Helios almost died a couple of weeks ago, from a very sudden onset of a problem called Hemmoragic Gastroenteritis . OK, so nothing with the word Hemmoragic has been any part of good news, like, ever in the history of western languages .
 Apparently, there is no known cause for HGE , or prevention for this, and it can hit any dog at any time . Basically, the whole GI system goes nuts and gets inflamed. His X ray showed that his GI system went nuts from his stomach to his butt. None of my other hounds had a problem at all.
 The problem manifested in Helios by his becoming lethargic, upchucking bloody foam, and generally looking crappy. He woke up that morning not interested in playing with the pups, and he's ALWAYS playing with the pups. Since he's always so happy and on the go , it was an incredibly dramatic change . He eventually wound up having bloody diahrrea, and was in the vet clinic on IV fluids and IV antibiotics . Sadly, the vet techs wound up really butchering parts of his coat, so he's looking a bit lopsided from the rear at the moment ( just in time for the Nationals too.)
 I was running back and forth to two vet clinics for almost a week.
 He's better now, and gained the weight he lost, but he really could have died, HGE affected dogs generally die without aggressive immediate treatment like he got. I am so glad we were around to catch it. It would have been very hard to lose him, he's such a happy part of the family here. When he was gone, all the hounds were looking for him.

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