Gizzy was a beautiful Maltese born June 19th 2002. He was very happy and healthy. He loved to hide in the monkey grass and play hide and seek in the summer time. And sit outside at night and just listen to the night sounds and enjoy the cool night time air. He also LOVED ice cream! Every night when I would arrive home he insisted on my giving him cheerios with a tiny taste of ice cream on it. The he had to lick the bowl clean. It made me fat LOL! But I could not get away without doing that for him. He sure let me know if I didn't spoil him. He had to taste everything I ate. Unless of course I knew it was something a dog should not have.

Sadly in late December 2006 he began being picky and not wanting his can food. Or so I thought he was being picky. In March I heard of the menu foods recall and took Gizzy in to the vet immediately that day and they ran all the tests to make sure he was not sick from the food. Now that I know what I know, it was the canned food with the gravy he did not want. It must have made him ill or something but that sure was the food that had the wheat gluten in it. Everything with his tests came back fine. I stopped buying that food and he seemed kind of ok but never really was back to his ole bouncy self. (again now that I know what I know I can see that). He continued on occasion with a not so great appetite. And again I thought he was being picky. In July he started occasionally in the morning vomiting. The first time I thought well he just doesn't feel well. But then one day he was vomiting bile and later that day was limping. I took him to the vet and they said his teeth needed cleaned and that maybe he had some arthritis. This was early August. I got him his yearly vaccinations at this time. On and off he had good days and bad days. Sometimes appearing to limp for attention. He was no longer vomiting but had a incredible appetite and just wanted to eat and eat. It also was very hot so him drinking tons of water really didn't seem odd. I know I was drinking alot. There were times though now that I think about it he seemed confused and was not going out into the yard with the other dog as much. Got lazy. Things progressively changed from there. He stopped jumping up on my husbands lap at night and wanted him to pick him up. We thought maybe because of his leg hurting . Then in mid to late October we realized he could not see well. So we made the visit back to the vet and they ran tests again. That was a Friday. Saturday morning Giz would not get up. He was confused and very ill looking. The Vet called me later on Saturday to tell me that his kidneys were not doing well. By Sunday morning Giz was completely blind. To shorten the horrible part of this story he went to a ophthalmologist who said possible SARDS. I had already over the weekend done tons of research online for sudden blindness in dogs.

Giz did ok after the depression of suddenly loosing his site. But his kidneys continued to deteriorate. He went to the hospital for a few days and they flushed his system. I would say that maybe for a month or so he did ok. He mapped out the house and perked up a bit. Sadly yesterday I had to put him to sleep. He had developed anemia and his kidneys were near shot. He had stopped eating, didn't want his ice cream or even steak !

I donated his organs to science. Dr Grozdanic at the University of Iowa has done some wonderful research on SARDS and IMR. IMR being a newly discovered illness similar to SARDS. He feels Gizzy had possibly both of these diseases. That would explain why some dogs with SARDS do ok other then the blindness. IMR has some success if caught early and treated. Gizzy is a hero and will hopefully help with finding a cure for this devastating disease. He will be so terribly missed. And will always be my little scoop a doop !