Your Pet's Best Friend

Is there a good alternative to Immiticide treatment?

Eric writes:

Thank you for all the information regarding heartworm prevention and treatment. There is a lot of misunderstanding. We are an animal welfare group who took in a dog which tested positive for heartworms. The dog has received ivermectin weekly + doxycyline daily for two weeks, paused a week, and will receive another week of doxycycline.

A few studies conclude doxycyline + ivermectin kill adult heartworm: "Results indicate that the combination of these two drugs causes adult worm death." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18433753 There is also internet talk of a "slow kill" method.

Do you have any advice for animal welfare groups or others with a budget that would not involve Immiticide? There are also such frequent shortages of Immiticide, it appears to be an annual event. Thank you.

For some reason, my reply is not posting to the original blog thread, so I am publishing it here.

Hello, Eric,

The American Heartworm Society has withdrawn its endorsement of so-called "slow kill" or "soft kill".

First, while some of the worms may die with long-term (like two years)administration of ivermectin and doxycycline, you cannot be certain of clearing the dog.

Second, the dog's problems with treatment arise from dealing with the death and movement of the worms within the pulmonary arteries.  We want to keep the dog's activity restricted until the dead worms have been dissolved by the body's defenders.

It takes at least five weeks for the dead worms to be cleared from the circulation.  With the Immiticide, we know when the worms will be dying (within a week), and can watch the dog accordingly. 

If you are treating long term with other medications, you would have to keep the dog's activity restricted for years, as you have no idea when (or if) the worms will be dying and moving.

The frustration with Immiticide shortage and expense is something I feel pretty personally.  While I have an adequate supply at present, I had none for several months.

My experience with humane organizations has been that resources are limited and must be allocated where they can do the most good.

When there was no indication that Immiticide would be available, the American Heartworm Society recommended monthly ivermecin (Heartgard, Iverhart, etc.) and 10 mg/kg of doxycycline twice daily for one month.  The doxy inhibits the Wohlbachia (beneficial symbiote of the heartworm)for an additional two months after giving it for one month.  Thus, they recommended repeating this at 3-month intervals.

If I were in a shelter environment, I would follow that protocol.  This is what one would do in the month prior to starting Immiticide treatment anyway.

The adopting owner just has to realize that he/she is taking on a bigger commitment when adopting a pet with heartworms.  There isn't a quick fix.

Thanks for reading and writing.

Seizures - Why? Is it time to start medicine?

I received an email with a question about seizures today

I have had my little chihuahua (female, about 4 or 5 years old, weighs approx. 7 lbs)---she is having seizures. Today she had 2 back to back, first time for that. I live in NM & the seizures have started about 18 months ago & seem to have been limited to the cooler temp. time. My vet said that not to worry about it, but I am. She urinates while seizing, her back legs totally go out, today all 4 went out & during the second seizure she fell over. I am worried. Do you have any information you can give me to help her?

I can only give you the general guidelines that I follow, as per what the neurologists have recommended to me. I am certainly not a neurologist, nor an internal medicine specialist.  Without actually seeing your pet, I cannot really give you definite advice.

Seizures are caused by something having a bad effect on the brain tissue, anything from head trauma to brain infection to a tumor to "idiopathic".  Idopathic means "self-caused", and what it really means is that we have no idea what's going on.  EEG, MRI, C-T scan all look okay, but the patient has seizures.  Epilepsy (which usuallly starts at a young age) comes under this category.

The brain is the body's "electrical switchboard". The form of the seizure can vary, depending on which area of the brain is affected.  One can see anything from altered behavior (staring at the wall), to loss of consciousness, to twitching of a single body part.  The most common types are tonic-clonic (very rigid, legs extended, head drawn back, muscles rigid and quivering), and convulsive (down, paddling and jerking with all legs).  These are often accompanied by emptying of the bladder and bowels.

Seizures typically go through three phases.  The actual seizure is referred to as the "ictus", so you have the pre-ictal, ictal, and post-ictal phases. 

