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From the brink of death to trick-or-treat: Boo’s incredible comeback

A dog called Boo who was left struck down and just seconds from death by a rare syndrome is ready for Hallowe’en after our vets miraculously brought her back to life.

Super-cute whippet Boo collapsed motionless after covering her family house with uncontrollable bloody diarrhoea which left it resembling a violent crime scene.

Boo’s owner, Yasmin, who had popped out briefly – came back home to a sight of horror unfolding before her eyes.

Terrified Yasmin thought at first that the house had been broken into as the scene was lik something out of a horror movie.

In fact, nine-year-old Boo was in the grip of a life-threatening bout of an alarming and little-known disorder known as Acute Haemorrhagic Diarrhoea Syndrome (AHDS).

So much so that when Yasmin first caught sight of stricken Boo with diarrhoea rushing out of her body, she let out a piercing scream of shock.

Yasmin said: “The house was like something out of a film set, it was just a scene of total devastation.

“Just thinking about it now makes me shudder and I’ll never forget the terrible smell. I could smell it from outside before I’d even opened the front door.

“All this only happened two and a half weeks ago, and I can’t get it out of my mind. It was truly horrific.

“But what’s really surreal is to look at Boo now – and here we are getting her ready to go out trick or treating with my son Wolf! – and it’s hard to imagine she was ever so ill. It’s been a total rollercoaster.”

On the night the drama unfolded, because it was 5pm and she knew her local vets would be closing, quick-thinking Yasmin did a frantic Google search for emergency help.

A few moments later, she’d scooped Boo up in her arms to rush from her home in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, to our Vets Now out-of-hours pet clinic in Swansea.

Yasmin said: “It’s only 16 miles or so but it was one of the most horrendous journeys I’ve ever been on – Boo was getting worse and worse.

A young boy poses with Boo the whippet under a colourful Halloween arch decorated with pumpkins and autumn leaves.

On arrival, staff rushed stricken Boo straight through to the treatment room and were swiftly joined by Principal Veterinary Surgeon Lorna Joseph.

Lorna said: “I was just starting my shift. Poor Boo had completely collapsed and was only very minimally responsive.

“When you called her name she couldn’t even lift her head and she was losing large volumes of blood.

“Her heart rate was dangerously high at 210 beats per minute, putting her on the brink of cardiac arrest, with her blood pressure extremely low at just 36.

“I had our brilliant nurses working with me: one was putting in a intravenous catheter, one was giving Boo oxygen and one was applying a heated blanket to her body because she was extremely cold.

“Everything was happening simultaneously, and Boo was in hypovolemic shock which happens when very quick loss of blood or fluid reduces the oxygen supplied to a dog’s vital organs like the brain, heart and lungs.

“So the key thing we had to do to keep Boo alive was to get as much fluid back into her as quickly as we could. It was all about fluids, fluids, fluids.

“We took Yasmin in to see Boo in the treatment area and because Boo was in such a serious state we had to ask Yasmin whether she would want us to perform CPR or not if Boo’s heart stopped.

“Boo was wired up to all our machines and breathing through a mask but there was a noticeable flicker and Boo definitely registered that her owner was there, which was incredibly emotional, and I think everyone in the room’s eyes welled-up.

“Gradually, we began to get the heart rate down and the blood pressure up and after six hours or so of intensive care we began to see a marked improvement.

“Just after midnight Boo, with some help of course, was able to stand up and was able to pass some urine – which was a huge step forward.

“With AHDS it’s not unusual for recovery to be very quick and that’s what happened in Boo’s case. By 8.30am she was able to walk back out to the car with Yamsin – which was remarkable in the circumstances.”

And after a day under observation back at her local vets, Boo was well enough to go home with Yasmin.

Boo the whippet stands proudly in front of a sunflower heart arch, alongside a smiling family of three enjoying a sunny day.

Yasmin, who works in social media and has nearly 1 million followers on TikTok, said: “I sat up with her all night, there was no way I could have even tried to go to sleep myself.

“In the morning I fed her a little bit of chicken which she took and digested and I guess that’s the minute I realised for sure that we weren’t going to lose her.

“What made all of this even worse – if that was possible – was that just as we were arriving at Vets Now my husband Lee was getting on a 13-hour flight at Heathrow to go to Japan for his work.

“So the last he knew before the plane doors shut and he had to turn off his phone was that we were on the brink of losing Boo.

“Lee’s ex-Army – he was in 3 PARA – so he’s used to dealing with very difficult situations but he was in tears and sent me a heartbreaking video message based on the likelihood that she was about to die and it wasn’t until he landed that he knew she’d made it.

“I’d never heard of AHDS before this and I don’t think many dog owners have – so the main thing I want to do is raise awareness of this syndrome so that people know it exists and know that if they get help straight away there can be hope – even in a terrible situation like this when it looks like there’s no hope at all.

“And Lee, Wolf and I are just so incredibly grateful to Lorna and her amazing team for everything they did. They never gave up on Boo and they were so, so kind to me as well as Boo that I get quite emotional just talking about it.

“Boo is part of our family and they got her back to us, which we’ll never, ever, forget – especially because that moment when I went into the treatment room, I honestly thought that was me saying my goodbyes to Boo and that we’d never see her again.

“When we got her as a puppy, we named her after the little girl called Boo in the Monsters Inc movie because she had a similarly cute little face.

“But we never thought she’d be involved in a real-life drama like this!”

Lorna said: “It’s lovely for the team and I to hear Yasmin’s feedback. This was one of those cases where it was a total team effort and Yasmin did absolutely the right thing in bringing Boo in when she did.

“Every second counts in cases like this and if Yasmin had waited at all, then it’s very likely that Boo would never have made it.

“AHDS is one of those conditions where a lot of research has been done but as things stand we don’t know what causes it – which makes it all the important I think to raise awareness that it exists and if your dog exhibits any of the symptoms please do what Yasmin did and get help without delay.”