Hudson needs surgery to repair his liver

At the beginning of September Derrick and I went to go get a Toller puppy. I have Been wanting a duck toller for a couple of years now. Then along came Hudson. Hudson and I instantly bonded like no dog I have owned or trained before. I felt like he just knew me. Sounds strange but if you have ever had a dog you know what I mean. I had big plans for Hudson and I at this point. I wanted to make him a service dog for me, learn agility training and much more.

Well three days after we brought Hudson home, he started to cough. He ended up being diagnosed with kennel cough. Which he picked up from a dog at his breeders home. Once that cleared up he was ready for his second round of vaccination. But two days before his appointment he started to pee blood. So again we go to the vet. There was no bacteria in his urine which was strange. So the vet ended up giving him antibiotics to see if he improves.

2 weeks after that cleared up, he was still not acting normal. He was super lethargic, constantly peeing in the house (even though he was let out every hour), extreme thirst, restlessness at night time, clumsy, throwing up and staring into space a lot.

So I took him to the emergency room for the first time. Again they ran more bloodwork. The bloodwork results were he was extremely anemic. So they told me to watch it and take him to his primary care vet. I made an appointment for a physical and his vaccination a week later after the er visit.

A week later when I took him to the vet for the second time for his wellness exam. Again his gums were so pale, he would stare into blank space and didn’t act love a 3 month old puppy. They decided not to give him any vaccines and run more blood work. What came back was a extremely elevated white blood cell count, two proteins in his blood were extremely high and he had no antibodies left. So we took him in for a strong antibiotic shot thinking he’s fighting off some sort of infection.

A week later and not much improvement. I was Desperately looking for answers. So reached out to his brothers mom via Instagram asking her if her puppy has had any issues. Unfortunately his brother experienced the same issues and just got out of the icu. His brother was diagnosed with a A portosystemic shunt (PSS) aka liver Shunt. His brothers mom emphasized that we need to take him to the vet right away.

So at 7:30pm on Wednesday night we rushed Hudson to Golf Rose Animal Hospital yet again. The ran blood work and again he came back with the same results as previous but even higher. So they told us to get him over to the veterinary specialty clinic in Bannockburn, IL. To where he stayed the night on IV Fluids and started medication. His ammonia levels were so high from his liver not working properly that it was causing brain dysfunction. In the morning he was scheduled first thing for an ultrasound with a specialist to determine if he had a liver shunt.

Unfortunately he does and it’s internal. Hudson will have to have surgery when he is full grown to put a clasp around the valve, so it will eventually close off. Once it closes off the blood flow will process through the liver correctly.

Moving forward Husdson will need to be on a special low protein diet and medication. As well as vet checks every couple of months.

He’s a little warrior so he’s going to be just fine.

They always say things happen for a reason. I think Hudson was brought in my life on purpose.

As fate has it Hudson is going to have to go through life very similar to me. Oddly enough the food he is only allowed to eat are the same things I am allowed to eat. Having an invisible illness is hard since to the outside world you look normal.

I feel god knew I needed someone/something by my side to help me through my life change that I can relate too. And he put Hudson in my life because he knew I can empathize with him. Hudson’s care is going to be extremely costly moving forward. I feel if he ended up somewhere else he may not have had a fighting chance to live a “normal” life.

Moving forward I am going to try and educate others on how to prevent Hudson’s condition.sadly 4 out of every 1000 dogs are born his condition. Sadly families have to choose if they want to go through with the costly treatment or give there dog to a shelter that can.

I started a Instagram page called Hope4Hudson.

Follow his journey throughout his life living with an invisible illness and how to prevent PSS.