In the pre phase, one can see that the patient is "not right".  They used to call this the aura in human medicine.  "Something's happening to me..."  This may last for a few seconds or longer.

Then the actual seizure occurs, with outward signs as noted above.  This can last seconds, minutes, even hours.  In very severe cases, the seizure will not stop without medical help, and the patient could die.  Seizures that do not stop within just a few minutes require emergency medical care.  When the seizure goes on for long periods of time, permanent damage may result.

The post-ictal recovery period is variable in length.  The patient is no longer doing the seizure activity, but they may be unconscious, or just very "out of it".  Gradually they return to normal function, going from  "Where am I? Who turned out the lights?" to completely normal in outward appearance.  With a first seizure this can all take place in such a short time that the dog is normal by the time people finish describing it to me on the telephone. 

It is not uncommon for the owner to rush the dog to the clinic, certain that he is dying, and find him bopping around the room having a great time by the time they arrive.  They have rushed in wearing their pajamas and the dog acts perfectly fine.  They feel like idiots, but it is just how the condition proceeds.  It's good that the dog (or cat) is okay, and we spend some time talking about how to monitor the condition.

Each seizure can cause additional damage.  Thus, while some dogs have one seizure and never have another one, the typical course is for the seizures to gradually become more severe, longer lasting, and more frequent.

Because of this, some neurologists have recommended starting anti-convulsant medicines if a dog has had three seizures, no matter how far apart they are.  While this may prevent further damage, it seems a bit much to start twice-a-day, every day, medicine if a dog is having a mild seizure lasting 10 seconds, once every year or two.

We always start by checking a blood chemistry panel to be sure that there are no obvious problems with liver, kidney, blood sugar, or electrolytes.  If this is normal, I ask the owner to keep a log, noting every seizure's date, form, length, time to full recovery, and the circumstances that preceded the seizure.  The log allows us to make a more objective determination about whether the condition is getting worse.

If seizures are coming frequently (every couple of months), if they are severe, if they are long-lasting (minutes), if they won't stop without medical treatment, or if we have cluster seizures, we start anti-convulsant medicines.

A cluster seizure means that you are having multiple seizures in a day, or seizures daily for a few days.   This is always an indication to start medication, in my opinion.

Does two seizures in a day constitute a cluster?  I can't answer that without looking  at the whole case.

Once you start medication, you will continue giving it daily (maybe twice daily) from now on.  After you've been on it for a couple of weeks, you'll bring the pet in to check the blood levels of medication.  This will have to be monitored periodically.  The pet will need to be examined twice yearly (at least) in order to legally continue prescribing controlled substances (drugs like phenobarbital, the most commonly used anti-convulsant drug).  Aside from being good medicine, it is a legal requirement.

Most seizure patients can achieve good control of their problem with minimal side effects.

How I Bought a High-Class Dog

This is Cady, the dog we have now.  She’s a mutt who needed a home.  We adopted her as a near-adult stray.  With the exception of being a cat-killing fool, and snapping at intruders when we’re not home, she’s been a pretty good dog.  She’s eleven now and hasn’t really had any major health issues.  She doesn’t even seem to be slowing down much.  We got pretty lucky, as far as her health and disposition go.

That’s a far cry from the way we selected our first two dogs.  They were high-class, pure-bred dogs.  I spent a lot of time in the process of finding “the right dog” because I (at the time) felt like the veterinarian’s own dog should be a shining example of the super-dog.  That’s not a bad idea, but these days I have other priorities than creating the super-dog.  This is Anna, at six months.

Why get a pure-bred dog in the first place?  Why not just take pot-luck with a mixed-breed puppy who needs a home?

Of course, we have “flavor of the month” syndrome, as when “101 Dalmatians” came out.  Great Dane lovers fear that the Marmaduke movie will have a similar effect.  Both of these breeds can be great dogs, but they can also be challenging to raise and care for. Neither are great choices for beginners.

