This page is to tell Loki's story, a Schipperke who suffered from hemivertebrae and had a short, but full and joyous life. Loki WAS NOT bred at Kurakuma Schipperkes, but we felt his story was powerful enough it should be out there for all to read. Awesome dog, awesome owner, and some powerful lessons for Schipperke people everywhere to understand!
Gabriella and Loki's Story:
I got my first childhood Schipperke at the age of twelve, back in 2004. I convinced my dad after all the books I read and articles I researched at the library that this is the only breed that I wanted. Every morning I'd look through the Classifieds in the newspaper. Then eventually after months of searching, I finally found an ad. And that's how we got Daisy, best $250.00 ever spent. She was perfect. When she died at twelve years of age, my family and I were devastated. So of course, we had to get another little black devil.
That's when I started looking for my second Schipperke. I must admit it was harder than I expected. I only found a handful of breeders and to be honest, I am ridiculously picky about breeders. Especially after working in the veterinary field and studying animal medicine. After some time I found someone who had just one pair of Schipperkes that she had breed two times and was expecting a third litter. That's when my parents got Willow. She is insanely agile, incredibly fast and the most athletic dog I had ever seen. I picked her out at 8 days and got her at 8 weeks. She was built for speed. And she was perfect.
When Willow was only 7 months old when my parents decided that they wanted to get another Schipperke puppy, exactly like Willow. And of course the same breeder that we got Willow from was having another litter. I must admit I was concerned about the mama dog being bred consecutively heat cycle after heat cycle, but I thought to myself, all of the dogs from the previous litters seemed so perfect, as did Willow. So my family and I went back down to Missouri and picked up Loki when he was 8 weeks old.
At first both Willow and Loki lived together with my parents at their house. They would wrestle nonstop, eat together, sleep together and play endlessly. I must admit Loki was always slower than Willow, but at first I figured he was just smaller and that eventually he would catch up to his turbo charged sister.
At 12 weeks old, Loki still acted and played like a normal puppy. But he started having spontaneous episodes of being painful, but there was no localized pain or limping. And he would still wrestle with his sister and run around, so it just made no sense. However, at 14 weeks he had an acute episode and became incredibly painful, to the point where he literally could not move his body. He was so reactive that even when he was anticipating being touched or picked up, he'd just start screaming over and over again. That's when I knew something was seriously wrong with this little puppy.
Luckily I work as a Certified Veterinary Technician at an animal hospital so I brought him to work with me right away that morning. My Doctors could barely even do a physical exam on Loki because he wouldn't stop screaming. Everything in his body seemed to be hurting. At that point we had no idea what was going on. So we ended up taking an x-ray. I specifically remember a moment of silence as I sat there and stared at that radiograph. Never in my life had I seen such a terrible radiograph as Loki's. For the first few moments, I almost tried convincing myself that it was a positional error or some type of artifact on the film. But the look on all my Doctor's faces told me otherwise. It was true; my baby puppy was severely deformed. Loki's spine was growing at a 90 degree angle. That day I decided that Loki was no longer my parent’s dog. He became my responsibility. I took him home that day and he has been mine ever since.
(Top x-ray is Loki's sister Willow, who is normal, lower x-ray is Loki's x-ray, note the terrible curve behind his shoulders).
Loki was diagnosed with a congenital spinal deformity called a Hemivertebrae at 14 weeks old. He was the first puppy in all the three litters, produced by the same parents, to have this type of abnormality. This type of spinal deformity generally goes undiagnosed because it typically doesn't seem to cause severe symptoms. However, there are some cases, such as Loki's, that they are severe enough and have just the right amount of compression on the spinal cord, that nerve damage becomes progressive as they mature.
I had a really good relationship with Willow and Loki's breeder and we became good friends over time. She even left Loki undocked per my family's request, so he was the only in all the litters to keep his natural tail. Of course I notified her right away about Loki and she felt bad. Overtime Loki's medical expenses started to add up, so I asked the breeder for the money we had paid for him back, to put towards his medical bills. That's when I realized that she wasn't the breeder I thought she was. She accused me of faking Loki's x-rays and medical records. I was in complete disbelief. I had been so patient throughout this ordeal. I had given her so many chances to do the right thing. Instead she chose to act in such an unprofessional way. I was beyond upset. I now had to raise this severely deformed puppy and provide him a good quality of life with all these obstacles stacked against us. But that’s exactly what we did. We continued on with our challenges and made the very best of it.
It wasn’t until later on, a couple months later, that I found out that she had bred the same parents the very next heat cycle. That's when I really was frustrated. I attempted to spread the news to all the puppy owners of the two dogs and asked that even if there are no symptoms, it's better to check a spinal radiograph and be certain. She blocked me from her page and since then, has had at least two litters with those same parents. I am distraught, because whether it's a congenital or hereditary condition, she produced a seriously deformed puppy and the parents should have been eliminated from the breeding pool right as soon as she found out. Instead she chose to continue to irresponsibly breed the same line. I have not spoken with her since. She knows what I think about her.
One of the most difficult parts to all this was that there was no Veterinarian, Board Certified Surgeon, Rehab Specialist or Neurologist that thought that it could be surgically corrected, especially on a spine so severe. I had been told by multiple specialists that he was so severe he'd lose function of his rear legs by six months old and the only thing I could really do was manage the symptoms as they came. Even knowing this sort life expectancy, Loki was so happy that I had no choice but to keep going.
