Carry A Big Stick

Things are not looking good for success with the veterinary clinic in Perry, Georgia. What sounded like a possible yes, may have in fact been just a polite brush off, but what came after was anything but polite. Over the past two days I've made 4 long distance phone calls, just to be told that I'd be called back and then closing time comes and no phone call. Today I called twice and it was the same story; "They're both with patients", but today one of the receptionists assured me I'd get a call before the end of the day. At around 6:00 pm nobody had called me and when I tried calling again I got the live answerng service, and a man on the phone refused to even take my name and number. He told me I could call THEM back tomorrow. I told him that no THEY could call ME back. I'd spent enough time and money on this runaraound and meanwhile Carmella was still getting worse. Feeling that none of these vets even gave a rat's, I told the answering service man that I'd take my business elsewhere (not that I even know where to take it next). I don't enjoy being toyed with and I don't have money for another two weeks of long distance phone calls leading to nothing. Obviously "nice" wasn't working. I had to conclude that neither of these two had the guts to tell me to my face that they'd decided to be another barrier to Carmella's survival. Here my dog has Distemper in the brain and these guys are behaving as if I was calling about a routine check-up! What's this world coming to?

Now I will surely have to pursue media coverage to reach enough vets fast enough. There has to be at least one out there close enough for me to get to who cares! There are alot of vets in and around Atlanta and I'm sure I've just scratched the surface.

I wrote a press release tonight after seeing Carmella fall on the floor for the umpteenth time and watching her jerking so hard her whole upper body shook. (I really need to get a video of this to put here on my blog so people can see it themselves. It's not a pretty sight). These vets should have to see this and not get the option of running and hiding in their offices. Carmella gets no escape so why should they?

This press release I sent off to the News Tips e-mail of The Atlanta Journal and Constitution and I will start copying and pasting it and sending it to other news media as well.

My best friend came over today and took some pictures of me with Carmella. Carmella did not want to stay still for that, but we got a few in which she wasn't moving. Her compulsion to chew on everything and everybody was making it hard to hold her. I had to bribe her with a stick or a toy before she would even stay in my lap or right next to me for a few seconds, and when she finally did come back inside to lie down she was jerking more than ever.

As I speak she is in the kitchen chewing on a bone, all the while her head bobbing like a bouey in the water.
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Strike Two! Still Waiting...

I gave it till around 3:00 pm today before checking my e-mail to see whether there was any word from the Board Certified female neuro vet located in Sandy Springs. Nothing, so I decided to call her. Surprisingly she herself picked up the phone. Hoping this was a good sign I proceeded to introduce myself and ask if she'd received my e-mail and she said,

"Yes, you're the one who wants the injection in the dog's CNS."

"Can you do it?"

"No, I couldn't" she said through what sounded like a heavy Asian accent of some kind. "I would have to see studies, or citations or something."

"He's tried and tried to publish, but they won't let him in", I said. "You can talk to him yourself. I have his number and e-mail address."

"That is not sufficient" she remarked blithely, as if blowing away a puff of smoke from a cigarette.

Was is really that easy to just turn one's back and walk away? Apparently for her it was all in a day's work. Right away I sensed she'd go home tonight and not miss a moment of sleep over Carmella, and then came that big cop-out, that ever-familiar, convenient rationalization.

"Dogs don't always progress. She might not? Maybe." It was more of a question than a statement, a futil and impotent attempt to veil her own inadequacy.

"Well she already has started to. This morning I took her out and the jerking was happening this time as she was standing on her leg. That didn't happen before, and this time it was pretty major. She had to lift up her paw several times."

Almost immediately, the vet started talking over me as if she believed if she drowned out the truth with her own voice that somehow absolved her of her guilt. Like a baby hiding behind a blanket, she told herself that the problem didn't exist because she didn't see it.

"You can bring her in, but I can't do it. It would be unethical." Bring her in and do what? I thought. Give her Phenobarbital to mask the problem, give her a valium to relax her while she slowly deteriorates and dies? So that you can lie to yourself and pretend you're helping her? So that you can charge me another $75.00 for an office visit just to refuse in-person what you have over the phone and deny her the one thing that will kill the virus and save her life? Hell no! I thought, enraged at the ludicrousy of the moment. "Unethical" my ruby red one! You want to know what's unethical? Unethical is when you have the training and the skills to save a life but you choose not to. Unethical is letting a dog twist in the wind while a deadly virus slowly shuts down every brain function one-by-one, stripping her myelin from each nerve like the shucking of the outer covering of a bundle of telephone wires with a wire-cutter! Unethical is letting fear for your own ass decide how you practice medicine instead of compassion for a living thing!

"How is that unethical? I have pictures of her improvement from the first shot already?"

"She's not even my patient".

You're right, I thought, and she won't ever be either with that attitude.

"You should really have a University work with her, not a private practice vet. There's a vet at UGA who knows alot about Distemper, not Marc Kent, not Platt..."