If you’re just looking at dog pictures without researching the characteristics of the breed, you’re liable to wind up with a dog like a Jack Russell Terrier.  They are neat-looking dogs with a lot of personality.  Best in the world for killing rats, grabbing things and shaking them to death, and repeat that process many times daily – a very busy dog.  If nobody’s home all day, that dog is going to destroy your home.  As the man said in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, you “…chose poorly.”

The most logical reason for purchasing a pure-bred dog is that you want particular characteristics of size, behavior, personality and appearance.  You’ve researched a lot of different breeds and found one where the breed standard encompasses what you’re looking for.  If you buy a puppy of that breed, you should have the dog you want when it grows up.  With a mixed-breed, you don’t have nearly as much predictive ability of what you’ll wind up with.

Unfortunately, a lot of dogs are produced by commercial breeders who really don’t care if the dog grows up to be what you want it to be.  He looks like the picture, but the biggest criterion for selecting the breeding stock was fertility.  No attention has been given to trainability or personality.  These are the puppies sold to brokers, and then to pet stores.

When you make that impulse purchase at the pet store, you are paying a pretty big mark-up for that convenience.  The pet-store has to pay their people, their rent, and the broker, and make a profit.  If you bought this same commercially bred dog directly from the breeder, you’d pay about one fourth the pet-store price.

So what should you do to buy the super-dog?  First you identify the breed that will best suit your life-style so that you don’t set the relationship up to fail.  Unfortunately, most breed books are written by enthusiastic proponents of the breed, and it’s not unusual to find that every breed you look at is good with children, a great watchdog, loyal, loves to play, and either came across the Alps with the Romans, or started out as a Tibetan temple guard.

There was a terrific book (now out of print) called “The Perfect Puppy” by Benjamin Hart and Lynnette Hart.  It profiles fifty-six of the most popular breeds by thirteen key behavioral traits, like “ease of house-training”, “snapping at children”, and “dominance over owner”.  My copy is falling apart, but I wouldn’t part with it. 

Anyway, do some studying on the breed before you embark on your quest to purchase the perfect high-class pure-bred dog for yourself.

Once you’ve selected the breed, you want to find the breeder of your dreams.  In my case, this would be someone for whom raising a couple of litters a year is their main hobby.  They have several dogs and are committed to improving the breed by carefully selecting and planning the matings.  Their dogs are carefully screened for heritable medical problems like hip dysplasia and eye problems.  They sell the show-quality puppies for big bucks, and they are very careful about where their puppies end up.

Sometimes they produce a puppy that doesn’t quite measure up to their show-quality standards.  They refer to these little guys as “pet quality”.  They don’t think that they can win big at the shows, and they don’t want this puppy carrying their kennel name into an inferior breeding program.  Often they will sell this pet quality puppy for about half what the show-quality pups go for.  You have to agree to have the puppy neutered or spayed before they will give you the registration papers.

The thing is, the “pet quality” puppy from these folks is about ten times the dog you’d get from the pet-store (from the broker from the commercial breeder).  He will be way better looking.   He comes from parents certified (as best we can) to be free of the medical problems inherent in the breed.  And the “pet quality” price is usually no more than the pet-store price for a dog from considerably less distinguished ancestry.

I’m not saying you can’t get a nice pet at a pet-store.  I am saying that you pay a premium price for convenience instead of for a premium puppy.

So how do you find the breeder of your dreams?  Now that you know who you are looking for, where do you find them?

This has got to be so much easier in the age of the Internet than when I first did it.  Then, I had to go to the newsstand and buy Dog World and Dog Fancy.  I looked through the classified display ads for the breed I was interested in.  Then I contacted some of the folks to find out where to get more information on the breed.  They told me about their breed association.  You can probably do this in five minutes on your computer now.

 I joined the breed association club, and subscribed to their newsletter.  This let me find out more about the breed and its pros and cons.  I also could see bloodlines, and get a feel for what a great Rottweiler (or Golden Retriever, in round two) looked like.  After a few bi-monthly issues, I began to feel that I had a better idea of what I was looking for.  You sort of get immersed in the enthusiasms and concerns of people who really care about their breed.

