Whisper was born in march 2012 as one of ten puppies to Slash V Cicero „Tully“ and SHR Tuff Cowgirl „Kate“. At eight weeks old she moved to Linda and Onyx. The relationship between those three was a little bumpy from the start. Whiz wasn't the easiest pup challenging the order of living in her houshold. At six months old she broke her leg while playing. Two surgeries and a long recovery later one little accident sufficed to rip the already (through the metal plate from the surgeries) damaged ligaments and she went under the knife again. At spring 2013 the world looked a little bit friendlier for this kind and lovely dog. Although she started to have problems with her skin six months ago. More and more itchy and scratchy she went from vet to vet. Atopic dermatitis was left after even a biopsy couldn't solve the riddle. First elimination diets didn't really help. Only the now and then used cortisone products supplied relief. Meanwhile Onyx had her first litter and startet to resent Whisper. Seeing the additional stress her little red coyote was under Linda decided in automn 2013 to leave Whiz with her breeder hoping the rurality would bring her some relief.

From there on only snippets of her life are known. Loosing parts of her fur now and then, seeing vets and well .. only her breeder knows … In december 2014 Whiz came back to Linda, itchy, partly naked, seemingly without muscles. Onyx wouldn't accept Whipser back so she went to one of Lindas friends and got Apoquel to neutralize the itching. Less itchy she found a foster care with forever-option. Sadly her foster mom deemed her home not suitable enough – to lively and active for a reactive dog. And so Whisper found herself just in time of her third birthday in yet another new home with Bea, Oli and Yoshi. Her last home so far and hopefully forever.

At this point Whispers weight was easily at 20kg – a little bit to much for this always thin dog. She still had nearly too no muscles. Even after six weeks decent activity in her new home and loosing two kilogramm the physiotherapist compared her muscles to those of an old Golden Retriever lying around 23 hours a day. Sadly this was little to nothing in comparison to the allergic reactions after feeding. Apoquel stopped helping. Whiz got itchy again so a new elimination diet was started. After trying game, rabbit and ostrich – all of them imidiatly caused rash – sheep brought relief. Then Whisper lost her hair again and suffered from false pregnancy. In may 2015 at 16kg she was neutered to eliminate the potential of sexual hormones beeing the cause of the seasonal hairloosing attacks.

First the hair came back but she lost weight and started to get more and more reactive, lost her smile and lost her weight again. In november half a year after her last surgery – a time with no meds – new bloodwork was done and a hypothyreodism was diagnosed. In december Whisper got supplemented with Thyroxin. After some bumpy weeks her smile came back but she wasn't at her game at all. The new bloodwork showed thyroxin high but triiodthyronine under reference value. So she got supplemented with this hormones, too.

After a year of supplemention the bloodwork looks fine. Even the antibodies are falling.

Sadly she still had problems with her ears, one infection after another. In oktober 2016 she started loosing pigment at lip and nose. The latter one got crusty. Words like Pemphigus and Lupus got addressed. A biopsy would be needed to diagnose one of this autoimmune diseases. At this moment it got postponed due to a zinc low in the resent bloodwork. So the newest addition to her meds is zinc. It's not clear why there is a zinc low. She's getting nearly 600g meat a day at 17kg weight. Her food plan was made from an alternative practitioner. The vet wouldn't rule out some form of malabsorption.

Meanwhile her litter was repeated two times. After publishing Whispers diagnosis one year ago an uncle with the same disease was found. Additional five siblings have the same antibodies, three of them already get supplemented with thyroxin, the oldest one with triiodthyronin, too. The youngest one only 16 months old will possibly need it, too. Some other siblings have problems with food-intolerances.

We hope year 2017 will be calmer one.