Welcome to Kuma Girl - a website honoring Kuma's life and death
Kuma Girl was a beautiful, innocent and happy Bouvier des Flanders dog. She was a happy and playful puppy and never gave up trying.
born October 5,1998
Kuma was born near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Her mother Cheryl picked her up, bought a cage for a giant dog and put her on the airplane to Sarasota, Florida.
died October 6, 2015
This picture was taken 2 days before Kuma went to the hospital and was ordered to be put down by her mother. Kuma was a happy, innocent loving little girl still full of life at 17 years old. She had a great appetite and still walked for two hours each day.
Kuma was a very healthy Bouvier des Flanders. She started to have
seizures this summer right after her dental surgery and her 10th seizure became continuous. She was
admitted to the DMV Veternary Emergency Hospital in Lasalle (Montreal), Quebec on
Sunday October 4th, 2015. She was administered Diazepam (Valium) to try to stop
the seizures and was given a first time loading phase of Phenobarbital. Her
seizures then stopped with the last one being at 5am on her birthday,
Monday, October 5th. She was still sleeping in an unconscience state the
next morning and although she started showing signs of waking up, her
treatment was stopped and she was put to death that afternoon.
A video of Kuma walking 2 Days Before the Hospital Oct 2, 2015
Kuma was a stong Bouvier des Flanders Girl who was always curious and loved life.
Here is a video of Kuma walking outside just 2 days before she entered the hospital and was put down. She had just be given Valium for the first time, so you can see she is unsteady. Valium is a
sedative and a muscle relaxant. But you can see that Kuma was still
doing well, was still interested in life. This was a very good chance that Kuma would have gotten over the
seizures in the hospital and with new anti-inflammatory and
anticonvulsant medication would have walked even better and enjoyed the
rest of her life. Kuma should not have been cut short and put down early
before she recovered. Kuma was a young 17 year old Bouvier des Flanders
dog.Does she look like a dog that has given up on life and should be "let go" and put down?
video of Kuma 4 weeks Earlier
Kuma loved cheese. Here she is having cheese, drinking water and walking before dinner.She was a little emotional and weak then but she was happy to be alive and doing well.For everyone telling me to "let her go" there was no point that I ever saw her giving up. I was close to her and I know she wanted to live.
The Emergency was an Opportunity to Fix Kuma
Summary: Kuma most likely had an ear infection which spread to the brain and too deep anasthesia made things worse. A CT scan or MRI would have identified the brain abscess and/or lesion and it may have been fixed by adding an antibiotic to her IV. Kuma could have come out of the hospital fixed better than ever and lived much longer and happier.
Kuma injured her paw a few weeks ago. She stopped putting weight on her front left leg. I noticed that the calf muscle in her leg started to atrophy and was about half the size of her right leg. For a while I didn't know why.
The Vet said that she decided as a Vet to not give Kuma even the minimum dose of Phenobarbital the anticonvulsant because she felt Kuma's heart could not take it and she would die.
