About us
OUR MISSION AND PROMISE TO MOLLY
Our Story
Carolina Brown was created in the memory of our sweet energetic Boykin (AKA Girlkin) Molly.
Molly’s life was ended very suddenly from an inherited neuromuscular disorder called Exercise-Induced Collapse (EIC).
Affected dogs are usually diagnosed before two years of age and appear normal during low to moderately strenuous activity. However, shortly after 5-20 minutes of strenuous exercise affected dogs will begin to walk with a wobble, uncoordinated gait that often only affects the hind limbs. In some circumstances, the symptoms of EIC can progress to full body weakness with low muscle tone, confusion, loss of consciousness, seizures and very rarely, death. The episodes typically last 5-20 minutes and most dogs will completely recover within 15-30 minutes. Body temperature is remarkably elevated during a collapse, average 107.1.
Unfortunately, our sweet Molly was one of the rare cases. We lost her in less than 30 minutes. Molly had been outside training with her daddy all afternoon and into the evening. She loved being outside and she loved retrieving. Molly caught her last favorite toy and gently walked back to where we were standing. She was very wobbly and confused. Within a matter of seconds we knew something was terribly wrong. She collapsed and went into a seizure. She had no control over her body. We had no idea what was going on. We rushed her to the emergency vet (they were a good 25-30 min away from us). Molly's body temperature was over 108. The Dr. did everything she new and we could not get our Molly back.
It was horrible and life changing watching our baby suffer. Like most, we were unaware of EIC. We were unaware of the symptoms.
IF... we would have known the facts, we would not have over reacted and put her in a car to drive 30 mins away. We would have put her in water to try to bring her body temperature down.
IF... we would have know about EIC, we would have know that she was physically not capable of training for such a long period of time.
IF... we would have only known that there was simple test, we would not have lost Molly. The price of losing her was way more than the price of a simple test.
IF.... we would have known, we would have asked the breeder about all testing.
We didn't know the facts!
Our mission and promise to Molly... to make sure we educated as many little brown dog owners as we can.
For more information on EIC and other testing, visit The Boykin Spaniel Foundation