Dogs Lost to Pythiosis
It breaks my heart to post photos of the following dogs that have been lost to the terrible disease called Pythiosis.
ZEUS
My father’s 2-3 year old black lab, Zeus, succumbed to Pythiosis in 2013. He contracted it from a pond near the Texas coast. He was a healthy young dog that completely wasted away in just a couple short months. No lesions on his skin complicates the diagnosis. My mother who walked him and fed him everyday has been a veterinarian for 40 years and even she had trouble with the diagnosis until she contacted specialist colleagues.
By the time he was properly diagnosed and the treatments started it was too late. He was a wonderful dog and it’s mystifying we do not know more about the disease or it’s treatment.
Recently my black lab manifested gastrointestinal symptoms after swimming near the coast and I began frantically searching for info in pythiosis again. Fortunately it seems he just had a stomach bug and is rapidly improving.
I am glad to see your site and the fact that it comes up on the first page of google. Rusti was a beautiful dog and I’m extremely empathetic with what you had to go through. If you would like to add Zeus’ picture and/ or story to your site, I think that would be a good tribute to him. I’ve attached pictures below. Thank you for your time and effort.
Jeff Huebner
Austin, TX
ACE
Good evening Tammy,
I just came across your website. It made me feel a lot better knowing that my poor baby and I weren’t the only victims of this rare disease. My German Shepherd Ace has just turned 2; hadn’t even had the chance to truly experience life. He had this perfectly round lump on his left thigh and it grew almost half an inch in diameter every day or so…. Vets did a lot of unnecessary testing when, like you said, it’s just one simple blood test that will detect pythiosis. It had gotten to be the size of a cantaloupe when the vet broke the news to us that it had gotten too bad, even for amputation. He was put to rest this October……
I really appreciate your website and the group you’ve created for fellow victims. It’s really informative as it is quite hard to find information since pythiosis is so rare.
Madelyn
Columbia, South Carolina
Here are some pictures of my darling Ace.
                                                            
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