I looked at my list of Board Certified neuro vets. "Dr. Scott Schatzberg?"

"Yes, that's it, Schatzberg. Ask him. He should know whether the treatment you are seeking has any merit."

Her statement left me cold. I didn't need someone to tell me whether it has merit. I've seen it! So I'm expected to leave my brain and all my senses at the door? Obviously if it's never been published it's less likely he would have heard about it unless he'd heard by word of mouth.

Soon we got off the phone after she wished me "good luck" with my dog, and suddenly I was crying. Yea right, I thought. Good luck. The expression had a sardonic sound to it. Knowing that good luck is really what people do and does not just magically appear I was not about to fall for that one. It has routinely become what people say these days from afar when they risk nothing and don't get involved. Notice that a husband accompanying his wife to the hospital and just before surgery doesn't say "Good luck". The reason for that is that he is going to know what she knows as it happens, with her every step of the way. Short of accompanying her inside the OR he is going to be there, taking on the problem by her side. In all likelihood he will be the first person she sees in the recovery room after the medical personnel.

As soon as I regained my composure I put in a call to Dr. Schatzberg. I tried several times and got just an answering machine and the name on it sounded like it said Dr. Nonn, not Schatzberg, so I wondered if he might be on vacation and that another doctor might be covering for him.

Then I sent off an e-mail. There seemed to be two lines and first I tried it with just what was on the first line and got no "undeliverable" messages back, but when I tried it with both lines it did come back as "undeliverable" so I'm still not sure whether he got either of them. I will call again tomorrow.

Here is a re-print of my e-mail below:

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Dear Dr. Schatzberg,

I adopted a puppy from an animal shelter that I named Carmella, and she turned out to have Distemper. I looked far and wide to find out the best treatment available and came across Dr. Alson Sears’ protocol using Newcastle Disease Virus Vaccine (the LaSota strain) off-label, which is as far as I know the only thing that has really eradicated the virus successfully in dogs. My regular vet tried it on her (an IV to treat the virus in the body) and it worked quite well. When she was first diagnosed they didn’t know if she’d even make it through the weekend, but the treatment really brought her back! The only problem is that she also needs to have it injected into the spinal area, the Foramen Magnum, because it does not cross the blood-brain barrier when injected in the body. Her Central Nervous System is still infected, and although she is dramatically better in every other way, her neuro symptoms are gradually getting worse. My vet has never done a spinal tap before, so although he would do it if he had the skills he does not feel qualified. I have had a hard time finding a vet who is both qualified and willing to do this, and it appears that there are only two board certified neuro vets in Atlanta (and about 4 listed in Athens).

It is a real shame that the medical journals up till now have refused publishing Dr. Sears’ papers on this discovery, and I really think an academic institution should step in and do clinical trials on this treatment and begin to document and publish findings on its effectiveness. As of yet I have not been able to find anybody but Dr. Sears even attempting to look for a cure for distemper. I looked through PubMed the other night for several hours and although there are studies that circumstantially hint that this could work, most of the studies are aimed at testing better vaccines to prevent; not cure the disease. Somebody should be very interested in this, as I have pictures showing that after the initial shot by IV Carmella’s pads completely healed within just about 2 weeks after injection with NDV. This bird-based vaccine, mostly used in the poultry industry is manufactured by Merial right here in Georgia, and Dr. Sears has a formula that is a dog-based serum which he has given people permission to post online and to use to treat infected dogs. One vet I have spoken with tells me that he knows a vet in Alabama who uses the dog-based serum regularly in the body and reports great results with it. This is good, but these dogs need vets who are willing to test and treat in the Central Nervous System as well, and the most likely candidates to take on this challenge are neuro vets with an interest in research.

Maybe Merial would fund a study if you put in an application. It’s something to seriously consider. They seem to have done a fair amount on Distemper and may be very interested if their product could be proven to kill the virus; not just be used as a vaccine to prevent it. It might be worth testing both the NDV and dog-based formula. Publishing something would remove it from the virtual no-man’s land it currently sits in, and could be of great benefit to science and to Veterinary Medicine, not to mention having the potential to make a significant dent in the epidemics in shelters which probably cost billions of dollars nationwide.

It seems that given Carmella’s success with the first injection that as long as she gets this early enough she should have a good prognosis with the spinal injection as well. If ever there was a good candidate for a successful outcome it is her. Her secondary pneumonia is almost gone after several weeks of antibiotics (2 weeks of that with Azithromyacin), and she is otherwise healthy. Her weight is back up, and she is eating and drinking well. She has boundless energy, (unlike before the first shot when she was lethargic). She should be able to withstand anesthesia. I don’t want to wait until the symptoms are too extreme because then it might be too late to prevent permanent damage from the Distemper virus.

