A four-year-old service dog who was trained to help pick up on his owner's cardiac arrythmias and keep him safe has been euthanized, after becoming sick during a visit to a Petsmart hotel in the city's west end earlier this month.
Aspen, a black lab who was trained to pick up on Corey Dixon's irregular heart rhythms and warn others if he was in danger, was put to sleep Sunday afternoon.
It is heart breaking to say that Aspen has passed away. My heart is crushed. She was loved by many. The remaining gofundme money will be put towards her remaining vet bills as well as her funeral costs. We will always love you Aspen. Thank you for being there by my side. ???? pic.twitter.com/eQJKizq6pk
— Corey Dixon (@CoreyDixon33) July 15, 2018
Dixon picked Aspen up from an Etobicoke Petsmart location one week ago on July 8 and found her exhibiting a number of symptoms. She had lost 10 pounds, her blood pressure was skyrocketing and she was covered in her own drool and vomit.
After repeated inquiries to Petsmart, the retailer finally agreed to pay $5,000 towards her medical bills, but that wasn't enough. Friends launched a gofundme page with the hope of raising the rest of the money needed to cover the costs.
But as of Sunday morning, Dixon was informed she was too sick to recover.
"She had huge difficulty breathing and she had a very close call and coding even then, but now we're just waiting on family and friends [and the] veterinarians to put her down," Dixon told NEWSTALK1010 just before 2 p.m. Sunday.
She was euthanized just moments later.
"I'm completely distraught," Dixon said. "This dog was a huge part of my life and she saved my life more than once, and I fought to save her. Unfortunately it didn't quite work out."
Dixon is thanking everyone for their support on the gofundme campaign and over social media. As for what he would say to Petsmart, he said he doesn't even want to talk to them at this point.
"Even if this was a natural born cause [for] the reason why she got sick, she was in their care for a week and there was two days that they admitted to us that she had been vomiting and they didn't bother to call their on-call vet."
"She could have been seen by a vet a lot sooner. She could have gotten the help needed."
Petsmart has not responded to NEWSTALK1010's repeated requests for comment.