Voo-Doo will still be helping by providing alot of information with all of the tests they will be running now that he is gone.

Oklohoma State University will be doing a 'necropsy' on Voo-Doo.

But before the results of that were in, they told me the following:

*** that they found a heart murmur that Voo-Doo had before he went to sleep the final time. He did not have this previously. An ultrasound showed a "prolapsed mitral valve."

*** that his 'resting bile acids ' were double the normal range. This would indicate liver damage, but his bile acids were checked just two weeks previously and were normal. So he has developed liver damage in just the last 2 weeks.

VooDoo's reports finally came back the week of Christmas (2003). 

Simply put, they say "it looks like distemper, so it must be distemper."

PLEASE NOTE:  they do not show any more actual distemper tests, (that test was negative in the beginning of this ordeal). 

It just says: "that inclusion bodies in the brain are consistent with distemper." 

They give no explanation for the low red cells, the low platelets, the low hermatocrit or the other blood abnormalities. They give no explanation for the vomiting and diarrhea, the weight loss, or the lethargy.  They give no explanation for the heart murmur that Voo-Doo developed almost 2 months post injection.

"Lympho-plasmacytic meningoencephalitis, along with demylination, intranuclear eosinophilic inclusion bodies in the brain, and chroiditis and interstitial pheumonia with syncytia formation in the dog are consistent with canine distemper disease. The lesions in the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, and brain stem would result in clinically observed neurologic signs, hind limb weakness and recumbency. The heart was examined grossly and microscopically and the cause of the heart murmur could not be found. The hydopic degeneration in the liver is a non specific change in hepatocytes in several disease, ranging from mild intoxication to hypoxia and fasting. In this case, the fchange is most likely related to iatrogenic prednisone administration."

I will be seeing my vet and asking her to explain as much as possilbe.

The FDA doctor told me that for her to believe that this was distemper and only distemper, that she needed a positive Flourescent Antibody histochemitry of the brain or a PCR test of the DNA.

I don't see anything like what she mentioned, but I'll admit I can not understand 90% of the report.

The FDA doctor also told me that there are other causes for inclusion bodies, other than distemper, and that drugs CAN cause inclusion bodies.

So the FDA has received Voo-Doo's Diary and the necropsy report to look closely at it.  They said that I should not expect to hear from them for about four more weeks.

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