Currently she has mild to moderate chorea in the right front leg and sometimes shoulder which happens intermittently. So far it has not affected her activity overall and happens mostly when she’s at rest. In addition she has an occasional moment of clumsiness, but so far no seizures or overt paralysis. Even so, over the past day or so I’ve noticed a gradual worsening and this morning her right front leg was jerking perceptibly even while she was standing on it while I took her out for a walk and she had to lift her paw on a few occasions. (Some of the vets I’ve spoken with in recent weeks took the position that “maybe” it won’t progress but I think that ship has already sailed).

I hope you can help her, as I’ve run out of people to ask in the Atlanta area and I don’t know how much time we have before she gets even worse. She is a beautiful, loving dog and I want to do everything I can to save her.

If you’d like to speak with Dr. Sears to find out more about this treatment he developed I have two phone numbers for him and an e-mail address; (phone numbers removed from public view), and e-mail: AntiDistemper@aol.com
He and I have been in contact for a few weeks now. He is willing to speak with any vet I work with on this.

Please contact me as soon as possible. It would be a big load off my mind if you will do this. Carmella deserves this chance. She is a very special dog, and not only to me. When you meet her in person you will know what I mean.

Sincerely,

Pippit Carlington

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Caution...Dangerous Curves Ahead

The weekend was a time of waiting and watching. Carmella seemed her normal jovial self, swaggering up to grab hold of my pants leg, and barking at the teenaged kids down the street playing football or a squirrel that wandered into the back yard and peered back at her through the protection of a window divided only by thin strips of wood.

Once outside on the leash she looked through the chain link fence into the back yard and wanted to run around back there, but the repairman who'd fixed the fence hadn't fixed it very well, as a plank fell off no more than a day after he'd been out here and pronounced it complete. It turned out that the plank had been nailed into air on the other side; not into the cross-board at all, so it was never attached in the first place fell back with the first gust of wind, and left a gaping hole big enough for a dog to escape through. It lay ineffectually with nails facing up in the yard. Having Carmella get out and end up hit by a car or picked up by the pound would be the last thing I needed. He has not been back to repair it, and the rest of the job was pretty sloppy, leaving mounds of uneven cement poured haphazardly into a sink hole that would only continue to sink. Such is life when you don't have the money to pay a "real" contractor, and I'm not in good enough health to attempt to do it myself. I had to settle for now for taking her back there on the leash and walking around with her. She really wanted to run and exercise her legs, but these days my legs aren't up to more than a few feet of that before I give out. We both came inside exhausted.

Carmella lay down and immediately her front leg started jerking again. I found that if I put my hand on it I can feel what seems to be current running through it. It's a very strange feeling. I felt it tonight too.

When I checked my e-mail today there was a message from Dr. Sears. He told me that the NDV CSF procedure would be trickier now that these symptoms (Chorea) had appeared. He believes it is in the early stages of what will eventually progress to either seizures or paralysis, and he said that this can progress slowly after periods of stability or it could progress fast depending on two factors; the genetics of the dog, and what strain of Distemper the dog has.

I called Dr. Brantly's office around 3:00 this afternoon and somebody who answered the phone said he was with a patient so she would have to give him my message when he came out. I told her that Carmella was getting worse in terms of the jerking and that it was more frequent and more obvious now.

Awhile after that a call came in from a receptionist who had not gotten the message but had been asked to call me on behalf of Dr. Brantly based on Friday's information that nothing had changed. He wanted her to tell me that he was not comfortable doing the procedure right now and that he was still researching, and that he would most likely call Dr. Sears tonight after work. He had waited to call him so that he could speak on the subject intelligently. She conveyed at this point that he was afraid of paralyzing or even killing her if he did not do the procedure just perfectly, and upon further questioning it seemed as though he had not done many spinal taps, and maybe appeared overly confident in the beginning when he'd said "I'm pretty sure I'm going to do it", asking that we come in more as a formality than anything else. As the call to action became increasingly imminent it seemed he got cold feet. The problem is, where does that leave Carmella? I hope not out of luck. The ticking time bomb in her head will not merely go away. Somebody will have to do this thing or it's just a matter of time before she dies of this horrible disease.

I wonder why Dr. Johnson didn't do it before she had these symptoms when he had the chance and the skills? If he's done enough spinal taps not to hit the chord then he clearly would have been qualified. I wonder if he ever thinks about her or wonders how she is? Surely he knows the score if left untreated.

And then there was one other vet who could have done it successfully and chose not to.

I am not going to give up. Sooner or later the right vet for the job will reveal him/herself. I just know that it is not God's will for Carmella to die. Anybody who meets her knows very quickly that she is not merely a dog. There is a purpose for her life. Who knows, maybe that purpose is to open the minds of vets to think outside the box, and to change the current thinking about what is cureable and how new medical discoveries become accepted.

Tonight I will be looking at various university vet schools' websites to see what I can find in the way of names of neuro vets. Auburn, and possibly University of Tennessee. I hope I don't have to go that far away, but will if I have to.

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