Don't bless this on anyone..Fightin the fight...God bless her soul

And the love began..Callie (aka DOSHI for calidocious)and I are very close.

 

I imported Callie in November of 2008. She is a royally bred little dog (my first and last import). Callie was a dog that I started before a year of age on the sheep.  Callie was so keen and so tough and so hard. She could easily work 2 hours straight with no drink (still going FULL SPEED) her talent was evident but the extraction was tough. Callie has hundreds of hours of training, she was so  difficult she became an obsession to get trained (even though there were easier youngster sitting in the kennel ready to go) I was finally breaking through (or what I thought  I was breaking thru) Nope I guess I wasn’t breaking through…come to find out she was dying.  In late September I noticed Callie had a "little cough" like so minute you could barely notice the throat clear. I ignored the little cough thinking dust, whatever. One day I was working her, and I thought to myself and asked myself “does she always breathe like this?” I had never heard that kind of breathing from her (trust me she and I have had a lot of hours of breathing, me breathing and her breathing).  I made an appointment with the vet.  Next question how do you tell the vet the dog isn’t breathing right on the field after 2 hours of work?  Does any dog breathe right after 2 hours of work..well Callie did.  Immediately the doctor took a chest x ray, the heart looked BIG and the lungs worse. My vet Dr. Hampel took one look at the pictures and said “this looks like Valley Fever”..HUH? STUNNED..I said there is no way, we don’t have that here..Well the next step is a fungal titer..10 days of questioning there is no way in hell she has valley fever…I just spent $700.00  for nothing..until the phone rang. Yes Callie is positive for valley fever…SILENCE. Valley  fever? Are you sure? That was 8 months ago. What is valley fever? Valley fever is a fungal spore that the dog sniffs up. Where did she get it? God knows, is it contagious NO..The battle starts..The regiment is Anti-fungal medication…the side affects are vast.  We have gone along as a "mid-grade" illness the titer was 1:16 (which mean it took the lab 16 times to dilute the fungus and get rid of it)..was she the worst case no, but progressively she has gotten worse. The vets can't help but think due to being an import she has no natural immunity to this at all...Titer numbers are beginning to mean nothing symptoms means everything. For 8 months this dog has not left my side...she was restricted from work right away, she was put back on work duty after the restriction didn't do a thing...Mentally she is okay as long as she does not lay eyes on a moving sheep. She is a fairly quiet girl for the most part unless there are sheep. I have spent hours teaching her tricks only for her to feel so poorly she cannot preform. All I wanted to do was trial her once. After getting valley fever I knew her carer would be shorter than normal. At our trial in December Callie felt good enough to run 1 day at our trial in the Nursery. She won the class with a score of 70 (the only highlight of her career) I was proud as a peacock  that day my baby had risen from the ashes to trial just once and  we could put all the hours in motion!

I don't love this pond but I'll go cause you asked me to!

 So 8 months into this (not supposedly deadly disease) Callie has lost 4 lbs. in a month in a half and she cannot breathe. The medication makes her so sick she won't eat. We cook for her and she is allowed to eat whatever she wants.  Her titer number looks good however we are battling some sort of secondary infection. (mind you every time she wheezes differently she is in the vet to check for pneumonia). her breathing has gotten progressively worse. Her breathing is so bad at rest is sounds like she just ran 5 miles. Today was our breakthrough. Her breathing has hit the all time low (for badness) I made her an appt. and when the vet walked in there was 2 minutes of silence (between her and I) all Dr. Hampel was doing was listening to Callie suck for air.  Vet response" She sounds like she has heart failure"  I said well something is failing..we have to figure this out. So 3 hours of tests we come to the conclusion we are going to have to risk killing her to hopefully get her better. The prescribed medication is Prednisone...which is an absolute NO with valley fever. Valley fever cases can have NO immune suppressants only Anti-fungal meds. The start of pred. not only means we are playing with fire but it means no anti-fungal meds. The specialist in Arizona recommends this regiment for 5 days and says if we kill this dog, well she wouldn't have lived anyhow and we need to try.  With a heavy heart and a big sigh I go with the vet(s). We have to do something and the reality is I know this. We are going a "very risky" route says the doc. I respond I know, but Callie and I are willing to try. The alternative is we throw in the towel, Callie hasn't thrown  it in so all be damned if I am. So here we are the start of the 5 day regiment starts today, the good news is Callie might actually eat, the bad news is if nothing changes...well we cross that bridge when it comes. For now Callie has the best of health care, the best of food from prime rib to whatever she feels like eating, to all the kisses and love and pets from Ron and I that any dog could ever want.

Ready mom?

Gardner extraordinaire...you want to water?

Since she cannot work she has adopted a new habit...usually such behavior would never be allowed..but she decided gardening with mom is her new obsession! 

 Besides being a hard ass on the sheep and having more work ethic than most...you can see she is just a cool dog, very easy to love and that's just what we are doing. Thanks everyone for your kind words, Ron, Callie and I really appreciate all the love.