A tumultuous story about my dogs
Recently a sad thing happened. We found our white toy poodle, Jemimah Jean, dead in our garage on Thursday night a week ago (the 23rd of Feb).
She had been a bit subdued for maybe the last week, but we don't know what she was sick with. A few days previous I'd given her a pat and remember thinking she had a lot of fleas; we'd planned to give the dogs a bath that weekend and give them their flea treatment after. Both dogs were being kept outside coz they were overdue for a wash.
Mimah had been an outside dog for the last few years, so my 4-year-old and 2-year-old were pretty much alright with it, but my wife and I can remember when she was a gorgeous puppy galloping around our old rental house. She was a big part of our lives back then.
Then on Sunday we went to give my other dog a bath -- he's a black toy poodle called Berry. We discovered he was smothered in ticks! They were clustered all over him. I'd trimmed him maybe a month before, and only found a few ticks then, but our grass has been pretty long lately and I think perhaps he'd picked up whatever ticks had been on Jemimah as well.
My wife went out and bought a can of an acaricide called Nucidol to wash Berry in. When I read the how-to instructions, they told me I had to wear a long sleeved cotton shirt and cotton pants, a washable hat, waterproof gloves to the elbow, and if a drop got on me I had to go and scrub down in the shower with soap. I decided it was a job for a professional, and booked a mobile dog wash to come by around 11am Monday to do Berry's tick bath.
On Monday morning, my wife was watching Berry through the window and thought he looked a bit woozy. We decided to bring him in to a vet for a quick checkup, so I drove him down the road to a nearby vets and had him checked over.
The vet was amazed at the number of ticks on him but said the Nucidol bath he was booked in for was the right way to go. Otherwise his heartbeat was good, his temp was good, and he seemed fine. I bought some Frontline tick spray to use after Berry's tick wash, dropped him back home and went off to work.
Maybe an hour later, my wife was calling Berry and when he didn't come, went looking for him. She found him down the side of the house, lying against the fence. He was twitching a bit but basically floppy and couldn't lift his head to look at her. She bundled him up and drove him back down to the vet.
The vet apparently shoved some other dog they had right off of surgery table, and started checking Berry over. He was massively anaemic and perhaps he'd had a sudden serum response to tick saliva or something. They told my wife they'd work on him and she went home and called me.
I got to the vets around 10:30am I think. Berry was on the surgery table breathing oxygen through a nose cone. He was getting fluid from an IV and they were shaving him down and spraying his ticks with Frontline tick spray. With the rehydration he was stirring a bit, but his blood test results came back and he was really low in red cells -- he needed a blood transfusion.
So the vet assistant went off in her car and brought back this huge dog. I think it might have been her sister's dog or something, but I'm not sure the sister got asked.. anyway the vet and dog went into another room and ten minutes later the vet came back with a big bag of blood -- it looked like maybe three-quarters of a litre or more. Berry weighed just over 3 kgs, so it was maybe a quarter of his body weight.
They hooked the blood up to Berry's IV. Soon he was stirring a bit more and actually recognising me. The vet and assistant started to relax a bit around then. About 15 minutes after his transfusion started he was doing obviously better and they could move him (with blood IV still going) off the table into a cage. I went home and filled my wife in, and finally went back to work.
On the way home that afternoon I stopped in to see him. He was subdued but looking around. They told me they'd move him to a differnet vet surgery to keep him overnight (where I think someone comes in during the night to check the animals). He spent Tuesday and Wednesday there, with occasional visits from my wife and I. On Tuesday they stopped the blood drip came out but he had a fluid IV the whole time.
Last night (Wednesday) I brought him home. He seems pretty much ok now -- he's been a bit quieter than usual but I expect that's mostly from being a bit overwhelmed with all the stuff that happened. And the total bill was something like $530 -- about half what I expected.
So, that's the story of my last week or so. We've said goodbye to a pet we loved, and worked to save the life of another. And I'm much more familiar with the lifecycle of Brown Dog Tick now than I ever wanted to be.
