots were given on 12/28/09 and were the same 5 boosters. I was advised to come back on 1/16/10 for the final shots which were the same 5 vaccines in addition to the Rabies Vaccine. On 1/28/10 we noticed that Melly slept allot that day and didn't have allot of energy, the next day she also slept allot and seemed to be limping and had some eye mucus, we also notice she had loose stools and some mucus with a small amount of blood in the stool....this was Friday evening and our regular vet was closed so we took her to the emergency Vet and they examined her and did blood work.....the Vet said the blood was fine but she was running about a 1 degree fever an prescribed her Metronidazole for the stomach and we went home.
Melly spent the night in bed with me that night instead of her crate beside my bed and was very lethargic.....in the morning she seemed to be limping more and with more fever (1/30/09) and her gums were very pale.... this is Saturday...well we took her to our regular vet and she was running a 105.2 fever and the vet sais we would need to leave her and immediately pup her on IV fluids and Penicillin....we left her all day and around 8:00pm that night our vet said we could come and take her home that her fever was down to normal and that she was hydrated. When we got home she obviously didn't feel very good and seemed to not run but to "Hop" she was in distress in her joints (or possibly this was caused from the stomach....virus?) her stools improved some but the next morning (Sunday) we took her back to the vet (the vet met us at her office) and took her temperature and it was normal and decided against more IV fluids so again we took her home.
Melly still didn't seem to feel good and act a normal puppy but she did have a good appetite (this is still Sunday 1/31/10) and was still not running....she again seemed to be stiff and to Hop. The next day 2/1/10 Monday I took her back to the vet and she was running a 1 degree temperature and the Vet thought the she may have Panostenosis (puppy limp from long bone growth issues) and put her on Cephalexin 250mg times 2 a day.....I took her home and she seemed to be getting a little better and we kept her on the Cephalexin.
The following week she seemed to sleep allot and I did research on HOD AND Pano and found that both diseases' were for the most part self-limiting and sometimes could take a couple of weeks to get over (I didn't know any better than to take my vets diagnosis) I kept a close eye on her during the week and she seemed to feel some better and always had a great appetite. On Monday 2/8/10 Melly just wasn't her self....and I noticed that her gums were very pale....we immediately took her back to the vet and the vet pulled blood and her RBC was down to 15-16 and after she looked at her blood under the microscope she advised us that Melly had Hemolytic Anemia and that her Red blood cells we autoagluttating (clumping together).....we rushed her to Georgia Veterinary Specialists where they confirmed she had Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia.
Today 1/14/10 Monday after 7 days of hospitalization and some $5500.00....2 blood transfusions prednisone and cyclosporine Melly is dead from Vaccine Mediated Hemolytic Anemia....................this could all have been avoided! I am so Hurt......so angry.....after some 300-400 hours of doing research......I'm not so sure that the vaccines we give our dogs are not doing more harm......than good.....I found that these vaccines actually are credited with causing the very disease we vaccinate against as well as many hereditary diseases where the vaccines can actually do damage genetically!
If Melly's story and our pain can help at least 1 person....then Melly didn't die in vain........my baby is gone and the pain is more than I can bear! Please, Please do as much research as you can before you let any vet put vaccines in your dog.....and Never Ever let a vet give Multivalent multiple vaccines with the Rabies Vaccine.....it may very well destroy the dogs immune system resulting in death.
Thank You,
Robert Grizzle
1150 Old Forge Dr
Roswell Ga 30076
ph# 770-617-6507
Fax# 770-645-6079
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