August 2001: Sebastian is a beautiful, sweet, funny, little 5-year-old Westie who was turned over to rescue by his previous owners who divorced and neither one wanted him. He had not been kept current on his shots, heartworm medication, nor was he neutered. Westie Rescue promptly took care of those matters.

On the evening of July 18, 2001, while in foster care, Sebastian went out in the yard to potty, came back in 10 minutes later and collapsed. He was vomiting, defecating and was unresponsive. He was immediately taken to the Emergency Room. It was thought that he had been poisoned and was in shock. The ER vet sent me home with instructions to call back for bloodwork. I called later that night and was told he had high levels of calcium in his blood which could only be caused by two things. Rat poison or cancer. The ER vet was not sure he would make it through the night, I was devastated. But he did, and I picked him up at 7 a.m. the next morning and went straight to my vet. With tests they were able to rule out the rat poisoning (which was a huge relief in itself, I thought someone had intentionally poisoned him, we do not have poisons in our home). X-rays showed a mass in the liver area but because Sebastian had another epsiode that afternoon, surgery had to be delayed. Again the vet did not think he would pull through, but he did! On July 24, 2001, he had a transfusion and exploratory surgery. No cancer was found, what appeared to be a mass was actually scar tissue - the colon was adhered to the abdoman wall. My vet feels like Sebastain suffered some kind of traumatic injury during his life. (I have since contacted one of the previous owners and, of course, they deny this...) Sebastian was able to come home a few days later and has had no further incidents. My vet feels like we may never know what caused Sebastian to go in to shock like he did.

Sebastian has since been adopted and has a wonderful new Mom and Westie sister!

Thank you WestieMed! Without your help with this major expense, my ability to help other rescue Westies would have been much more difficult.

Laura Ardoin
Louisiana Westie Rescue

Update July 2002: Well it has almost been a year since my adoption of Brodie (Sebastian). We have moved into our house and finally, Brodie and Celtie have a backyard. Many times I have thought how lucky I am to have adopted a dog with such a wonderful temperament. He is a wonderful dog and I can't thank you (WHWTCC Westie Rescue) enough for giving us this opportunity.