Xola's story.......

On the 20th of november 2008 Xola was born at kennel Ghali from Helene and Ulf Jonsson. Xola’s official name is Ghali Grand C’Xola.

We already had two Ridgebacks when Xola came to live with us. In the beginning Yara and Ferro needed to get used to this ultra energetic puppy. Soon Xola knew how to behave around Yara and Ferro and they became very close friends. Indoors it was always Yara and Xola and outdoors it was always Ferro and Xola. Yara took care of Xola like it was her own daughter and Ferro was the one who she could run and play endlessly with.

Xola loved lying on Iva’s lap. Not only when she was a puppy but later also. She was a family dog. The children loved her and she loved the children. Xola always tried to stay close to them. She liked all dogs aswell. Not ones she has had a problem with any other dog. Xola was loved by all human who knew her and all dogs also…

On the 21^st of November 2009 Xola had her first seizure. It was around 7 o’clock at night when we heard a noise coming from where Xola was sleeping. We rushed to her and immediately saw something was terribly wrong. Both Marcel and I were in shock... We made sure Xola couldn’t hurt herself and tried to stay as calm as possible, which wasn’t easy when you see your dogs suffering like that.

During the seizure, Xola stretched out all four of her legs, she pulled her head all the way back and growled. All her teeth were visible and her eyes bulged out. Her whole body was shaking and she was drooling.

After about one minute Xola came out of her seizure. She was totally disoriented afterwards. It was like she had been in another world, she was so incredibly happy when she saw us. We immediately went to the vet who examined Xola physically. Nothing came out. The vet told us to keep monitoring Xola because this might be epilepsy and the seizures might come back. And they did… Within 24 hours Xola had 2 more severe seizures. So again we went to the vet and again he did a physical examine, still nothing came out. The vet proscribed medication to prevent Xola from having seizures.

We also made an appointment with Dr. Mandigers who is an expert on neurologic disorders. Dr. Mandigers did examine Xola completely and came to the conclusion that if the seizures came back, this was Primary Epilepsy.

Back home I contacted the breeder, Helene Jonsson, and told her what had happened. Ofcourse I was very emotional when I told her, but Helene hung up the phone. She wanted to call me back later. And so she did after three days… From that moment Helene made us feel like we hadn’t done enough. Helene gave us the feeling she didn’t believe Xola had epilepsy. She wanted us to do an MRI scan and second opinions in Sweden and asked for this in several emails. If there was any possibility that something would came out of that we would have done it without any doubt, but there was no chance and it was only causing Xola to have more seizures possibly. We put Xola’s best interest first in ALL times. Xola’s wellbeing was most important for us.

We are very disappointed that it appears that Helene did not trust our common sense and the expertise of our vets in Holland even when it is an expert on neurologic disorders…

In four months Xola had 12 severe seizures… Xola was already on the highest dose of medication. Highering the dose would have caused liver and kidney failure and other side effects.

After a night of terrible seizures we had to let her go on the 14th of march 2010… Just 16 months old…

Our Xola, forever in our hearts 20-11-2008 *14-03-2010

We decided to place our story because we are so disappointed… It hurts us that Helene never stood by our side during these terrible time for us… Also we would like to be very open about what had happened and what an impact epilepsy had on Xola’s life and also on Yara, Ferro an our lifes.

‘Xola'

Xola's story.......