Posting for my friend Greg Johnson…

Update on Northwoods Atlas "Jet"

Thank you to all of you that reached out to us about Jet’s passing the past couple of weeks with your kind and thoughtful texts, posts, emails, and phone calls. Michelle and I are very appreciative of the outpouring of support from the field trial community. Your kindness and compassion have helped us tremendously as we have dealt with this tragic loss. Jet succeeded at a level I never thought was possible for us and I truly believe his best was yet to come.

I have received many calls inquiring about what happened to Jet and I want to give you an update as we received the necropsy report from the U of Minnesota diagnostic lab this week. I asked our veterinarian to summarize the pathology report in laymen’s terms. His summary is below- Again thank you all so much from the bottom of my heart and good luck to everyone in this fall’s championship season.

Greg Johnson

My name is Dr. Matt Severs and I work at Superior Animal Hospital in Superior Wisconsin. Here at SAH, we have been working with and taking care of Greg's dogs for many years. I would like to take a few moments of your time to help provide some explanation as to what happened recently with Jet's passing. Jet presented to the hospital in a state of shock after a very typical morning for him. His clinical signs of extreme lethargy, abdominal pain, and bloody diarrhea began suddenly without any advanced notice. While undergoing treatment, Jet failed to respond to any treatments administered and passed away within 45 minutes of his arrival. Greg and I elected to have Jet taken to the University of Minnesota Veterinary hospital where a necropsy was performed in hopes of getting a better understanding his cause of death. It was found that Jet suffered from a severe case of Acute Hemorrhagic Diarrhea Syndrome (AHDS). This condition occurs when an intense inflammatory response occurs within the stomach, small, and large intestines. Essentially the inflammation is so intense that bleeding and fluid loss occurs from the lining of the intestinal walls causing hypovolemic shock. Jet bled out internally from his gastrointestinal system within an hour of the onset of clinical signs.

Hemorrhagic diarrhea is something we see in veterinary medicine quite frequently. Typically, these cases do very well with appropriate treatment based on severity of clinical signs. Having been a small animal veterinarian for 9 years, I have not seen a case as severe as Jet's. The pathologist at the university did relay to us that while this is extremely rare, he has observed these cases before. In Jet's case there does not seem to be any underlying trigger or initial cause that can be identified. We do not have any reason to suspect that any of Jet's offspring will be affected by this type of condition. There is not a genetic link that can be passed on that would cause this catastrophic set of events. It appears that Jet suffered from an extremely rare and severe case that tragically took his life.