u/CaseyLouLou2

We lost our wonderful dog Shadow in June to cancer. I cried for a month and decided I needed a dog to help me heal. We got Belle at 10 weeks old and it did help me heal. I poured my heart and soul into training her and playing with her and getting to know her.

Then yesterday we we lost her after a 24 hour illness that seemed to be liver related toxicity. We don’t have a definitive diagnosis and now I’m afraid to ever get another puppy. They said there was a faint positive mushroom test but it’s dry summer here and it’s not when mushrooms grow. I haven’t seen any. I don’t have other liver-toxic plants that she would have eaten as far as I know.

They ruled out parvo and lepto. They also said it might be anaphylaxis from eating a bee or a congenital liver shunt defect. I’m pretty confident she didn’t get anything toxic inside the house because she was closely supervised and we didn’t let her loose. Outside though she was obsessed with eating leaves and acorns and poop, etc.

She deteriorated so quickly over 24 hours and had liver failure causing a hemorrhaging eye and bowel bleeding. It was horrifying. The vets said there was no hope and I could see that was true so we said goodbye yesterday morning. It was heartbreaking. She was a 17 week old puppy and we loved her and needed her!!

I feel like I need to know what happened. If there was a poisonous mushroom in the yard I want to know that. I was super careful to keep her from eating things but of course she still did. I was always worried about blockages and it turned out she didn’t have a blockage but she supposedly ate something toxic. None of the things on the list are in our yard. We are in an area that gets the toxic Deathcap mushrooms but I don’t know if we have those or not and mushrooms only show up in the winter. My other dogs never bothered with mushrooms.

I do wonder if she had Pica due to a liver issue and that’s why she seemed so hungry and scavenged. I will never know. I almost asked for an autopsy but didn’t.

Sorry this is so long. I’m devastated. Belle was a feisty, hungry, bitey little puppy. But so smart. She learned about 20 commands over the 6 weeks we had her. She was so focused and fun and determined. She got annoyed when we stopped the fun training games. She didn’t like to just relax.

I don’t even know how to process this after losing my dog a few months ago and then this sweet, innocent puppy that should have grown up to be our family dog. I had Amazon packages with puppy presents arrive after she was gone. I have loads of unopened treats.

Now what do I do? I’m not ready yet but can I ever risk getting another puppy? Can I handle the stress of that fear? We have a large wooded yard and until now our other two dogs were fine.

Belle was loved. I loved her more than I realized. We didn’t have her very long and she deserved so much more. This just isn’t fair. I feel so sad for her and for us. I hated to see her suffering. She was a good girl and I told her that a lot. Even when she was not that good. She tried so hard. She wanted to be good. She was going to be an amazing dog. It’s just unbelievable that this happened.

I can’t even believe I’m writing this but we just lost Belle after a 24 hour illness. She was only 17 weeks old. They think it may have been from eating toxic mushrooms. She had a mildly positive test. She developed liver failure all of a sudden and we had to put her to sleep today because she was declining so rapidly and horribly. 

We don’t even know for sure it was mushrooms and we really don’t think she got into anything else on the list. We live in the woods and we do have mushrooms in the winter but I don’t know what kind and I don’t see any around currently. She has eaten leaves and acorns and even a banana slug despite our efforts but I’m not aware of her finding any mushrooms. We almost always had her on leash to keep her from eating everything in sight. I do wonder if we weren’t keeping up with her appetite. The vet had mentioned the possibility of a congenital liver shunt causing this which would also have caused a big appetite and her being on the thin side but we will never know. Maybe I should have been feeding her more so she didn’t eat other random things. I thought she was just being a puppy. 

We lost our 9 year old dog Shadow a couple of months ago to cancer and then got Belle. We are devastated. We really wanted to do all kinds of things with her. I’m not sure I can ever get another dog even though I was so sure when we got Belle. I’m in total shock. I can’t even believe this happened. 

I feel so guilty. What if I could have done better?

Belle is my Shepsky cattle dog in case you haven’t met her. She’s only 20% husky but she has the talking part down. Just need to keep working on the biting, otherwise she’s super smart. She’s 15 weeks old.

This is Belle. She’s 14 weeks and 18 pounds. She is 42% German shepherd, 38% cattle dog. 20% Siberian husky.

She’s super smart and has learned a lot of commands already in the last 3 weeks. She’s very people focused but she’s very mouthy sometimes. She can bite very hard when she’s in a mood. Hoping she exits that phase soon.

Anyone else have a similar mix or is it mostly purebreds here?

We aren’t very experienced with shepherd dogs or huskies but our previous dog was a mix of herding breeds like cattle dog, border collie, etc so we know what it’s like to have a smart dog that needs attention.

This is Belle. She’s 14 weeks and 18 pounds. She is about 38% cattle dog. The rest is 42% German shepherd and 20% Siberian husky.

We had a 25% cattle dog previously and he was mixed with border collie, Aussie, chi and pit. He was the best dog ever but we just lost him to cancer at age 9.

She’s super smart and has learned a lot of commands already. She’s very people focused but she’s very mouthy sometimes. She can bite very hard when she’s in a mood.

Anyone else have a similar mix or is it mostly purebreds here?

She’s 14 weeks and 18 pounds. What are we in for? She’s super smart but likes to play attack dog against our will.

She’s 14 weeks and 18 pounds and is a smart and spunky land shark.

Results in last photo.

This is Belle. The last one is her brother.

She’s 14 weeks and 18 pounds. She looks leggy and isn’t going to be a small dog.

Not sure what she is but she’s got the ears.

What do you think? Belle is the black and white one. Her brother is the other one named Lentil at the shelter.

We are waiting for Embark results so I would love to hear your guesses. Belle is black and white but her brothers were black, brown and grey (without the white). Her white spotted paws make me think there’s some cattle dog but she does look a bit like a shepherd. Her fur is short and fuzzy at 12 weeks except the white on her chest is a bit longer. She’s 14.5lbs now. Her brothers were bigger than her.

She’s super smart.