DOGGED DETERMINATION How Lucky Puppys Rachel Kennedy fought canine distemper... and won! It was mid-2013 and Lucky Puppy was still celebrating its grand opening when store owner RACHEL KENNEDY received a call that would change her life. On the line was an enraged customer leveling a horrible accusation: “You gave me a dog with distemper”! The news was staggering. A lifelong dog lover, Rachel was aghast at the implication that she intentionally adopted out a diseased pup. But Rachel’s torment was only beginning. Over the course of days, she became deluged with more customers informing her that dogs they adopted from Lucky Puppy had distemper. In all, Rachel discovered she had inadvertently adopted out over a dozen distemper-stricken dogs acquired from a remote kill shelter. “I was starting to lose my mind,” Rachel recalls. “How do you tell a family that the dog you just adopted is going to die”? Those terrifying phone calls would set Rachel on a fateful path for a cure. In the process, she would discover Nuovo Biologics LLC, a Florida-based biopharmaceutical company that focuses its products on animal disease models that closely resemble human models. With translational applications for both animals and humans, Nuovo’s research and products may one day produce cures for human diseases/contagions including influenza, herpes, HIV-AIDS, some forms of cancer, and more. Back to 2013: Rachels despair was well-founded. Canine distemper is a viral disease that proves fatal in 50 percent of cases. The disease first produces a syrupy discharge from the eyes and nose, followed by fever and coughing. It then violates the central nervous system, producing seizures characterized by tremors in the jaws. The terrifying ordeal is akin to watching a human waste away from cancer. After receiving those horrifying phone calls, a grief-stricken Rachel holed up in her home, avoiding customers. Then, desperation propelled her into action. She began experimenting with possible cures—homeopathy, dietary supplements, etc. “Nothing worked,” she says. “Meanwhile, doctors are saying ‘you gotta put (the dogs) down!” One night, the pressure became too much. Rachel called her veterinarian and reluctantly informed him she had decided to put down all the infected pups. “I told him I needed one more night to cuddle and kiss them, then I would bring them down in the morning to be euthanized,” Rachel remembers. But that same night, something told Rachel to try one last time to seek a solution. Going online, she stumbled across Nuovo Biologics. She shot the company an email inquiry. Days later, a Nuovo rep was at her door with bottles of a serum called PVX. “The rep said, ‘are you willing to try this?’,” Rachel recalls. “I said, ‘are you kidding?!’ Of course, I’m willing’!” To test the serum, Rachel had to isolate the stricken pups, which required the enlistment of three veterinarians in separate locations. After 30 days of treatment, only one dog died. The rest—roughly a dozen—survived. The naysayers and veterinarians who earlier advised mercy killing couldn’t believe it. Today, Rachel is being rewarded for her moxie. In recognition of her willingness to experiment—not to mention her never-say-die spirit—Rachel has been named coordinator for the California Clinical Studies for Distemper. Under this yearlong commitment, Rachel will oversee the treatment and cure of 100 dogs suffering from distemper. To find out if your family, veterinarian or rescue qualifies for this groundbreaking distemper treatment, contact Rachel at (818)370-5516. As this is a clinical study, treatment is being offered absolutely free at no cost. “Reach out to us,” Rachel says. “There really is hope for a cure.” PHOTOS I and II: Test results chronicling the diagnosis of Sandy, one of the distemper-afflicted pups cured by Rachel and PVX. Note in Photo II the negative test result and the smiley face! PHOTO III: Now cured and happy, former distemper pup ALFIE chills with his family.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 17:18:18 +0000