Unidentified illness takes out 8 dogs in four weeks - here's how.

How You Can Help:
We urgently need your financial support to cover overwhelming medical expenses. Your donation, no matter the size, can make a profound difference.
Donate Here: https://www.givinggrid.com/tlkogr/
or here:

Hey Pawsome Friends, we've got some heartbreaking news to share about Last Stop Rescue partner Fur Kids Family Rescue, and we're reaching out to our incredible community for help.🥲  

 In a recent turn of events, our furry friends from all over the country came to Ohio for service dog training with Fur Kids Family Rescue. 💙🐕‍🦺

Timeline of Heartbreak

Week 1 -

Training Begins:
Dogs from GA, Cali, and Quincy arrived for service dog training for veterans. All good vibes until...

Week 2 -

Puppies' Arrival and Mystery Illness:
Skinny puppies from Quincy showed up, thinking they just needed some extra love. Unfortunately, they crashed, showing weird signs and wasting away despite our best efforts during these first two weeks. 😔

This kicked off efforts to find answers and they were sent to the ER on short notice and growing concern.

Week 3 -

First ER Visit - VEG Columbus:
Two puppies got tested at VEG Columbus, pointing to a possible GI disease. These puppies had arrived emaciated and had only continued to get worse during the first two weeks. The decision to humanly end their suffering was made, as many GI diseases aren't treatable.

At this point we really thought this was an isolated genetic issue but had no certainties without extensive testing that would have been rough on the puppies.

Second ER Visit Med Vet - OSU Transition:
More dogs showed similar signs, after trying a second specialty ER with no luck and much higher costs. Moving to OSU was necessary due to the complexity of the situation. Financial hurdles led to tough decisions, and .the other two puppies had to cross the rainbow bridge as they were in too poor of condition.

Tragic Loss of Lyra and Bash:
Lyra, an adult, took a turn for the worse. Despite no signs, her temperature skyrocketed while her foster was at the ER with one of the other dogs. Upon getting home Lyra had looked slightly off and collapsed into a seizure, her foster frantically scooped her up into the car and shot off to the ER. Unfortunately she continued to seize and she passed away on the way to the vet.

Her body temp was over 108 upon arrival, she had passed a half hour prior. When the retook her temp a bit later it was too high for the thermometer to read.

We're awaiting autopsy results for more answers. The only thing that has come back so far was an indication of bowl disease and bacterial pneumonia that got into the blood stream and caused pustules in her stomach that had burst.

Bash had gone downhill as well at this point and he was the next to be put down due to how weak and wasted he was.

Week 4 -

Rylo's Battle:
Rylo was in the ER the night before Lyra passed. He went back to the OSU after Lyra passed with the intent to try and admit him to the hospital for care. Unfortunately his illness had progressed too far with no additional information and mounting bills. Sadly, he had to be let go, and an autopsy is underway.

Luka's Critical Situation:
Luka, the last survivor, he was starting to lose weight but was early in the over all process. The vets out of an abundance of caution and feeling like this could be a biohazard situation where even if he did recover it would be recommended he not be exposed to other dogs for potentially years. They recommended making the call to euthanize him out of concern he couldn't be treated.

What ever this illness was took ONLY 4 weeks from first exposure first exposure to 8th dog lost. They all met around October 5th and Luka sadly had to be let go November 6th

💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔

This is a devastating situation, emotionally and financially. Autopsy results for Lyra, Rylo and Luka are pending, and we're hoping to get some answers from these efforts.

Here is a condensed clear timeline of symptoms, if you have a rescue dog and you start to see these signs in sequence please be cautious!

1. Weight loss regardless of amount of food and nutrition, otherwise they acted perfectly normal and happy.
2. Behavior changes around food and water - This could be more concerned about food and clearly showing signs unreasonable hunger given the amount they eat.
3. They start to have diarrhea, some had bloody while others did not, and it progressed to not being able to wait until they got outside to relieve themselves.
4. Then a fever developed for each dog, these were controlled by three baths a day for the dogs but was a grave indication of the progression of this illness.
5. They would stop eating food and this was the start of what seemed to be only a three day period before it was too late to help them in anyway on multiple fronts.
Only a few of the dogs showed any signs of upper respiratory infection and it usually happened a day or so before they were too critical to help.

Please continue to help save dogs in need but please be cautious and alert for similar signs! The vets did not believe that the pneumonia was a primary illness but a secondary illness.

The dogs all shared elevated heart rates, increased white blood cell counts and indicators on the blood tests for some sort of GI disease.


How You Can Help:
We urgently need your financial support to cover overwhelming medical expenses. Your donation, no matter the size, can make a profound difference.
Donate Here: https://www.givinggrid.com/tlkogr/
or here:

 Please share this post with your friends and family. Let's come together as a community on this #GivingTuesday to be a beacon of hope for Fur Kids Family and their tragic losses.

With heartfelt gratitude,
Last Stop Rescue & Fur Kids Family Rescue

 #HelpLastStopRescue #FurryFriendsInNeed #CommunitySupport #GivingTuesday2023