Ram
Ram was born 2/22/1997 and was euthanized 7/28/1998 at LSU Medical Center in Louisiana. Ram was part black mouth cur and part lab. Ram had gotten into some stagnated water some time before February 1998. He had gotten a knot on his front left ankle. We took him to the vet and the gave him some antibotics and sent him home. The knot got worse, so we took him back and the vet lanced it, but nothing came out. To make a long story short the vet cut the knot off and it was dead tissue. Needless to say the place got worse and started to form granulatoumas tumors that run and rotted out.
We took him constantly to different vets. No one knew what it was, it came back as a unidentified fungus with a staff infection. We treated him for a fungus and a staff infection for about a month and a half. The leg kept getting worse so we were referred to LSU Medical Center in Baton Rouge, LA. They knew what it was right off the bat. The said he had Pythium and that the only way to save him was to amputate his front leg.
It was very hard but we left him to have his leg amputated and then he had to stay there for 3 more weeks for dialysis treatments to make sure this micro-organism was not anywhere else. We visited him every Saturday for 4 weeks while he was down there. It was a three hour drive one way for us. (Us is my Mom and I).
Ram was a very good spirited dog. He was a happy dog. He was always in a good mood and minded very well. All the Doctors and interns got very attached to Ram while he was at LSU. They even gave him a LSU Intensive care bandanna to wear around his neck. On of the interns took care of Ram as if he was her own. I was very pleased with his care at LSU. Ram came home on June 12, 1998. He was very happy to be home. I even let him stay in my house, which he didn't get to do before. He got around very well with three legs. He could still jump in my blazer to ride down to my moms who babysat him every day.
His appetite started to decrease and he started to loose weight. We finally had to boil him chicken every day and hand feed him to make him eat. He acted like nothing tasted good and would not eat. He was getting thinner. Finally we took him back to LSU to let them run some more tests on him.
It was the worst news I have every heard. He had this Pythium in his stomach and it had covered it and blocked his intestine. There was no way they could save him. They were all puzzled because when he left 6 weeks earlier they run x-rays etc of his stomach to make sure everything was ok. Every thing was fine. I saw the X-rays.
They were puzzled because the dialysis treatment was supposed to kill any of this left in his system. For some unknown reason it did not react to him. The weird thing was why did it grow after the treatment instead of before.
Any way they put him to sleep and we wanted them to study this disease so maybe they could find out more about it, because we will probably have more dogs get this disease since we live around a swamp and we know we have this micro-orgamism somehwere around us.
We had Ram cremated and I have him at home now in my living room on his blanket with his collar around it. I have had a cross made with his name on it and I am going to bury him when I find something else to put the urn in.
My mom found the article about CYBER-cemetery in the Alexandria Town talk 7/7/98. I thought I needed to write a tribute to Ram because I went through a divorce in the past year and he was there for me and listened to all my troubles and let me cry on his shoulder. He was all I had to talk to. Ram was like my kid. I took care of him and loved him and he loved me back in return. He was the best dog I have ever had and I have had a whole lot of dogs in my life.
This is for you Ram from your mom, Leah in Winnfield. I loved you very much but I also know you knew it, thats the good part.