Forever in My Heart

The Wiseachers family suffered a devastating loss the summer of 2008. After 10 years of selectively breeding for our vision of the perfect miniature australian shepherd, we felt we should share our beautiful Luke with other breeders and dog lovers. We decided to intrust Luke with a good friend and fellow breeder for the summer show season. He was taken to two shows, one the IBECA show in Missouri. Luke came home looking a bit rough, but my vet and I couldn't find anything wrong after a series of blood tests, so we brought him home. Within a month, he was his old self again, so we didn't think anything more about it. This winter we had a young female have two false pregnancies and one lose a litter a week early. By spring we knew something was amiss. In August, our Baily lost another litter, this time it was very evident that something was terribly wrong. Baily was tested for Brucellosis and was positive. The only way she could have been infected was through Luke. We had him tested, and he was also positive. Because we didn't breed him during the show season, we never considered Brucellosis because he was negative when he left, and our understanding (vets too) was that it is a sexually transmitted disease. We found out different, as our beloved Jersey, who was already spayed, also contracted the disease. In all, 8 of our beautiful dogs that gave us unconditional love, and that we loved unconditionally in return, have had to be destroyed. We have spent thousands of dollars to test our remaining dogs, replace those we lost, and sterilize our kennels and home. Please don't let their deaths count for nothing. Go to our Brucellosis page and learn about this illness. Test your dogs before breeding. Quarantine your show dogs for at least 45 days after a show, and have them tested. Contact your local and national breed associations and show groups to require all dogs allowed on the show grounds be negative for brucellosis, and all intact dogs be tested yearly for the disease. By working together we can control and eraticate this destructive disease.