Magwitch: 8/19/2005 - 12/14/2006
On August 19, 2005 a little black miniature schnauzer was born. He was technically one of six but certainly one in a million. He was brought to his home with his brother and litter mate on October 31, 2005. His brother was named Chaucer and he was named Magwitch. I named him after my favorite character in the book Great Expectations. My wife and I had just lost our best friend and schnauzer Mr. Bean at the age of nine about two months before and a few months later I lost my Dad.Thank god we had these guys to comfort us and get us out of bed on the dark grey days. We immediately fell in love with these guys. Magwitch though was little extra special. He was a noble deep soul that pulled you in with his eyes.
Affectionate, loving, playful and mischievous. He would love to be chased. Love to steal things and hide them in his pen. He would smile when running and was one of the fastest schnauzers ever. He was chubby as a puppy but after getting a wireless fence and plenty of room to roam he became very muscular and trim. He was the “baby” of two loving parents that found joy and comfort in their companionship and love.
Magwitch loved squeaky toys and socks but his favorite pastime was sticks and acorns. He would scavenge the yard daily, sometimes dragging a branch 5 or 6 feet long across the yard. He would attempt to bring his sticks in sometimes and had he the resources would have collected them like fine wines in a cellar.
Magwitch also loved his little brother. They would play for hours and magwitch taught him how to chase and play fight. Sometimes Chaucer would annoy him like a little brother but magwitch was always patient.
Whenever new people met magwitch they always gravitated to him. He seemed to be an old soul that “understood” you and was always ready to play with you or just sit beside you. Thats what brought him the most joy. Just sitting beside his human friends and enjoying peaceful moments. Here’s a picture of him actually laughing.
Medically, his ears were never cropped and he was neutered and micro-chipped. He was the specimen of perfect health. Sadly that all turned so fast. On November 16th, 2006 Magwitch and his brother went for a routine checkup and vaccination. Besides a mild trace of easily treated whip-worms, Magwitch was perfect. He was vaccinated and then the next day given interceptor for a worm preventative. Everything was good.
On November 22nd Chaucer and Magwitch were taken to Camelot Kennels in Monson, MA for thanksgiving boarding while my wife and I went to Maine. They were boarded together and all seemed OK. Upon returning to pick them up on Saturday the 25th something was wrong. The kennel keeper said they “were just fine….They are outside playing” We went out to the play area and Chaucer came running up to us. Magwitch stood still. Listless. Tail down. Mouth and beard covered in a slimy substance. He looked 100 years old. We questioned the keeper and she said. “Its just drool. I think he’s depressed. He thought you were leaving him.” NO WAY. Something was wrong. We took him home. Bathed him. We noticed a fever that night and a poor disposition so we took him to the emergency room. His fever was 105.7. Normal for dogs is 102.5. They admitted him and iced him down to get his fever down. They told us to go home and they would run tests. The next day they said the fever finally broke and we were relieved. He seemed a little better. But they were concerned about his blood tests. This would be the beginning of the confusion, grief and thousands of dollars of bills.
His white blood cells were low. His red blood cells were low. His Platelets were low. Many possibilities were there. Dog influenza. Poisoning. Infection. Immune disease. Cancer? Magwitch was tested for tick born diseases, viruses, you name it. He was x-rayed and ultrasounded. And most painful of all his bone marrow was tested. There was no cancer found but the bad news was that his marrow was not making ANY cells in any line. Most likely something called IMHA. Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia. Most dogs with this disease and one kind of low cell count had a 50/50 chance. He had all THREE kinds of cell that were low. The vet said the prognosis was poor and less than 10 percent chance of survival…if that. He could be gone in 2-6 days one vet said. They recommended steroids and a transfusion. We went with that and took him home to hope for the best. The sad part is that to this day we will never definitively know what caused this but most people who know dogs, myself included, will say it was a toxic reaction to a vaccination. A vaccination that was five in one that compromised his immune system. It flared up while we were away and the ignorant kennel staff did nothing. They never called. Rarely checked up on him and dropped the ball. But the vaccination was what did it.
We were in shock. Everything got put on hold. This guy who was just a few days ago was running full speed jumping three feet off of the deck with a stick in his mouth…was sick? We could lose him?
We prayed. We meditated. Tried homeopathic cures. Reiki massage. Everything. He started to show improvement emotionally and was especially responsive to the Reiki. His levels were holding steady and even going up at times but not enough. He was not in any pain. He loved eating. Showed interest in us and his environment…but he was not himself. Very slow. Easily tired. It was so hard to watch but we believed there was a chance. Most Vets said it was unlikely he would recover…but there was a chance…so we pressed on. We were especially encouraged on December 9th.
On that Saturday we noticed a huge lump on his throat and shoulder area and a fever. We feared that perhaps it was a tumor or a hemorrhage so we took him into emergency. They aspirated it and said it was puss filled. He probably got it from his brother bumping or playing with him. Quite possible since his cell count was so low and he was susceptible to bruising. They said that it was good that his body was fighting this and his fever showed that his body was indeed fighting. Another blood test showed great results too. His white blood cells and red blood cells were UP. The drugs were working. We brought him home and the huge sore on his neck was healing very fast. He was so full of pep on Sunday and Monday. I honestly thought this was the beginning of the long road to recovery. Then Tuesday came and he seemed a little slower. Wednesday was a little worse and he started going off by himself. Not good. He ate very little too. Wednesday night he vomited twice around 11 PM. The third time he vomited there was a little blood in it. I thought “Oh boy this is it. This is the end.” We rushed him to the ER and they did all kinds of stomach tests and said it didn’t look like internal bleeding. But they noticed a fever and wanted to keep him overnight. We said goodbye to our little man and gave him a big hug and kiss. We said See ya tomorrow boy.
