I can only use Hamilton as an example.. bless his sweet heart ... when
I purchased Hamilton for about five times Gillis' price... I was
provided documentation that Hamilton was vWD clear but was given no test
results... I also was NOT allowed to breed him... had to pay another
$1500.00 for breeding rights if I wanted them and I do not breed
dogs....he had a complete puppy check from my cats' vet and was NOT tested
for vWD by the vet.... he had his ears done before I picked him up... he
was NOT to have had his ears done so I immediately had the vet remove the
bracing etc to let his ears (which had been cut VERY long) flop so he
was a cropped and flopped...the vet used this as the reason NOT to verify
the vWD percentage.... when he removed the final sutures that did not go
away .. Hamilton had a bit of a bleeding problem... I had vWD done... he
was at a 22% and I was told he would not have any problems unless he got
sick but they would not recommend that he be bred to another carrier..NO
PROBLEM I am NOT A BREEDER.. when Hamilton started showing symptoms (he
seemed to "forget" things he knew how to do... he would go into
the another areas away from me so I had to call him to help me- I thought
he had a headache), June (17monhs of age) I was told he was fine ... that
I was a "nervous Nellie" BUT I knew something was wrong
..(Hamilton's trainer was shocked that he had forgotten a command.. but he had
and we retrained it) when the @#$% hit the fan, Oct 29 2006....emergecny
vet here then transferred to Richmond critical care vet center (1 1/2
hours way- saw him everyday ...because he would not eat for anyone else)
his vWD was above 50% and he was hemorraging .. AND THE ER VET
AGREED .. HE SEEMED TO HAVE A HEADACHE AND WAS HAVING SEIZURES FROM
THE cancer that had spread to his brain,; needed continuous transfusion
and clotting factor for over 12 hours ... finally he stopped bleeding from
the incision of the biopsy... by the time he died ..he was bleeding from
his eyes and nose and ears ... slow ooze constantly and his vWD was at 89%
.... as you can see as he got sicker his vWD was increasing because he was
"using up" his good clotting factor leaving him with only vWD
gene produced clotting factor ... (at least that is almost the exact
email that the Critical Care vet sent to me to explain why nothing I could
do was going to save him)- tried chemo for two weeks with no improvement.
... and that is WHY A QUALITY BREEDER became more important to
me than the color of my Dobie ..although I did not think I could bear to
have a Red so quickly after Hamilton. So others will know, Hamilton came
from the Despa Dobie line which I knew to be a lymphoma line.. did not
know about the vWD... and specifically stated to Hamilton's breeder,
that I did not want a dog that was in anyway related to a Despa Dobie, she
had promised a copy of the pedigree when I drove the three hours to pick
him up on a VERY snowy day.... "come get him or I will sell
him to someone else and not refund your deposit type attitude and
statements)- there was no pedigree when I got there- Linda Birch,
BIRLIN Dobies in Goochland Va, assured me that Hamilton was not a Despa
Dobie, the bitch WAS a Despa Dobie (Gloucester VA) and until I
got Hamilton's pedigree from AKC I did not know he was from a
Despa.... I would never have bought him....because of the health problems
from Despa and the number of Despa Dobies that came into Doberman
Rescue... the breeder.. LINDA BIRCH ... could have cared less when Hamilton
got sick.. she pointed out he was 22months old so there was no REFUND... I
explained that I wanted her to know so she could notify the
littermates YEAH RIGHT!!!! .... her husband is a law professor at TC
Williams Law School- University of Richmond.. so ... loooooooong story
short... this is why I chose NOT to sue the !@#$%t
...but rather chose to tell Hamilton's story with her name on EVERY
Dobie puppy site I could .... have had several people email me
for more information .... tell it like it is ....BOTTOM LINE ... your
dog.. or people with hemophilia..
. have 100% worth of clotting genes... for ALL DOBERMANs a certain
percentage of clotting factor that they produce is defective because
all Dobermans have vWD factor .. ALL...... vWD factor means it does NOT
trigger a clot formation at the wound site when a trigger for
clotting occurs .... a small wound and a low per centage of vWD gene:
they can handle the amount of bleeding without any obvious problem
but if they have a MAJOR assault .. surgery on the abdomen for example ...
they are going to use up the good clotting factor and produce NEW clotting factor
at a decreased rate of good clotting factor ... and the vWD is NOT being
used to clot so its percentage is growing ....because nothing is using it
up because it does not "fit" in the clotting cascade..so even
less clotting factor is being created than normally would be created
because the "clotting cascade system" detects clotting
factor but it is vWD factor ... so the spiral of increasing vWD continues
anti and the bleeding is everywhere. Many of you have used Miracle Grow
... you put it in a bottle on the end of a hose and it starts out bright
green... then the more water you run through it the paler it gets .. .this
is the same thing ... imagine that the green stuff id good clotting
factor and the water is the vWD factor .. .the more you drain the green
stuff.. the more water you have .... till all you have is water .....When Hamilton
died, he was having a transfusion every day and we were changing out his
sleeping pad daily... AND THIS IS HOW I KNOW DOBIES SHOW NO PAIN...
he would still Dobie wiggle when every he woke up ... he slept a
great deal of the time.... and his eyes would beg for hugs.. which he got
...when he went in for his transfusion on 11/22/06 he was so weak, he did
not make it and it was time to let him go. We brought him home and
let the cats say good bye and buried in a place of Honor as all good Dobie
should be... and then I found LISA .. and we got GIllis ....and only when
I tell the story do I cry but before Gillis I cried daily over my
poor Hamilton and how he suffered due to a breeder who does not care about
the breed. SSSSSSSoooooooooooo
ooo... this had been a LONG story and I apologize BUT this is WHY A GOOD
BREEDER SHOULD BE WELL CARED FOR BECAUSE THE PAIN BROUGHT BY A BAD BREEDER
LIVES FOREVER IN THE HEART OF THE OWNER WHO LOST A WONDERFUL DOG who should
NEVER have been bred! Gillis cannot understand why Mommy is crying ...
bless his sweet heart... Thank you again LISA for this wonderful dog....
Frances of Hampton, VA