Next step, look at the membership list in the club and find breeders who are within driving distance.  Call them up and tell them that you are not interested in breeding or showing, but you want to have a good, medically sound dog, and you think that a “pet-quality” dog from a committed breeder is what you are looking for.   You want to learn more about the breed and would really like to visit them and see their dogs.  Then you go do that, and you develop a relationship with the breeder you like best, and you get on a waiting list for a puppy. 

It is a slow process, but it worked great for me twice.  This is Buster, in our Cowboy Christmas card back in 1991, when he was about six months old.

Why cats "sharpen" their claws

If you look for information on cat claws, most of what you find is devoted either to the mechanics of the retractable claw or to the pros and cons (or evils, depending on your degree of zeal) of the de-clawing operation.  Google up pictures of the claw anatomy, and you get stuff like this.  But, to quote (sort of) Arlo Guthrie, "...that's not what I came here to talk about."

People often talk about a cat "sharpening" its claws.  You have to wonder how that works.  You know that the cat is not sitting there with a whet-stone, working the claw down to a needle-sharp point.  On the other hand, you also know that the claws generally do have a needle-sharp point... or should I say razor-sharp?  How does that work?  

Just walking around doesn't require sharp claws.  In fact, it doesn't require claws at all.  They walk on the next bone up, with the third phalanx retracted up out of the way (as in the top picture).  The needle-sharp point is taking no wear.  The cat does benefit from sharp claws when climbing trees.  They climb trees to escape bigger predators, as well as to gain access to prey themselves.  This is bound to put some wear and tear on the claws, dulling them down. 

Then, when you move in for the kill (or to slap an unwary veterinarian), and out pops the switchblade, you'll be wanting some claws that can really penetrate deeply with no trouble.  Dull claws just won't get it when you are the deadly feline hunter/fighter.  If you're hunting, climbing and fighting, they are bound to wear down.  So, how do you sharpen them?

We see the cat on the scratching post (or your furniture, alas) just working away.  "He needs to sharpen his claws."  I see how that destroys the furniture, but how could it be sharpening his claws?

After all that hunting, climbing, slapping and destruction of the furniture, it would appear that the claw would be worn down like this.  And it is, and it would stay that way if the cat's claws grew lengthwise like a dog's claws or a person's fingernails.  That's not the way cat claws grow, though.  They don't grow lengthwise.  They grow in layers like an onion (surely you don't need a picture of an onion).

Thus, as the claw is wearing down on the outside, a brand-new, needle-sharp (or razor-sharp) claw is growing inside.  This is why trimming cat toe-nails doesn't give you a long-lasting short, smooth nail.  It won't be long before the outer sheath you trimmed is shed, revealing the brand-new weapon, ready for action.

The "sharpening" of the claw is actually the removal of those worn outer sheaths.  As the new inner claw reaches full development, the outer sheath becomes a little loose and a little uncomfortable.  The cat keeps working on something like tree bark, or your furniture, until he gets it pried off, and he's ready to rumble again.  Of course, some cats just tear up your furniture for the hell of it, like Garfield, but the cat actually does need to scratch.

Which brings us to Bob.  Bob used to be outside a lot.  Unfortunately, with advancing age and a plague of stray dogs, his owners felt like he might not be safe outside anymore, and he had to become a total house-cat.  He came in recently because he was chewing on his feet all the time.  The owners just couldn't understand what was bothering him. He never used to do this.

While Bob was outside, he loved to scratch on tree-bark.  Since he's been inside, he doesn't scratch on anything.  Not on the furniture, not on the lovely scratching-posts they bought him.  With older cats, those old claw sheaths don't shed as easily as with younger cats.  Occasionally, we'll find an old cat where several layers have accumulated.  Bob is the champion in this department. 

This pile of claw sheaths (and pieces thereof) are the product of one toe-nail trim... and a lot of picking away at the outer sheaths by me.  His feet looked pretty normal afterward, and he quit chewing on them.  I can't really imagine what that must feel like with all those extra claw-layers jammed up in your toe. (Ingrown toenails, anyone?)

