Tessa/Camper
Tessa was adopted from Safe Haven in September 2007 to a wonderful and loving family. She was renamed Camper as her family loves to go on camping trips and knew this would be the perfect name for her. We could not have asked for a better home for this sweet girl. Words cannot express our heartfelt sadness for her family.
Her family would like to spread the word of how dangerous and ultimately fatal Sago Palms are to animals. Please read their story below.
For those that may not know, Camper was our new puppy that we got only 3 weeks ago. I’m not trying to ruin the ending of the story, but I need to tell you that Camper died on Friday, October 12th at 11:30AM, 41 hours after eating part of a Sago Palm .. Please read the following story for the details.
It was a nice Wednesday evening and Steve and I were sitting outside talking and Camper was also in the backyard. She had what looked like a ball and was barking at it. Steve told me it was a Sago Palm pup (root). She was just playing with it, so we thought nothing of it. Steve then thought that it might not be a good idea for her to have it, so he tried to take it from her. Most of you do not know Camper, but her and Jackson like to play a game that Steve has called ‘Chump’. Camper would pick up something in her mouth (usually a toy) that she shouldn’t have and Jackson would chase her down until he got it. Needless to say, Steve didn’t get it this time. He did eventually get it away from her, and a while later he found her with another one, some of which she had eaten.
About an hour after she had eaten a Sago Palm root she got sick. After the second time, I got online to see if Sago Palms were poisonous and the result was ‘yes’. We took her to the vet immediately. The vet gave her Charcoal to try to dissolve the toxins, but she couldn’t keep much down. She came home Wednesday night, but was very sleep y and still getting sick. On Thursday, I took her in at 9:30AM for blood work, and I could tell the vet did not like what he saw. Her breathing was labored and she was somewhat lethargic. He said he would keep her for about an hour, but called 2 hours later and said he would keep her all day to watch her. I went to see her at 6:30 that evening and (still being positive) asked the vet if she could die. When he answered ‘yes’, my heart sank. I sat with her and petted her, but realized she was not herself. Everyone in the Moody house was very upset, but we were keeping the faith. We all went up to see her Thursday night, and felt better and still had hope.
Friday morning Steve went to visit Camper and he knew she was going to die. She was jaundice, had not eaten since Wednesday, and was very lethargic. Steve was in the park eating lunch with the kids when the vet called to say Camper died. I was in an all day meeting when I called the vet to hear that she had past. For 3 more hours I had to work and hold in my emotions. I had it good compared to what was happening in our house. We all fell in love with this dog so quickly, and it was like we lost a member of our family.
The vet we took her to had never dealt with this before, and was very surprised at how quickly she declined. I’m sure many dogs have died because of eating Sago’s, but the owners didn’t realize that is what it was. My sister’s dog Bevo died years ago at the age of 2, and now they suspect the same thing happened to their dog.
Please spread Camper’s story to as many people that you know so that this does not happen to another dog and family.
Friday afternoon we removed all Sago Palm’s from our property and recommend you do the same if you have dogs. We wish we could go back and would have known the danger, but we can only move forward and spread the knowledge that we gained the hard way.
God Bless,
on behalf of Camper