On 8/7/07 my 5.5 year old male Doberman, CH Skylocke's One Tin Soldier(Kalebh) dropped dead of sudden death cardio on my kitchen floor, in front of me. He voided, no respiration. he was gone. My 19 year old son and a family friend started to work on him. Chest compression, mouth to mouth and finally I hit him with my EpiPen. His heart restarted, panicked we carried him to the car and drove him to the local emergency vet. He was too far advanced for their facility, all they could do was attempt to stabilize him and call to make arrangements to transfer to a Cardiac Critical Care facility. His strip looked like a child's scribbling. Keep in mind that DCM(dilated cardio myopathy) is rampant in our breed. Per a study out of the University of Toronto, of all male dobermans over the age of 7 asymptotic to DCM, 60% die of the disease..........and 40% of our females. That is the ones that do not already have it.
Back to my story, Kalebh was now under the care of one of the two board certified veterinariy cardiologist in the Pacific NW. He spent 4 days at the care facility. He was sent home with pimobendan and mexilitine, in large doses. WIth a written diagonsis stating he had DCM and arrymithia and 6 weeks to 3 months to live. Keep in mind that when he was 3 and prior to breeding he had a full cardio workup(EKG and ultrasound) and given a clean bill of health. I went home, got online and did my homework. According to all the other breeders they were giving their cardio dogs these supplements: l-carnitine, taurine, fish oil and CoQ10. I added those, but I did my own online research and found an article about a human with DCM. That article talked about his use of colostrum and his recovery from DCM. By the end of August of 2007, Kalebh began his colostrum, 3000mg a day of powdered organic first milking
Total Body Research Labs colostrum. As well, there were 7 other dobermans that Kalebh and I knew from the DoberWorld and showring who were diagonsed with this disease. Kalebh's breeder told N*** owner about the article I had found and highly suggested it's use.
Now it is October of 2008, all of these dogs have died from DCM..........EXCEPT Kalebh and N**. Kalebh and N** were diagonsed within weeks of each other. Another Doberman did start on the colostrum but ONLY long after he had been diagonsed, he only had about 6 weeks on it before he passed. I am NOT stating that this is any form of a scientific story. This is only a personal tail.....of two dogs who have beaten the odds.
Thanks for your time.
Jenn Books-A.