Bob is scheduled for monthly toe-nail trims (or inspections at least). I've recommended getting a log with the bark still on for his new scratching post.  We'll see if that takes care of it.

Safe Outdoor Temperatures for Dogs

I've posted on concerns with both excessively hot weather and cold.  This is something I think you'll find helpful.

The Tufts Animal Care and Condition scale (TACC) gives a really good approach.  It addresses the size of the animal, its physical condition, the condition of its environment and housing, as well as the weather and temperature.  It gives guidelines for both hot and cold.

Here's a link to one publication. If the link doesn't work, just Google it. Lots of humane organizations and animal welfare agencies use this as their standard.

Rabies Quarantine Times

Here's part of an email that was primarily about an aural hematoma. However, the hematoma started with a wound.

My Scottish Terrier received a small bite on the ear by a raccoon, I immediately gave him a bath and got him to the vets. His vaccination had expired so I now have him at an in home voluntary quarantine.

Thank you,
Tammy

Hello, Tammy,

Let's talk about your "in-home voluntary quarantine".

Rabies is shed in the saliva of infected animals for up to 5 days before they show any outward signs of illness.  Since it is a brain infection, the first signs of illness are altered behavior.  For example, this could be a friendly animal who becomes aggressive, or a reclusive, nocturnal animal (like a skunk or raccoon) that comes out in broad daylight. Eventually more serious signs develop, terminating in convulsions and death.

Since the virus is shed for 5 days before the animal acts sick, we routinely quarantine an animal that has bitten someone for 10 days after the bite.  Even if the animal is carrying rabies, if it acts okay at day 10 (10 days is doubly sure), it wasn't shedding virus when it bit the victim.  Thus, we know the victim is at no risk of getting sick with rabies. 

The victim of the bite of a rabid animal can take months to develop the disease.  The virus doesn't travel in the bloodstream.  It only travels in nerve tissue.  When it finally reaches the brain, you get sick.  If you get bitten on the  big toe, it takes a long time.  If you get bitten in the face, not very long.

Still, even with a bite on the face, if you are going to quarantine the victim of a bite (such as your dog), you would have to keep it quarantined for six months in order to be sure that the dog had not been  exposed to rabies.  Countries like England (and states like Hawaii) that do not have rabies in their animal population require a six-month quarantine for dogs and cats before they can be allowed to enter.

In your case, this would (in my opinion) be foolish.  You have several options.  One would be to ignore the situation unless your dog showed signs of central nervous system (brain) disease.  Of course, then you'd have to quarantine him during the treatment period for the disease.  If he died, the brain tissue would then be examined for rabies virus.

Another option would be to have blood drawn and have a titer checked (it is possible to tell if the dog's previous vaccinations are still producing immunity).  In either case, a booster dose with a killed virus vaccine should be given.  This will not hurt, and is a recommended safety precaution.

As with any puncture wound, your pet should be examined and treated by your veterinarian.  Even when rabies is not present, serious infections can develop.

When is it "time" to euthanize?

Here's today's tough question [edited]:

I have a cat, Zoe, who is 15. She is diabetic.   Even when her diabetes is stabilized, she's so skinny! She has gone from a big 12 pound Maine Coon to a weeny 5 pound Maine Coon. She looks and feel bony. We know she has some arthritis (she gets chondroitin); the vet thinks she may have a tumor of some sort, possibly even/as well as a brain tumor. She definitely has dental problems.

Zoe's quality of life seems to me to be poor - she will accept petting but is not the affectionate lapcat she used to be; she has always lived in a multicat household but now HATES the other cats; and she's occasionally incontinent. Mealtimes get her excited but that's it; the rest of the time she spends asleep.

How do we know when it's time? We keep taking her back to the vet every 3 months for an assessment to see if she's in much pain and they never seem to think she is. I don't want to euthanize her just because she is no longer a charming little kitten or because she has health problems - she has definitely earned her retirement, but I also don't want her to suffer through a terrible existence because we haven't got the guts to make a decision.

