This is a true but sorrowful story in China; the following exposure will be a sad pondering to the memory of our deeply loved one

Akila, female, born in Nanjing China (April 4th, 2007), mother is a Balkan Hound, father is a big poodle. Her fur color is a mix of brown-grey and white, weighing about 42 pounds, and died on Oct. 28th (10:34AM) 2009.

Akila is a smart, beautiful and bouncy puppy. She is superiorly clever, understanding, and unconditionally loyal to us. The most beautiful part of Akila is her talking eyes.
For the past two and half years, Akila and her sister Angie (another puppy raised by us) have been living in our sweet home. We love them very much and see them as our own daughters. Every day when we are leaving home, they will grovel on the window sill, watching our car go away. And when we come back in the evening, they rush out of the door and greet us in their purest enthusiasm. These are one of the best moments in our lives. Every night, they will lie freely besides us, and put their heads close to us. However, an unexpected yet curable disease struck down Akila and sent her to death because of the immature, disordered vet system in China.

The Purple Mountain in Nanjing is well known as its painting like sightseeing. However, there are types of bugs called "Babesia Gibsoni", which grow in bushes and are so called pet's natural enemies. It sticks onto an animals' body, and when sucking their blood, it sticks its egg's into animals' blood veins and causes the blood platelet and red blood cells to drop, which will lead the animals to die. If such thing could be diagnosed at an early stage, it could be cured. It is quite well-known in Europe, America and Taiwan (the humid and hot area), and it is also generally curable at some of the vets in Nanjing.

October 4th this year, our bouncy Akila, who usually runs like an antelope, suddenly seemed to have a little problem with fast running. Meanwhile her appetite started to drop. Thus, we took her to the pet clinic nearby called 'Bo Yan', and that's when the nightmare started.

After measuring her temperature (which was a little higher than normal) and giving her a regular blood test, the vet at the 'Bo Yan' said everything was normal. They claimed that Akila was healthy enough, so maybe just give her some injection for preventive purposes. They also mentioned that the side effect of this injection was extra urine. Yet on the same night and the next morning (5th Oct), we found Akila incontinent, so when we went to the clinic again we asked them not to use the same injection again. On the same day we brought Akila on a trip to Shanghai. Her uroclepsia became even more serious, and encopresis started as well.

Thus, on 6th October we immediately took Akila to a pet clinic in Shanghai called 'Ai-Bi' Pet Hospital and the blood test showed that her blood platelet was half of the normal value, while other indexes fell in the normal range. So after further examination, we found the easy-rider in her red blood cells. As the vets had never seen this kind of disease before, they sent the blood smear to a German clinical diagnosis lab (in Shanghai) called LABOKLIN for further judgment, and at the same time called the vet of 'Bo Yan' clinic in Nanjing asking for the name of the injection they gave to Akila. They were told that the injection was a kind of hormones plus antibiotics, and the hormones would suppress the immune system, which led to the mass propagation of the bugs in Akila's body, which was fatal to Akila! In the mean time, while on the 4th the regular blood test result at 'Bo Yan' was still normal, but on 6th (only in 2 days) the blood platelet fell to half of the normal range! This means that the harm of the bug's propagation was increasing. Akila's life has become very perilous! Nanjing's 'Bo Yan' clinic irresponsibly gave Akila an injection without figuring out her illness. They did this for money and they randomly prescribed a medicine, and this is the fundamental reason of Akila's death!

On 9th October we finally got the report from the German lab (in Shanghai) LABOKLIN; and it confirmed the easy-rider in Akila's blood. At the same time the report has explicitly pointed out that any dog that has recovered from this kind illness cannot use any medicine that suppress the immune system, so needless to talk about the dog that having the disease.

Unfortunately, the mistakes were still going on. The vet from 'Ai-Bi' in Shanghai gave Akila some medications and a blood transfusion, which helped her get over the incontinence, but did nothing for killing the easy-riders in her red blood cells (as they had never seen this kind of illness before). The most important period of time for treating Akila's disease was getting wasted, which caused the necessary treatment to be delayed. Akila became more unstable and worse.

From the first day in 'Ai-Bi' hospital in Shanghai, we set a table and mattress for Akila as her bed (normally, there is only cages for pets over there); also, my husband and I and some close friends were taking care of her day and night, standing by her with 24 hours un-departure. We didn't care how much it would charge us, we only wanted her recovery. Akila looked very quiet and understood, she never barked or yelled once though there were countless needle holes on her four feet because she knew that we were trying to help her, and what was being done was for her own good. She fully laid her trust to us!

Eight days later (Oct 14th), per our request, 'Ai Bi' clinic held an expertise consultation session. The dean of a Taiwanese Clinic pointed out that we had to immediately use the injection 'Lumizol', a specific medicine for killing the easy-rider in red blood cells. However, this medicine was not available in China Mainland. After a few phone calls and networks, the session figured out there was one in Ningbo, a city 300 miles away from Shanghai. So we immediately asked a friend to take a taxi all the way from Shanghai to Ningbo to get it for us. The medicine was finally delivered to us around 10pm that day, but we found it was not the original package; it had been opened and split into this bottle. Yet there was nothing we could do but to gave her the injection.
On the next day, Oct 15th, Akila's urine became dark brown and hemolysis occurred, so we transferred Akila to this Taiwanese clinic, which has the best facilities among all pet clinics in China. The blood test result showed again that the bugs in Akila's blood were still in significant amount, which meant the injection we paid great effort to get from Ningbo city was not effective or totally expired! Ho, my god, why it could happen to us? Why so many difficulties resist us to save Akila? How come the mistakes were one after another? Why Akila has such a miserable fate?!

