My sweet little Schnitzel died this morning.

He was fine when we went to bed last night, at almost 1 a.m..
When The Man got up at 6:30 to rouse the BigKids for school, there was blood everywhere. I don’t mean blood everywhere like, “Bobby cut his finger and got blood everywhere.” I mean blood everywhere like two dozen pools of blood a foot long spread through the living room, kitchen, dining room and laundry room. Of course, the BigKids saw all of this and were very upset. Schnitz was lying on his favorite blanket, cold, breathing harshly and unable to get up.

The Man got to the vet’s office before the vet did. As he was waiting, Schnitz died, looking at The Man. The kids had gone off to school not knowing what would happen. The Man is inconsolable.

The vet said Schnitzel had an extremely rare condition called “Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation” (DIC), which he only sees at most once per year. It’s basically a ticking time bomb in your dog, eventually causing them to become a hemophiliac almost overnight. Any sickness, inoculation, heat stroke, etc. can set it off. In Schnitz’s case, we had missed a few months of heartworm pills and he tested positive for exposure. He had no heart damage and it was caught at the earliest stages.

He had a treatment a couple weeks ago to kill the worms, which is very routine, especially here in the south. But, the drug “activated” the condition, causing a cascade of coagulation problems, resulting in his hemorrhaging into his intestines. There was absolutely no indication that he was ill until this morning.

The one blessing is that he did not suffer as far as we can tell. He never whined or yelped.

He was three years old. He was a good dog. He never, ever snapped or growled at anyone, even curious toddlers who pulled his tail and played with his food. He deserved better than this. The vet says that it would have happened at some point in his life. No one is sure what triggers this rare condition.

I’m not sharing this sad story to spread my own misery. I’m sharing it to tell you, my OpenFamily, that being absolutely vigilant about heartworm prevention could buy you a few more months or years with your beloved pet if they have this rare condition.

In these hard times, it’s easy to let vet visits go for a month or two, or maybe you can’t afford the preventative medications. Maybe you think that the risk is slight because it's winter and too cold for the mosquitos which spread heartworms. I’m here to tell you that even though the chance is miniscule, keeping your pet properly protected from heartworms constantly is vital.

We would have lost our dog at some point, probably very soon. It’s not technically “our fault”. We are not people who don't care for our animals. But, if I can keep just one mother from having to tell her children that their dog is gone, it’ll be worth it.

If you can't afford your pet's medications or vet visits, there are programs in most cities which can help you. If, like us, you just let the time slip by in the rush of kids and jobs, I hope that you'll remember what happened to us and it will motivate you to remember your vet visits.

The chance of this happening to us twice are one in a million, but I can tell you that I will never, ever allow my pets to go a single day without heartworm medication again.

It wasn't the cause of my dog's death, but I might have had him a little longer without that catalyst.

The bus is coming soon and I will have to tell the children that they will never see their dog again.

My heart is broken. My dog is gone.
Please learn a lesson from my pain.

I can assure you that Heaven is now badger-free.
I'll miss that little guy forever.

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