My Answer:

Well... no pressure, huh?

The decision to provide euthanasia is often a difficult one.  In fact, it is almost always a difficult decision, even when the situation is pretty clear-cut (as in the dog caught in a combine harvester header who had all four of his legs cut off: the owner wanted me to "fix him". Holy cow!)

"Quality of life" and "quality of life issues" are the buzz-words.  They are more than just buzz-words, though.  If one is sure that a patient is in constant pain which is NOT going to get better, then the decision is pretty clear.  But what about the patient who just never feels good? 

You don't really see obvious signs of pain (screaming, moaning, writhing, restlessness, etc.), but you never see what you consider the normal activities.  No playing, no exploring, no interaction with other pets or people.  She still eats and is interested in food, but just sleeps the rest of the time.

With this pet, we know she won't have any energy -- she's wasting away, burning up her body fat and muscle tissue just to stay alive.  This means that she isn't getting much good out of her food.  Just breathing is taking all she's got.

Is she in pain?  This is a very hard question to answer, particularly with cats, as they are very stoic and famous for concealing signs of illness.  Even when you know your pet better than anyone else, this can be a hard call.  One of the few ways that I know to assess this is to give a trial therapy of pain medication, such as buprenorphine, and see if there is improvement.

Another criterion that I use is to think to myself, "If this were me, would I be in pain?"  This is less useful here, as I've never been 100 years old and wasting away (at least not this lifetime).  My great-aunt Clara lived to be 101.  She retained her mental faculties to the end.    You could tell pretty quickly how interesting your conversation was.  If you were boring her, she'd just go to sleep.  If not, the conversation would be lively for as long as you could stay with it.

Aunt Clara was rather feeble physically in the last ten years.  She didn't feel bad, but she had trouble getting up and walking, even around the house.  She slept a lot.  When asked how it felt to be 100, she would reply, "I'm just surprised every day when I wake up."

Contrast this with an experience I had with a relative dying with cancer in a hospice environment.  She begged me to smother her with a pillow.

Which brings me back to my opening statement: No pressure, huh?

Whenever a client uses the "S" word ("Do you think he's suffering?"), I know it's over.  In 31 years, nobody has ever used this word unless they were looking for the way out.

In your case, you are concerned about whether you are condemning the cat to slow death.  Ironically, you are afraid someone might think you were considering a "convenience euthanasia".  Since most cats don't live to be 15 in the first place, and many owners will not go to the trouble to treat diabetics (and it IS some trouble, I know), you could hardly be thought to have cut any corners in the cat's care.

Here's what the numbers say:
Your cat has lived to an above average lifespan of 15 years.
Your cat has lost sixty percent of its body weight.
Your cat never plays, explores, or interacts with others.
Your cat never "feels good".

Your question: is the cat in pain?   Answer: I don't know.
Your question: is it "time"?            Answer: Only you can decide.

I wish I could make it easy for you, but it never is.

Best wishes,
Everett Mobley, D.V.M.

How much is a teaspoon?

This is a question that I have long known to be a mystery to many people.  When I ask for a teaspoon of poop for a stool specimen, I receive anything from a smear on a kleenex to a coffee-can full.  I have a feeling that these people rely on food-products that don't require much measuring in the recipe.

Today I was presented with a little pup having some problems.  The owner told me that she had "wormed it" a few days ago.  When I asked what she had used, she was much better prepared than most folks, whose answer is "I got it at Wal-Mart". [I really must spend more time in the pet-care aisles of discount stores.]  This lady, however, had brought not only the bottle of stuff, but the medicine-dropper she had used to dose it.

 

"I dosed him for 10 pounds." [Sure, he only weighs 7 pounds, but that's safe enough.]  The bottle says 5ml  (one teaspoon) per 10 pounds of body weight.  "Here's the dropper I used."  "How many of those droppers did you give him?"  "Just one." Well, let's just see how close that was to 5 ml (or "one teaspoonful", and whose teaspoon do you use, anyway?)  Not too close.  It takes five of these droppers full to equal the 5ml teaspoon.

