What has changed recently, Cnamed? Different irrigation? New pavement? Shade tree grown bigger, or cut down? Any digging in the area? That sort of thing. Right off hand, it looks like drought or root damage, to me.

Nothing has changed. It's in the same spot in the ground. We haven't planted anything around it. We rarely water in that area but it's never had a problem. Could it be that I pruned it wrong?

Do you live somewhere that gets winter, such that the fuchsia dies right down and then starts to grow again in spring?

Wrong pruning wouldn't have that effect. It looks like drought damage but if its never happened before in a similar season perhaps something's eating the root. I would see if you can find a healthy little shoot and take a cutting or two as insurance. It doesn't look good. Could it have been affected by spray drift from weedkiller?

It does die in the winter but we don't get frost here. We don't use any sprays. We get a lot of rain so I can't see it being drought damage. There could be a gopher getting at the roots but I haven't seen any of them around our front yard and there are no holes. I wish I knew what the problem was. Thank you all for your help.

To be honest, it just looks to me like it needs a good hard prune. When next spring arrives and growth begins, cut it right down - I don't know how tall it is, but take it down to a foot if its really tall. Give it a balanced fertilizer with an NPK of something like 7-7-7, either granular, turned into the soil at the base, or liquid mixed in water and watered in. If you'd asked this question 6 weeks ago, I'd have said do it then, but its a bit late in the growing season to do it now, so you'll need to wait till next year. It's certainly worth a try.

Thank you so much for all the help. This is my first time on the site and I just can't believe how fast and friendly it is. I will take the advice and hope for the best.