A heartbroken grandmother was forced to put down her family's five dogs after becoming the first person in the UK to be diagnosed with a rare animal-borne disease.
In hospital Wendy suffered a high temperature, chills, and shivers, bad shakes, severe headaches, severe back ache and low blood pressure. Because she was immune-compromised the disease hit her harder than it would do for most. “The impact is devastating. The life went out of the house, it didn’t feel like home. There was a feeling of guilt as it was my choice to bring her into the house. It didn’t feel like a home."
“It's heart breaking to have one dog put down, let alone do it three times over. How do you get over that?"She added: "The company I foster through brought dogs over from Belarus and Ukraine. Two vans brought dogs in from there. “I managed to get a hold of two of them. Tried to bring it around but it was dead. That is probably when I contracted the disease.