She had been a bit subdued for maybe the last week, but we don't know what she was sick with. A few days previous I'd given her a pat and remember thinking she had a lot of fleas; we'd planned to give the dogs a bath that weekend and give them their flea treatment after. Both dogs were being kept outside coz they were overdue for a wash.
Mimah had been an outside dog for the last few years, so my 4-year-old and 2-year-old were pretty much alright with it, but my wife and I can remember when she was a gorgeous puppy galloping around our old rental house. She was a big part of our lives back then.
Then on Sunday we went to give my other dog a bath -- he's a black toy poodle called Berry. We discovered he was smothered in ticks! They were clustered all over him. I'd trimmed him maybe a month before, and only found a few ticks then, but our grass has been pretty long lately and I think perhaps he'd picked up whatever ticks had been on Jemimah as well.
My wife went out and bought a can of an acaricide called Nucidol to wash Berry in. When I read the how-to instructions, they told me I had to wear a long sleeved cotton shirt and cotton pants, a washable hat, waterproof gloves to the elbow, and if a drop got on me I had to go and scrub down in the shower with soap. I decided it was a job for a professional, and booked a mobile dog wash to come by around 11am Monday to do Berry's tick bath.
On Monday morning, my wife was watching Berry through the window and thought he looked a bit woozy. We decided to bring him in to a vet for a quick checkup, so I drove him down the road to a nearby vets and had him checked over.
The vet was amazed at the number of ticks on him but said the Nucidol bath he was booked in for was the right way to go. Otherwise his heartbeat was good, his temp was good, and he seemed fine. I bought some Frontline tick spray to use after Berry's tick wash, dropped him back home and went off to work.
Maybe an hour later, my wife was calling Berry and when he didn't come, went looking for him. She found him down the side of the house, lying against the fence. He was twitching a bit but basically floppy and couldn't lift his head to look at her. She bundled him up and drove him back down to the vet.
The vet apparently shoved some other dog they had right off of surgery table, and started checking Berry over. He was massively anaemic and perhaps he'd had a sudden serum response to tick saliva or something. They told my wife they'd work on him and she went home and called me.
I got to the vets around 10:30am I think. Berry was on the surgery table breathing oxygen through a nose cone. He was getting fluid from an IV and they were shaving him down and spraying his ticks with Frontline tick spray. With the rehydration he was stirring a bit, but his blood test results came back and he was really low in red cells -- he needed a blood transfusion.
So the vet assistant went off in her car and brought back this huge dog. I think it might have been her sister's dog or something, but I'm not sure the sister got asked.. anyway the vet and dog went into another room and ten minutes later the vet came back with a big bag of blood -- it looked like maybe three-quarters of a litre or more. Berry weighed just over 3 kgs, so it was maybe a quarter of his body weight.
They hooked the blood up to Berry's IV. Soon he was stirring a bit more and actually recognising me. The vet and assistant started to relax a bit around then. About 15 minutes after his transfusion started he was doing obviously better and they could move him (with blood IV still going) off the table into a cage. I went home and filled my wife in, and finally went back to work.
On the way home that afternoon I stopped in to see him. He was subdued but looking around. They told me they'd move him to a differnet vet surgery to keep him overnight (where I think someone comes in during the night to check the animals). He spent Tuesday and Wednesday there, with occasional visits from my wife and I. On Tuesday they stopped the blood drip came out but he had a fluid IV the whole time.
Last night (Wednesday) I brought him home. He seems pretty much ok now -- he's been a bit quieter than usual but I expect that's mostly from being a bit overwhelmed with all the stuff that happened. And the total bill was something like $530 -- about half what I expected.
So, that's the story of my last week or so. We've said goodbye to a pet we loved, and worked to save the life of another. And I'm much more familiar with the lifecycle of Brown Dog Tick now than I ever wanted to be.
posted by Daniel at 1:12 pm
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