The next day we got a call saying his blood pressure was low and the fever slightly elevated. They said he may need another transfusion “if we wanted to keep going.” The fact is we weren’t sure. If he was getting better that would be one thing. But if this was just prolonging the inevitable then we did not want to put him through this. That is no quality of life. Spending his time in a hospital with no hope. No way. I asked her point blank. “Is he dying?” The vet said she feared he may be…and it could be that night even if his blood pressure didn’t come up. My wife and I said “Enough. Our poor little man is fading. Lets bring him home and if we need to put him to sleep we know a vet who will do it here at our house in his bed with people he loves around him. I called the pet crematorium and made an appointment for the next day. We had finally felt a peace about the decision. We finally felt ready to let him go. 15 minutes later we got a call from the vet. She said about 10 minutes ago we went to check his blood pressure and he stopped breathing when we checked him. We tried CPR. We tried everything. I said “He’s gone?” “Yes, I’m so sorry…he’s gone.”
Poor magwitch. Poor chaucer. Poor us. Poor world. Oh my heart! The only consolation we had were these three things.
1. He had let go almost at the same exact time that my wife and I had come to peace with him going.
2. He went peacefully in his sleep like we had prayed and hope for. We should all be so lucky.
3. He had an angel of a girl with him named Ami. Ami had taken a liking to Magwitch since she first met him. She bonded with him more than the other dogs. She loved him. She loved us. And her love of life, god, and all of his creation just exuded from her. One of the most beautiful people I have ever met. She had just come in about 20 minutes before and she was there with him the whole time to help him along and ease his pain. Knowing that she was there will always mean a lot to us.
I share this page to not only share my grief but to also hopefully shed some light for anyone facing something similar. We will never vaccinate a dog for anything other than rabies. If we must, we will used a killed virus vaccine and do them one at a time and spaced out over several months. Also, we will never use a kennel again. We will hire dog sitters or house sitters or bring the dog with us. We will also have pet insurance. 20 bucks a month could have saved us literally thousands. I also feel that all of our love and TLC and bringing him home from the hospital caused him to have an extra two weeks with us. We never gave up on him ’cause he never gave up. I also firmly believe thatthe love and prayers of so many people made a huge difference. I did a show at Christian Brothers Catholic College Prep lastweek in Sacramento , California and the kids who said prayers before the assembly both mentioned him in their prayer. Just hearing his name spoke over the sound system like that made me feel great. So thank you to all of you for praying for our little guy.
A lot of times people in our position or people that have lost someone wish they could go back and do it over. Maybe wish they could have done more. A lot of times people say they never appreciate someone till they are gone. They never told them that they loved them…etc. I’m thankful that kelly and I have none of those regrets. We appreciated this dog every minute. We played with him everyday and slept with him every night. We would say to each other “What a pleasure it is to watch him run. Look at him go. He’s mental. To watch him play. What a great dog!” We did this almost daily. We told him we loved him every day and cuddled him. We never took he or his brother for granted. We took this picture a few days before he got sick. Its the last one I found on the digital camera yesterday.
Its Christmas time now and yes its very painful but I have peace and hope deep down that the past year would have been awful without him and we know we did all we could. He brought so much to us by just being there. We miss him so much but are so thankful for the oh so brief 14 months we had him in our lives. What a noble, gentle, silly, devilish, and loving little guy. We will always carry you in our hearts Magwitch.
I leave you with this video I found on the camcorder last night. Its unedited and not professionally done but it sure shows the spirit of these guys when they were just about 4 months old.
Nancy says:
We lost our beautiful Lucy, a 7 year old cockopoo this Monday, January 8, 2007 of AIHA. She was only at the vet 5 days and had not be innoculated.We never kennelled her and took her everywhere with us as part of the family. What was the cause? Food, genetics, environment, stress, me working more? I share your profound grief and realize that Lucy had had a terrific life with us.
January 13th, 2007 at 4:18 am
Peggy says:
What a sad but beautiful tribute to Magwitch. I am so sorry for what you went through. I lost my beloved Max, my mini, when he was only four years old to a severe case of stones. I have done much studying since then and have found that vaccinations are a real source of concern, although that wasn’t what caused Max’s problems. Max died eight years ago. This year, I am going to get another mini. My breeder is getting ready to breed her bitch next week. So life does go on, and the little ones we loved and who loved us back so fully are always a part of who we are and where we go. Thank you for sharing your story, Peggy
February 8th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
Karen says:
I was very touched after reading your tribute to such a beautiful boy. We lost our 7 yr old mini schnauzer on November 3, 2006 to IMHA. It hit him very quickly; one day he was fine, the next morning he was sluggish. Despite beginning treatment immediately, within 48 hours he was gone. Similar to your situation, we also have Bailey’s litter mate, Teddy. They were both so opposite in personalities, and were the perfect ying/yang brothers. Seeing Ted alone for the first time in his life made our hearts break even more.
Bailey had his vaccinations 4 months prior, and from what I’ve read the trigger period seems to be a 30 to 45 day span; this would eliminate vaccinations as a cause. We found no other factors which would have caused this monster. Our vet thinks IMHA is caused by genetics, but we will never know for sure. The not knowing what or why makes the loss even harder to bear. In an odd way I envy you for at least knowing what the trigger was.
Our hearts go out to your and your family, since we understand the pain you’ve felt. Its been 5 months for us, and I still cry for him. It will be a long time before this wound heals.
I’m sure Bailey is playing with Magwitch, since Bailey’s favorite toy in the entire world was squeakies also. Someday we will see them again.
God bless.
April 7th, 2007 at 5:39 am