At around four months he started showing mild signs of being uncoordinated in the rear. As his spine grew, he started showing neurological issues. There was a point where he got so bad, that he couldn't even get himself up and he kept falling backwards while defecating simply because he wasn't strong enough. That's when I knew I couldn't just wait around to see what happened as he grew up. At 18 weeks, I started bringing him to Hydrotherapy twice a week with a rehab specialist. It did wonders for Loki. He was able to run and play, not like a normal dog, nothing Loki ever did was ever considered normal, but it was good enough in his standards. He got from point A to point B and was able to do whatever he wanted to do. At six months old, Loki became strong enough to even go up the stairs, in his own special "bunny hop" style. I was so proud, as was he.
Well he had his first birthday. And the good news is we made it through the first year. He was still able to run, play, use stairs, etc. but of course he does it all in his own special, wobbly style. Which although clearly very abnormal, it seems to fit his personality and gets him noticed everywhere he goes. There were many times throughout this journey of our first year together that I thought we weren't going to make it. There were countless nights I stayed awake, stressed and worried about how we were going to get through the next phase of this terrible progressive disease. Loki's body went through so many changes and gave him so many challenges that we were adjusting to everything on a day to day basis.
The only thing that seemed to remain constant was his unbeatable happiness. People would feel bad for him at first, but it's hard not to notice the insane amount of joy that radiates from every ounce of energy his soul produces. As sad as it is that Loki was born in a severely broken body, his ability to see all the good in life is the most inspiring quality he had and with that he changed lives.
I want to share it in hopes that it can make a difference. I would never wish any puppy or owner to go through what Loki and I have gone through. It should not only be prevented, but it should be eliminated. Breeding is such a huge responsibility. It shouldn’t be a hobby and it shouldn’t be just for fun. It should be taken very seriously. It’s a huge responsibility for the people breeding to choose wisely not only in appearance and conformation, but in temperament and especially health. If something were to happen that was accidental, then please take the responsibility to own up and make things right. As well as make decisions that will better the breeding gene pool. We are the voice and reason for existence of these animals. They need us as much as we need them.
Loki's Obituary
I picked Loki out before he was even born. He was the only one who didn't get his tail docked. But being the only one with a tail wasn't the reason why he stood out. He was born the biggest of his litter. He was the first to climb OVER mom to get out of the whelping box. Last one to walk, first one to eat. Only one born with an extra vertebra. I knew before I even met him at 8 weeks that he was going to be a challenge. Well that was a huge understatement.
Loki acted like there was no such thing as bad days. He would find the hidden joys in something as simple as a leaf or a stick. He was a rock collector, a toy disorganizer and he knew how to make even the most straight forward tasks, as complicating as possible. He had a soul that could charm just about anyone that met him. The way he moved, as abnormal as it was, matched his carefree personality in every sense.
We had so many adventures together. We went to parades, festivals, parks and picnics. We stayed at cabins, hotels and a bunch of different friends’ houses because he could never be left alone. Loki was a part of all of the holiday celebrations. He went to work with me every day and he took our breaks very seriously. Loki literally went everywhere I could bring him. I had his play pen, his car seat, his diapers, his medications and baby bag wherever we went. I told him multiple times that he is as close to having a child as it could get.
I will never forget the love he had for his short, complicating life. He loved every.single.moment. He loved every type of attention. Just say words he didn’t understand and ask him to do things he didn’t know and he was happy, not really doing anything you asked him to do but he was doing something and it made you laugh. He had confidence that everything he did was right and with that you just believed him. He made sense out of his nonsense. Ignorance is bliss, and that was the motto he lived by.
As his condition progressed Loki was still having good days, but also had some very bad days. And as the months continued he stopped having good days. He had bad days with good, brief moments. When he slept his body would jerk, and tense up. He never truly stopped moving. He never truly relaxed. He would circle and circle aimlessly, whether that helped his mind or his body, it was just something he had to do. He was in this constant state of being uncomfortable. Feeling trapped. Feeling frustrated. I could see it in his eyes and I could feel it in his expressions. When there was no one around for him to impress or show off to, he would just give up. He knew I'd take care of him when he did. He didn't have to be the tough guy around me.
Loki was set free from the broken body he was born in, on March 23rd, 2018. He was surrounded by the people he loved, and who loved him. But what he didn’t know is that all around the world he was loved. He made a difference so strong that it was felt through beyond social media, beyond all the vet clinics he had been to, beyond all the vet techs and doctors he met, beyond all my friends who knew him so well. He made a difference and is now a part of genetics testing worldwide, international research studies, the dog genome project. The sacrifices that we made and suffered through weren't for nothing. We hope that somehow we can find a way to learn more about genetics and disease and how to prevent this from happening. Loki's struggle meant something and I hope the mystery behind him is the key to helping other animals so this type of pain can be prevented. This journey we took we took together was life changing in every sense. We surpassed everyone’s expectations and achieved all of our goals. We knew we had everything stacked against us from the very beginning. We knew our time together was going to be short. And even if it wasn’t short, it would still never be enough.
After everything, I am so glad I gave you so many chances. Otherwise I wouldn't have known how special you truly were. Loki is without a doubt the most unique, careless, goofy, quirkiest creature I have ever met in my life. And I will never have another quite like you. You will always be in the most special part in my heart. I will love you always, my little warrior. You never gave up; I just had to let you go.