Nadine BunteEmma’s story began when we brought her home to us at 9.5 weeks, her forever home.
Unfortunately, the second night was already a nightmare. She had a kidney-urinary tract infection, and it wasn’t mild. We immediately went to the vet to help her. The vet told us about her suffering, and there was no choice but to administer antibiotics. After a few months, she seemed a bit worse, and we thought it might be related to her food, but that was only partly true. We switched to an unfortunately not-so-good choice (name remains censored), and that led to the worst thing that could have happened. Emma contracted a Salmonella infection from poorly processed chicken feed. That was the breaking point. What we didn’t know was that Emma had already developed a protein intolerance. Now it was really bad, and the vet had only suspected an infection. However, as Emma experienced nothing but bloody, watery diarrhea and vomiting, vets searched and searched for the cause. We spent countless amounts of money, and blood, stool, saliva, and organs were examined. No one could help us.
It was a horrifying time. Emma continued to lose weight, and I became more and more desperate. She was so thin in the end that every bone was visible, a terrifying sight! I begged the vet for an infusion. I was truly afraid for my pupating dog’s life. Every morning, I expected Emma to have peacefully passed away overnight. I didn’t leave her side, day or night. The sofa now belonged to Emma and me.
The vet we finally consulted at the end was Emma’s guardian angel. She immediately recognized what the problem was. Emma has a protein intolerance, specifically against the ruminant group. Forgive me for not recognizing and accepting that it was «just» an allergy at the beginning. But luckily, the vet remained steadfast, and we bought special food for Emma. It was soy protein food. The key here: The soy protein must be broken down not just once or twice but multiple times, extremely often. Only then can the dog’s immune system absolutely not react to the already friendlier soy protein. Of course, it wasn’t the tastiest, but Emma ate in small portions and kept eating. She started gaining weight again. I could hardly believe my luck when the scale showed more weight for Emma instead of less.
Now we had to move on to the exclusion diet. But more on that in the next post.
My little girl is a fighter, and we’ve seen that twice now. I am so proud of her and truly grateful that she didn’t pass away in her first year of life.
