Dog Diagnosed With Rare Illness Gets Full Support From Loving Owners

When Emily Steelman and her fiance decided to adopt a dog, they had a specific quality in mind. They preferred their new dog to be medium-sized, either a young puppy or an adult. When they scrolled through hundreds of dog profiles online, Emily fell in love with Wilson’s photo. While he didn’t possess the characteristics that Emily was looking for, she still decided to give the dog a new home.

Aside from being big, he was neither a young puppy nor an adult dog. However, there was something in Wilson that caught Emily’s attention. His goofy smile melted her heart. Bringing Wilson home was the opportunity they didn’t want to miss, so they drive to the shelter to meet the adorable dog.

The shelter worker discussed the dog’s personality and his lack of training. Emily and her fiance knew that adopting Wilson would be a challenging undertaking. They had a week to think things over and to make a final decision. With the willingness to bring Wilson home, they finally decided to adopt him.

Their dog training friend worked extensively with Wilson. Despite the difficulties that came their way, they loved the new dog more and more each day, but they noticed that something wasn’t right. It was clear that there was something extraordinary about Wilson, especially when it comes to food and digestion. Wilson didn’t like eating in the morning, and this habit caused a bile buildup in his stomach,

The buildup made him vomit, and since his stomach was also sensitive, Emily found it hard to introduce new foods like peanut butter. Apart from Wilson’s digestive problem, he was also prone to illness. With his strange digestion and appetite, Emily and her fiance had frequent visits to the vet.

Wilson was diagnosed with a rare illness called pythiosis, which caused inflammation and infection to his intestine. The infection only had a low survival rate, but Emily and her fiance refused to give up on Wilson. They wanted to spread awareness that dogs could still survive from such illnesses. With their love and support for Wilson, the dog didn’t allow his disease to control his life.

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Part 2, We have no idea what the success rate of this treatment is, because the research is ongoing. The best we have been able to get is that our vet is "optimistic" and has had "great success," which we are also weighing with the fact that this treatment is completely experimental and is not recognized as legitimate by mainstream veterinary medicine. It appears to us, from the scarce research that we have read, that success is largely dependent on how quickly the treatment is started. Many studies reference 2 months from infection as a critical point, and Wilson began treatment at almost exactly 2 months since we began noticing symptoms. Additionally, many of the vets we have seen believe that Wilson's immune system is compromised because of his long history of illness, so we aren't sure if he will be able to fight as effectively as a dog with a healthy immune system. In any case, our vet remains optimistic and we remain cautiously so. I certainly don't want to misrepresent the gravity of this infection. It is a nasty, scary, aggressive organism and it will truly be a miracle if we are able to keep our boy with us. We have hope that Wilson can fight, and we pray that we began treatment in time and that his body has the tools it needs to fight, and we continue to take things one day and one week at a time ❤️ #dogsofinstagram #wilsonwags

A post shared by Wilson HandsomePants (@wagswithwilson) on Nov 9, 2016 at 12:21pm PST

Image Source: Wilson HandsomePants via Instagram