October 17th, the dean of Taiwanese Clinic got the effective medicine 'Lumizol' and injected it to Akila right away. Meanwhile, this hospital also transferred 400CC of blood to her. The test report on Oct 20th showed the ratio of red blood cells and the blood platelets were improved though it was still quite low; the color of her urine turned to normal. The further test in the German Lab (Shanghai) pointed out that the easy-riders in her red blood cells were almost non-existent. It looked great, we felt hope again.
But just after several hours that afternoon, Akila suddenly got a sneeze when she walked around in the clinic courtyard, and a little blood sprayed out from her nose (left side); and what was more, the leaking blood from nose could not be stopped when she got back to the room. This problem was getting worse in the evening. In the next morning, her right side nose started to leak blood too. Such a serious blood leaking means Akila's blood platelets were very low, thus there was no way to solidify her leaking blood. At that time, the level of her blood platelets was only 16 (normally it should be higher than 117). For this kind of cruel development, the hospital looked unable to solve it; and the dean announced to us that Akila was in danger. Our hearts were shaking, and the tears dropped to our faces!

In that dangerous moment when we felt no help could be gotten, a doctor from Nanjing Police Dog Institute joined us to treat it, as he had experience in curing several dogs with this kind of disease. At his suggestions, to use double dosage of a medicine which is normally applied to stop blood leaking for humans, this problem was finally solved on Oct 24th. The level of her blood platelets began to rise, and the edema of her spleen was gone. From the test report of the German Lab (Shanghai), we knew no easy-riders could be found and with a lot of new fresh red blood cells in her body, we all felt the miracle could be happening.

Oct 25th was Sunday and all our friends who took part in this matter came to the hospital. It included her elder sister Angie. Akila looked very excited. Right after walking outside, she jumped to a chair, and then jumped to the table - a bed for her (in fact, this was the last jump for her life).

Oct 26th, Akila's rear right leg appeared not to be in order. The next day (27th), her rear left leg was also not in order. We didn't understand that this was a sign her nervous system became damaged by the easy-riders. At noon of the 27th, we took her to the garden; on the grass, she was quite soulful and looked up to the sky. But after she got back to the room, she dropped her tears and looked so sad because she knew the time for her was not long. About 5:00PM, after we held her to take urination, she bore the great suffering and did her best to move 10 feet with two un-ordered rear lags. We all were touched to drop our tears by her strong desire to live.

Oct 28th, about 4:00 AM, Akila suddenly began to ululate. Our hearts were beaten by her sorrowful voice; all doctor's medicines could not stop her pain. At 8:00 AM, she was became comatose but finally stopped breathing at 10:34 AM. We all despairingly exclaimed her, and could not accept the tragedy.

The next day in the morning (Oct 29th), we took her to Shanghai non-pollution pet crematory and brought her ashes back to Nanjing to stay with us forever.

The death of Akila was so cruel and unjust! The most harrowing and un-acceptable matter is that: this disease should not have made her die at all, but killed her by the inaccurate treatment from the un-qualified vet in Nanjing 'Bo Yan' pet clinic. They were the one to inject the hormones to suppress Akila's immunity when she desperately needed the immune system to control the easy-riders in her red blood cells. And what was more, on Oct 6th, when this disease was discovered, the vet should have applied the correct medicine to kill the easy-riders immediately. But unfortunately, this matter was postponed 11 days; not to be solved until Oct 17 (which includes the ineffective medicine we paid a lot effort to get from Ningbo city). It made us lose key timing to save Akila. All that made Akila have no ability to resist the easy-riders to inroad her liver, spleen, arthrosis and farther to her nervous system. The serious blood leaking in her nose for more than 48 hours made her finally lose her life.
On the other hand, for Akila herself, she had been showing a great desire to live until the time the tears dropped from her eyes to give up the hope, though she drank a lot milk and haw juice in the morning before the date she died.

Akila was killed by Nanjing 'Bo Yan' pet clinic! We should take a lawsuit for asking responsibility. But could that bring Akila back? Would that release our pain? Till now we still have not been able to accept the fact that Akila has passed away. We hope it is just a nightmare, and when we wake up; she will still be laying on our bed, and put her head closely on our chest ......

The beloved Akila has gone; she told us where she was in her own way: "in a very wide grass garden, she is walking forward..." one of our very close friends saw this in her dream. We know Akila is in the heaven.

Akila, thank you for bringing us so much happiness!
Akila, sorry, we didn't protect you well, by standing in front of you, we are culpable!
Akila, you are timid, but don't be afraid of anything, the heaven is beautiful.
Akila, please wait for us, we are sure to see you there, we are a family forever.
Akila, we deeply love you, ever, ever, and forever!!!

Yours Daddy and Mommy who are missing you all the time
Nov. 24th 2009.