Challenges To Stray Dog Rescue
"We will find a way"
That quote comes from me & it is something I say to my team every day, often several times & this week has been no exception.
Remember little Harry the Kangal street born pup with rickets?
Life took a turn for the worse when he started throwing up at his community carers place. The community carer was away at the time & he was being looked after by a third party, who thankfully wasted no time at all & raised the alarm right away,
Our coordinator booked Harry in to the clinic & arranged a driver immediately after speaking with me & our boy was speeding down the road ten minutes later.
On arrival Harry’s parvo & distemper tests were negative but his blood panel was showing signs of infection. Could it be that he had picked up a less deadly lurgy or was it a case of something more serious brewing? We decided to start treatment for the infection & test again tomorrow.
Tomorrow came & the news we didn’t want to hear was in. Harry had parvovirus.
A horrible disease rife among the street born & absolutely deadly to puppies. There is no cure for parvo. All that can be offered is immune support & intensive nursing. If our boy was strong he would defeat it, if he wasn’t it would claim his life.
Treatment has been aggressive with our vet team in that location throwing everything they have at it & after surviving day one Harry was stable. That doesn’t mean he is guaranteed a win though, we know that things could change at any time.
Things are weighted a little in Harry’s favour mostly due to the quick response from his carer. Getting parvo suffers the help they need as soon as possible gives them a good chance of recovery. But, Harry isn’t doing himself any favours at the moment.
He is resisting treatment bless him. He doesn’t know that folks are trying to help him. He is biting the vet team whenever he gets the chance & is intent on ripping out the lines which are delivering the medications & fluids he needs to survive this wretched illness.
We spoke to our vet last night & discussed the possibility of Harry having a nasogastric tube if he could tolerate it.
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While all this was going on with Harry, we had to get Sean tested & ready for vaccination tracking so that we could place him in the safety of a pension.
Sean is not liked in his area where sadly many dog haters live & with his owner still annoyed with him for chewing a slipper & wanting to shoot him we need to get him settled as soon as we can.
This came with challenges!
Sean does not want to comply with our plans to make him safe & keep him well. He doesn’t know what a lead is & is afraid to get in to the car. We think he is worried about leaving the only place where folks have been truly kind to him.
Whenever attempts are made to pick him up & carry him to the car he resists with snarls, growls, lunges & bite warnings. This has left us concerned that he may not be happy staying at the vet clinic for an extended period of time while his vaccinations are tracked.
Not only would that be a difficult situation for our vets but the stress Sean would experience would not be acceptable at all
So we are trying to figure it out.
We are looking for a foster. If anyone suitable can be found close to where he is now he can be tracked for vaccinations there. This will also give us time to show Sean that the car is not a scary place after all & nothing bad will happen to him if he steps in to one.
One thing we don’t do at DDAA is force frightened dogs. We see folks doing this often & worry horribly. Making a terrified dog comply with human wishes sets them up for future failure. There will come a time where they will find themselves in a situation which reminds them of the trauma & they will bite. Too often a mistake such as this results in a dog losing their life.
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Finally a reminder that rescue involves money. We need to be able to pay vets, drivers & so on. Unlike the big organisations we are unable to monetise & rely on your kindness & generosity to keep helping dogs like Harry & Sean, who at the moment have empty funding pots. Stella & Sally are also in need of help
If you can donate you can do so here https://dogdeskanimalaction.com/donate/
If you are able to sponsor one of our dogs you can do so here https://dogdeskanimalaction.com/sponsor-a-dog/
Thank you for being with us on this incredible journey. Together we are making the world a whole lot better for abused dog who have nobody but us
Michelle