TangoRay

June 2, 2000 / November 1, 2004

Our Tango,

Have you ever heard any dog sing to Amazing Grace?

That was Tango’s favorite song; it did not matter where he was at in the house, if that song started playing he would run in and start singing. I don’t mean howling or wooing, I mean singing.

He would actually listen to the tone of the voice and try and match his tone to the singers. And he did a great job. The last time he ever spoke or said one woo to us was on Thursday, October 28th.

This past November will be one that my husband and I shall never forget as long as we live.

Tuesday night, October 27th 2004,
We had noticed that Tango’s front legs didn’t look right when he would walk. They were kind of stiff. This was noticed as we were going to bed.

October 28th, 2004
A new day began with Tango being his happy loving self; woo wooing about and being ever so feisty. As the day progressed on I noticed that he was laying about more. And by noon of the same day, when he went to get up, I got a sick feeling in my gut, cause he had trouble with his back legs getting up. My first thought was arthritis or hip dysphasia. He was only 4 years old, how could this be? I made an appointment for Friday the 29th day of October. By his appointment time, Tango had stopped wanting to eat. With a lot of time and effort, we kept getting him to eat here and there, bits and pieces.

Friday came along and my husband and I got him down to his doctor’s office cause now Tango was showing signs of weakness. We dropped him off, stayed around town and went back in an hour to check on him. Before we even had a chance to sit down, The doctor greeted us at the door with the results of his examination and blood work. The examination did not show anything was wrong, But the blood work up showed he had Juvenile Renal Dysphasia. I can’t tell you how unbelievable this was to our ears.

Kidney Failure? How could this be?

When we brought Tango home with us as a puppy, He was our pride and joy, and he will always remain that way. He was the best pup ever; he never chewed on the furniture, got in the garbage, and never tore anything up. He was and will always be our special angel. Thinking back, he never did urinate with any coloring to it, it was always so very clear, as water from your faucet. And there was never an odor.

I thought he was just hard to housebreak, But, he couldn’t control his urine because of his one kidney was bad. For almost the first two years of this baby’s life, he had trouble holding his urine, especially if he got excited. We’d had him to the doctors, had him checked out over and over and over again and not one thing showed was wrong with him.

We had him neutered in 2001 and I just knew the vet did something to him, cause it took him so long to recover from this. It wasn’t the vet that did anything; it was the JRD showing signs again, Signs I did not know of.

Then he would go thru spells of throwing up his food. Now I don’t know if anyone else has a dog where if they do not have a bowel movement, they will spit up or throw up their food, but I have a chow mix like this and he will be 11 and does not have anything wrong with him. Tango did this as well, we’d spoken to the vet again, had him checked out, ran test and all was ok.

In Tango it wasn’t the fact that he hadn’t had a bowel movement. Again it was the JRD.

All the signs, all along, No one knew. The horrible smell of his breath that just appeared out of nowhere.

That Friday, when we took Tango into the vet’s office, not only was his front legs stiff, but his back legs were stiff and would tremble.

October 29th
Tango got to sleep his first night ever away from his home; He stayed over night at the vet’s office so he could get his Kidney’s flushed out with I.V. Fluids.

Saturday, October 30th
I picked up my baby boy, he was so happy to see me and pulling me all the way to the car, he wanted to come home and home he came. Although he seemed happier, He was weak, I knew this, and I could see this. He wasn’t my happy go lucky malamute.

He did good Saturday after he got home, but by Sunday, October 31st the decline started.

By 2am November 1st, my husband and I were awakened by Tango crying in pain. He never cried at all since we’d had him.

We both jumped up, got dressed and off to the emergency hospital we went. They took X-rays of his stomach to make sure it was not torn as in some cases of JRD, the lining of the stomach tears. The reason for this is so the attending vet could administer a pain shot to Tango. Just enough to get him thru till his regular vets office opened up. We still had hope.

At 8 am we were sitting at our vet’s office with Tango, they took him straight back and told us we could pick him up at 5:30 pm. When we got back home I called to find out his status, I could hear him still crying in the background, the vet said he was just starting fluids and was going to give him something to ease his pain.

On and off several times that day I spoke to his doctor. We felt our whole being sink to the floor with the results of his blood work. In just three days from the first blood testing, Tangos had gone off of the chart.

I picked my husband up from work, rushed back down to Tango and when we got out of our car, we knew.

When we saw our baby, his eyes glazed over, looking at us but not seeing. We were just horrified and the pain with in us was unexplainable. His lips were sucked in at the sides; His ever being was slipping away and fast.

As I tried to speak to him, he tried to answer me; I noticed he had lost some control over his tongue. At that moment I told the attending to unhook the I.V. and to get him out of there.

He could barely get out of the cage they had him in. As we walked with him into another room to wait on the doctor, he just couldn’t walk any more and lay down and that is where he stayed. With in the few hours from the beginning of this same day, he had severely decreased in health. He had a red spot on his lower top lip and he was in so much pain, we had to make the hardest decision ever and that was to put him to sleep to ease his pain and suffering.

As our baby lay on the floor, his head in my lap, I watched as she started to inject him to end his suffering and pain, but it wasn’t to be. Tango passed away before anything was ever administered into his body. I will always believe that he waited on us to say goodbye. Tango was born with this problem, He lived 4 and ½ years on one kidney, and it just couldn’t take no more and failed him. It also stunted his growth in height by a few inches.

Juvenile Renal Dysphasia does exist in Alaskan Malamutes as well as other breeds.

The pedigree does not matter to this disease.

It has killed champion bloodline malamutes as well as non-champion bloodline malamutes such as our Tango.

It is a disease they can all get. There is a test that can be done when your pup reaches 3 months of age to find out if your pup carries Juvenile Renal Dysphasia or not.

This is not a new medical condition,

This is a medical condition that has been around for quite sometime.

4 Days
That is all the warning we had!
Don’t let this be you.
Tango was our baby, our soul being. As a pup, I carried him till his paws were touching the ground. He was my baby.

Our life is so empty with out him here with us.
Our home now is like a tomb,
Cold, quiet and an empty presence hanging like a fog.

This was the last photo taken of Tango,
Saturday, October 30th, 2004

Photo & Story By:
David & Linda Stookey
Nikkos Husky & Malamute Rescue
St. Louis, Missouri http://nikoshuskyrescue.8m.com/