Good Morning-

This letter comes to you with a heavy heart. It has taken days of thought and contemplation. I'd like to share my nightmare. On March 9th my husband whelped a litter of puppies. There were two girls and a boy . All in good weight, happy, healthy butterflies. At 6 weeks while playing outside one of the pups squeezed through the lattice around my deck and yelped. I looked her over and found nothing. A few days later she seemed "off" in her movement. A week later her rear movement was erratic. She spent most of her time sitting, not really wanting to play. I was concerned and thought, perhaps a spinal injury?. I gave her to a friend who does canine sports therapy and she worked on her with water therapy and massage. The puppy seemed to be getting better. Neither of us could afford the expense of a spinal injury so the puppy was placed with a friend who knew the situation and was more than happy to help financially. The puppy went to acupuncture, received an MRI, xrays etc. and nothing was found to be wrong, but she got progressively worse.

Then I began looking at the symptoms, then it "hit" me. My puppy has NAD. I was told by those that were involved that my pedigrees were "clear"... This has been an emotional roller coaster and I have been incredibly stressed over this situation. As the breeder, and owner, I feel it is my duty and responsibility to share this information with you in hopes that future affected pups can be prevented.

The caretaker refused to relinquish the puppy back to me and promised she would do what was needed when the time comes. Arrangements have been made to send the puppy to Dr. Giger and the University of Pa for his diagnosis. This would help in his search for the gene for the disease. I am the breeder and still hold the papers for the puppy, therefore I feel obligated to publish the information for other breeders.

The puppy has followed the typical course of the disease NAD, Neuroaxonal Dystrophy. I last saw her on 8-19-11 and it was extremely painful to see. I have been in tears daily over this. The caretaker refused to let me have the puppy (still owned by me). Therefore I feel it is in the best interest of the breed to publish the name of the sire and dam of this puppy. My hope is that other breeders will appreciate having this information and perhaps it will stop some anticipated breedings.

My assessment is that this puppy has only days to live. She is paralyzed, on liquid food, is not in pain but neurologically is totally deficit. She cannot stand or hold herself upright. She cannot vocalize and has problems controlling her tongue. She is able to control her bladder at this point. She has fluid forming in her lungs and you can hear the rasp of it without using a stethscope. While there is no official diagnosis my puppy has this disease, the symptoms are well defined and progressive.

Parents are: Sire: Kalisse-Silhouette Ringside Gossip

Dam: Silhouette Lunar Eclipse

Their pedigrees can be found on the Global Papillon database. This database is truly an invaluable resource to everyone. Keep in mind this is a breed issue and not specific until we can find the marker for the disease. I never once imagined this could happen to me, as I had done my research and thought I was in the clear. I hope that sharing my experience with you will help.

My sincere thanks and appreciation to the four members of the PCA Genetic Team. They met with me at the PAPS specialty last week and were very supportive of my efforts.

I don't know where I will go from here or what I will do as this has placed its ugly stamp on all but one dog in my home. My heart has been broken over this whole ordeal and I hope you can all appreciate how very hard this is for me to share with you, and how very much I care about the future of our beloved butterflies.

-Heather

Silhouette Papillons
Proud home to 4 generations of NR butterflies