Interestingly enough, your basic cheap tableware, AC/DC, regular teaspoon holds the full 5ml.  It's a close fit, and it will spill over the edge with the slightest tilt, but it will hold it.  It's lousy for medicating the pet, but it does hold a teaspoonful. 

This medicine dosing thing: you need to follow directions, and you need to know how much your pet weighs, and you need to know how much is a teaspoon.

Fledgling birds

Here's our annual bird's nest in the kennel window, sheltered under the eaves.  We've seen the momma sitting, and flying back and forth.  It's empty now, which I wouldn't have noticed, as we try not to bother them, but a fledgling nearly landed on me when I got out of the truck this afternoon.  Soon the calls will be coming.

"I've just found this baby bird that's fallen out of the nest.  What should I do?"  Leave it alone.  This fledlging bird is too big to stay in the nest, fully feathered, an "adventurous teenager", not a helpless baby anymore.  So she hopped out and is learning to hop around and fly.  Mother is nearby and watching her, bringing food when necessary.  If you pick her up, she'll just hop out of the nest again. If you take her in the house, you have drastically reduced her chances for survival. You're not a very experienced at finishing her "raising", and teaching her to survive in the great outdoors.  She probably won't survive your good intentions.

"What if I cat or dog finds her?"  That will be bad, but we can't really police the law of the jungle.  When minding our own business increases the chance of survival, that's what we need to do.

If you find a little downy chick of a baby bird, it's okay to put them back in the nest.  The mother bird WILL NOT reject them because you have touched them.  If you can find the nest, do put them back in.  It is possible to hand rear the birds, but without seeking good information on how-to, and making a significant commitment, you will not succeed.

We all want to make a difference, but sometimes the best thing you can do is to mind your own business and let the birds mind theirs.

The worst pitfall in pet adoption.

Old Yeller Alert

In a previous post, I discussed many of the problems one might encounter in adopting a pet of uncertain origin.  In an attempt to be warm, fuzzy, and make the idea attractive, I pretty much glossed over the worst case scenario.

The problem is that these animals are not brought to the shelter or rescue agency because people have been loving and caring for them.  They are brought because people want to get rid of them.  "Give me your  tired, your poor..."  Sometimes they are already carrying a disease.  Sometimes they are so stressed that they don't have any resistance when they are exposed.  That same level of stress can also prevent them from responding to the vaccines given by the rescue folks.

This puppy looks really cute.  What you cannot see are the white gums, bloody stool, prolapsed rectum, subnormal body temperature (room temperature) and severe dehydration produced by her parvovirus infection.   Her new owners adopted her less than a week ago.  The Animal Rescue had given her first puppy vaccines and dewormed her for hookworms and roundworms less than 10 days ago.  If you showed me her paperwork, I would have asked you to bring her in for a quick check-up and a stool exam.  On paper, she ought to be okay, and last night she still looked okay.  She wasn't, though, and today she crashed.  She was exposed to the parvovirus before her body could respond to the vaccines.  It is as though somebody started machine-gunning you with live ammo while you were training on a paint-ball course -- you are not prepared to fight back.

SO, part of you says, "Don't get an animal like this; it's such a crap-shoot.  They could become seriously ill and die just about the time you get attached to them."  Then there's the part of you that says, "If we don't adopt these guys, they will ALL die."  You're between a rock and a hard place, with that "No good deed goes unpunished" feeling.  Somehow, a "money-back guarantee" just doesn't make you feel that much better. 

Does it happen that often?  Not really.  Very seldom, in fact.  That's just a pretty small consolation when it happens to you.  We keep doing it anyway, partly because we feel it's the right thing to do, and partly because we tell ourselves that nothing bad is going to happen to us.  Sort of the same way I justify getting on the motorcycle.  You pays your money and you takes your choice.