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Throughout the years we have had several different breeds of dogs. Each with their own personalities and traits, but something was never quite right. We faithfully watched Westiminster Dog Show and was very intriqued with the boxer. Finally we bought one and she became the light of our lives. She was such a charmer. She was a backyard boxer and was in no way a show dog, but we didn't know anything about the show world and she was wonderful. She was a champion in our eyes. One morning she woke us up whining. We instantly knew something was very wrong with her and rushed her to the hospital, but it was too late. She had bloat and she didn't let us know that there was a problem until it was too late. Life became miserable for us. There was no one at home waiting for us and it became increasingly difficult to go home to an empty house. We decided we would look for another boxer, but after looking around and at some of the backyard dogs out there we started looking for a respectable breeder instead. We researched the internet. We called and spoke to everyone we could find. We wanted to be more careful this time. One day my husband was driving on a call and saw a woman walking 2 fantastic boxers. The best he had ever seen. He stopped quickly and asked where she got them. After getting the webpage he went on his way. This wonderful lady led us to Gayann Jones of R & G Boxers where we got our Morgan. We went out on January 1st to look at this 10 month old puppy. We of course just wanted to see her dogs and talk with them, we didn't want a 10 month old, we wanted a puppy. Silly us... Anyway lets face it, we were set up. We walked in the front door and they let Morgan go at the back door, he instantly ran up to Frank, put both paws, very carefully, on his shoulders and licked him from chin to forehead. OK, so we were set up, it was instant love on both their parts. To be honest Morgan never did that to anyone else, only Frank. So since we were instantly in love we were going to have to have this wonderful dog. The problem is, I forgot to pick up checks before we left the house. Here we are 2 1/2 hours from home in love and no money. What can we do????? Debbie Debrucker whom we bought Morgan from was such a wonderful lady, she allowed us to take him and mail her the check. I will always love her.
Morgan introduced us to a whole new world, the world of show dogs. We knew nothing about any of this, and for the most part 5 years later still don't, but we love learning. We love the show world and all the wonderful people there. We have gained a new life and a new family. Unfortunately only a month or so after Morgan obtained his championship and after we bred him to Shawnee, he started showing symptions of being sick. He stopped eating, his coat went to crap, his energy level was terrible he threw up everything he ate and the diahrea was terrible. So..... since we live in Arizona we naturally knew that he had Valley Fever. We had him tested and it was negative, but false negatives are normal. We started him on the medicine and later retested him again, still negative. I was force feeding him to get him to eat. I know that the medicine wasn't helping his tummy any. He got anything that he would eat. I would feed him something every couple of hours 24 hours a day. Luckly I had just had a litter of puppies, so I was up with them and him around the clock. Good friends would come and relieve me for a few hours of sleep. It started paying off, he started gaining weight and would eat a little better. Unfortunately when I thought it was getting better he started to pass out. We then thought perhaps it was his heart so I was going to take him to have a heart sonogram done when my vet discovered a mass in his abdomen so instead of having his heart sonogramed we had his abdomen. The sonogram showed a massive mass covering a large portion of his intestines, liver, spleen and basically everywhere. It was assumed that it was cancer due to the size of it. The bioposy showed it was fungal, once again Valley Fever, right because Valley Fever is fungal. After a couple of months he was getting better so we had another sonogram done to confirm it, and oops it was worse not better. We had a larger bioposy done and it was the same, with the lab stating "they had never seen anything like it". We finally took him to an internal specialist who knew before we even got there what it was. She ran a "Pythiosis" test on him and it came back positive. We tried surgery to see if it could be removed, but it was too far gone and would have killed him to try. After researching the internet I happened on a web page of another dog who had died of pythiosis, and it linked to Dr Grooters and her expermental medication. I gave my vet the information and being the fantastic lady that she is she obtained it for us. We had hopes for Morgan, but it wasn't to be. At 11:00 pm on March 31, I knew it was over. I called my vet, woke her up, and she met me at the emergency room where a little after midnight on April Fools day we sent out precious Morgan to the Rainbow Bridge to watch over all of us and wait for us. If I had listened to the vet doing the sonogram, I would have put him to sleep then and there because he was eaten up with cancer. I wonder how many dogs are put down with pythiosis thinking it is cancer. Especially boxers where cancer is so common. Pythiosis is devistating and extremely fast growning. Morgan died from digesting a parasite called "phthiosis" which is normally found in stagnant swamp water in Louisiana, Florida, and Texas. Morgan was the 3rd dog confirmed in Arizona with this disease. It is important that everyone is aware of it. It can be cured if it is diagnosed early and treated. Since it is an extremely rapid growing disease it must be caught early. I may have lost Morgan, but his death was not in vain. This web page has helped others to obtain the information they needed and get the medication. On the Pythiosis board I am listing the phone calls and email that I have gotten. If you even suspect your dog has this please don't wait. The test is relatively inexpensive as far as tests go and can make the world of difference to your dogs life.
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