Holly

The day before Christmas Eve a little dog was taken to a dump by her owner and left there. She couldn’t follow them back home because she was too weak to walk.

She was in a terrible state. Her eyes were crusty from infection, her nose was oozing, she had mouth necrosis, a raging fever & was severely dehydrated.

The next morning a community carer found her lying there motionless, frail & unresponsive, still wearing her collar and lead.

The community carer needed to get her to a vet as soon as possible. But, how could they do that when they had no funds?

We reached out to them & said we would help. We couldn’t leave them struggling to find support & delaying treatment until help came. Time was of the essence.

Holly was moved to our vets in that area very quickly where she was assessed and then taken to ICU

It is thought that her fever stemmed from an infection due to scratching. She had a huge flea infestation which made her itchy & uncomfortable & as she scratched the skin was opened allowing infection to enter.

The infection spread. It was in her eyes, nose & mouth as well as her skin, she was very poorly indeed.

The first thing to do was to hydrate Holly. She was given a line through which life saving fluids were delivered. Following this antibiotics were given to kill the infection along with oral solutions, vitamins & food solutions.

Our vet explained to us just how unwell she was & that all they could do was give her the treatments she needed & nurse her. We were told to wait & hopefully they could bring her back from the brink but there were no guarantees.

We were very hopeful but from previous experiences we know that in cases such as this things could go either way for Holly & we prayed that she would come out the other side healthy & happy & that we would be able to find a family for her.

24 hours passed & Holly was stable.

48 hours passed & there was no change.

And on the third day we heard the news we did not want to hear.

Holly’s heart stopped beating.

Her little body was too weak & too broken to be fixed no matter how hard our vets tried.

We are all devastated & suffering from the same old feelings that we feel whenever we lose a patient. Disbelief, anger & refusal to accept that this could happen to any dog not least our girl, more anger & then the tears came. Floods of tears which overwhelm, engulf & consume. And then more anger until we accept that she is gone & we can do no more for her.

Now I am focusing on how this happened in the first place. Holly was wearing a collar & lead when dumped. She was left at the dump, not because she was rubbish but because her owner knew that community carers were there & would get her help. I believe that in my heart although I question why they left it so long.

I choose to think that with Turkey’s economy spiralling out of control & in the grip of hyperinflation her owner did not have the means to care for her when she got sick. To give you an example of the financial challenges that folks living in Turkey face a spay operation sets them back a third of their salary if they are minimum wage earners.

You may ask yourself why the owner didn’t reach out to a charitable org for help. The answer to that is that there is no RSPCA or PDSA such as we have here.

There are no rescue orgs like those we have here. They can’t simply surrender a dog to a shelter & know that the dog will be well looked after & a good home found.

Most, but not all of the public shelters are substandard, lacking in adequately trained staff and funds to provide for the dogs health and nutritional needs. In most cases there is little understanding of exactly how to care for the dogs and many dogs perish in what can only be described as warehousing.

Only 5% of the population own a dog. Even the homes don’t exist. It’s a horrible complicated situation.

You may also be thinking that the owner shouldn’t have bought Holly in the first place if they couldn’t look after her. The sad answer to that is they most likely did have the means when she first arrived. In three years we have seen prices rise by 400% for dog food alone. Vet fees have jumped up 350% It’s a hot mess

While we were too late for Holly we need to try harder to get to dogs before they become unwell, or at the least during the early stages of disease.

I don’t yet know how we will approach this but we are in conversation with our community carers & WILL find a solution, in Holly’s name. No dog should lose their life for want of a simple, cheap flea treatment.

I am so sorry to bring you such bad news. I know you will be as devastated as we are. Thank you for all your beautiful prayers and well wishes for her. Please spare a thought for her as she crosses the bridge today & enters an eternal paradise.