1 week ago today, we lost a family member named Mason. His untimely death..he was only 3, has all of our family members devastated. My mission is to help bring awareness to a disease called HGE. We noticed Mason had lost his appetite. Living in Texas and, although he was an inside dog, we would let him out frequently, we thought the 100+ weather was affecting his appetite. He was still playful and other than the loss of appetite for 3 days, seemed perfect. As a precaution, my daughter scheduled an apt for the vet on Friday, June 26th @ 9, which was the soonest they could see him. Thursday evening around 10:00 he started throwing up what appeared to be blood so she rushed him to the emergency animal clinic. At that time, they diagnosed him with HGE. They gave him some fluids, something for pain, antibiotics and sent her home with him and told her to make sure to keep her apt with our vet that morning. He died at 5:00 that morning. This disease shows no mercy!! There is no known cause. Caught early enough and with a very aggressive treatment to include several days in the hospital it is treatable. Needless to say, we are all consumed with guilt that we didn’t realize just how sick our beautiful Mason was. He never showed any signs of pain or any of the other symptoms (bloody diarrhea, vomiting) associated with this dreadul disease. My heart is broken and my grief and guilt is immeasurable. I only hope that by trying to bring awareness to this disease, it may save the life of someone elses beloved pet.

In Mason’s memory, we have recently established a memorial site with pictures of this incredibly sweet, gentle and beautiful soul. Please pass this information along about HGE and this wonderful site where you can memorialize your wonderful pets.

mason.pets-memories.com

http://vetmedicine.about.com/cs/dogdiseasesh/a/HGEindogs.htm

Sincerely,
Michele from TX