Thomas's Story
by Peter Icke, written in 1999

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Christine and Peter Icke for allowing us reproduce Thomas's Story here on our website.

Thomas's Story

In 1997, at the age of 11 months, our Weimaraner “Thomas” became extremely ill. He lost jaw articulation and his head began to swell in a grotesque and alarming manner. He was in very great pain and we were desperate to identify and treat his condition. After a series of clinical tests our vet concluded that Thomas was suffering from Auto-immune Disease or to be more precise “Auto-immune Mediated Myositis” and the drug prescribed to control his appalling condition was a corticosteroid called “prednisol”.

At that time I knew nothing about auto-immune diseases and steroids, or for that matter dog ailments in general. However, of necessity, I have since educated myself a little and I pass on the following in the hope that it might be of some use to anyone unfortunate enough to encounter the same problem.

Auto-immune disease is a condition arising from the immune system’s failure to discriminate between “self” and “non-self”. Anything that is foreign to the body is non-self. When an organism's immune system is threatened by foreign intruders such as cancer cells, viruses, micro-organism etc., an immune response is triggered and the resulting antibodies attack the “non-self” intruder. In a well functioning organism the immune system does not fight against its own components, however, in the case of auto-immune disease the immune system misidentifies and attacks “self” cells.

So what causes the immune system to malfunction in this way? Many theories exist but there is no definitive answer. The disease appears to be genetic in origin and is often triggered by stress. Some research veterinarians feel that multivalent modified-live vaccines provide the trigger by over-stimulating the immune system. Others blame environmental pollutants or dog food preservatives such as ethoxyquin, an antioxidant found in most dog foods.

The following information, extracted from the October 1996 issue of "The Weimaraner Magazine" published by the Weimaraner Club of America, might be of interest to anyone concerned about the possible dangers of vaccination.

Immune Mediated Problems and Vaccination in Weimaraners A small percentage of Weimaraner puppies manifest an auto-immune reaction following vaccination with combination MLV (modified live virus) vaccines. When the immune system of susceptible individuals is challenged by multiple antigens it becomes hyper-reactive and responds in the same way it would to fight an infection causing fever, elevated WBC (white blood count) and inflammatory reaction of tissues and joints. Although many puppies can be vaccinated with the combination MLV vaccines, there is no way at the present time to determine which pups are going to adversely react. Therefore, the Board of Directors of the Weimaraner Club of America recommends that when vaccinating puppies the "Distemper and Parvo" vaccines be administered separately, a two week interval between each vaccine. Any other vaccine should be administered separately as well.

Whilst searching the internet, I recently came across this reference to vaccine reaction in a short piece on hypertrophic osteodystrophy.

Acute reactions to combination shots sometimes occur in a small number of Weimaraner puppies. The first modified live virus shot may go smoothly, but subsequent shots can cause severe immune system reactions that are characterised by rising temperature, elevated white blood count, swollen lymph glands, lethargy and lack of interest in food. Eventually, due to swollen joints and weakness, the puppy finds it difficult to stand.

The article then goes on to advocate separating vaccines in accordance with the WCA recommendations. My wife and I followed these recommendations when vaccinating our second Weimaraner puppy.

We can’t be 100% certain, but the evidence does suggest that Thomas’s condition was initially triggered by the MLV vaccine. After his very first shot he exhibited most of the above symptoms along with severe lymphadenitis. Unfortunately at the time I did not have the knowledge to make the connection. Antibiotics were prescribed and all went well until he was castrated, on vet’s advice (due monorchidism - which means that the dog was born with only one testicle, a very rare genetic defect), at 11months. Perhaps post-operative stress tipped the balance.

The great variety of possible symptoms to this disease frustrate rapid diagnosis which was doubly difficult in Thomas’s case because his loss of head and neck muscle was masked by local swellings. Following diagnosis it took about one week for the prescribed corticosteroids to take away the inflammation and swellings from areas of muscular damage. It was only after this that the full extent of his muscle loss became apparent and my first illustration gives some idea of his sorry state shortly thereafter.

We also learnt around this time that muscle loss is an irreversible condition. Sadly, diseased muscle does not re-grow but is eventually partly replaced by connective tissues.

Over the following year, with many setbacks on the way, we managed to progressively reduce Thomas’s dependence on steroids and we have now established the permanent low level maintenance dose required to regulate his system most of the time. Occasionally, perhaps two or three times a year, we have to slightly increase dosage to get through a “return of symptoms” crisis.

During the course of that year of convalescence Thomas’s coat thinned alarmingly and his underside became bald. He also suffered an acute attack of demodectic mange. In order to mitigate these and other more serious long term side effects of steroids we are now using a prednisone/azathioprine “combination therapy”.

All in all we can now say, two years on, that our efforts have paid off. It is true that Thomas, with his thin neck and bony head, can never meet breed standards. None the less, he has matured into a lean and powerful animal with astonishing pace and endurance. This photo of Thomas is the most recent that we have.

The Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, part of the University of California, provide a very useful source of information on immunogenetics through their web site. This laboratory, which was established in 1955, became involved in the diagnosis of chromosome abnormalities in 1973 and has more recently expanded its technologies to include DNA typing for analysis of genetic disease, inherited traits and parentage. They are currently investigating auto-immune mediated diseases in Weimaraners and Thomas has kindly donated a DNA sample to their data bank. The goal of their research is “early recognition of disease susceptibility”. This should lead to improved breeding selection and eventually a more genetically healthy breed.

An update on Thomas since that story was written by Peter

Nothing much has changed over the past 4 years. We have had our ups and downs with Thomas, but basically he has remained to be a robust, extremely powerful dog - or as our vet puts it 'he is in rude health'. Thomas is still on immuno-suppressant medication (prednisolone & Azathioprine combination therapy), which we had to gradually up and up over the years. By now he has been taking those pills every day for over 6 years without a break. We are sure that without his raw meaty bone diet and plenty of exercise Thomas would no longer be with us. We have added a few supplements to keep him in shape - 100% stabilized Aloe Vera Drink, Evening Primrose Oil and some blood cooling tablets are making sure that Thomas's system goes on coping. The amazing thing is that he hasn't even lost his coat, though it has thinned quite a bit. Our vet is delighted, but puzzled over how well Thomas is doing and so are we. With the amount of medication he has to take we know that eventually his system will no longer be able to cope and his organs will shut down, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, and meanwhile we enjoy our boy and he enjoys life.

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