AWL Always on the Run

It is not a slow moment on this side even if it has been Christmas holiday, we have been on the move the whole time.

I totally forgot to update you about Zara, I got an e mail today from a Sengora who asked how it was with Zara. I am so sorry. I have been too occupied with all the different cases and projects.

Zara was indeed poisoned again, although how this time remains a mystery. She hadn't been out of our yard, or off the leash, since her first bout with poisoning.

But poisoned she was, and with a very potent poison at that. Her condition deteriorated very quickly, but we got her to the emergency vet clinic in time, they treated her with a strong "cocktail" of medicines, and sent her home with me. We sequestered her in the dinning room for the first two days, and Todd slept on a mattress pad down there with her the first two nights. After than, she rejoined the pack.

At home, we have had 20 days of vitamin K treatments (which she spits out when she can). First it was 20 tablets a day, then down to 12 for the remainder of the treatment regimen.

She quickly became her old self again. Even for us, the transition from sickly-near death dog to playful puppy again was amazingly fast. We can understand how some might wonder if we are over-dramatizing the situation. Believe me, we are not. Both times, she wasn't too far from death!

Recovery. It is amore good fortune with God looking out for all his creatures.

It Happened Again!

Right now it is a very worried and stressed situation here in our house, in our pack. What can I say --- it happened again.

Zara, our latest, wonderful dog--sniffing our son's leg on the Tuesday blog--is terribly sick. I took her in to the veterinarian today, who told me if I had come in with her one hour later she would probably not have been with us anymore.

What is happening? What kind of place is this--- certainly not any heavenly place for dogs.

Zara came in the house (Friday) and looked like she had a bad cold. The next day, Saturday, I put her on antibiotics and a painkiller. After a couple of hours she looked a little better. I decided if she didn't seem well on Monday, I would have to visit the veterinarian.

Sunday I got a vision (from her) of internal bleeding!

Monday morning she looked the same --- low. So I took her to the veterinarian clinic we routinely use. I also had an urine sample from one of the other dogs back home with me, I thought she might have a bladder infection. One of the veterinarians took the sample and thankfully it didn't show anything wrong. Then I told him about Zara's symptoms.

"Does she haves diarrhea?"

"Well today she had. Can I bring her in? She is in the car"
"Blood in the diarrhea, vomitting?"

"Eh no. Should I bring her in?"
"Oh no. She's been eating something. Keep giving her antibiotics."

"Eh... ok?"

Driving home I just felt that it was not right. But going against a veterinarian? Hell, I am not a doctor.

Tuesday morning I go inspect the skeleton (gutted) house that is our neighbor in the parco. I remember Zara had been in there for 3 minutes the previous Thursday. I find two open buckets of Rat Poison, and a dead cat. Later, I saw Trooper come out from the hole in the fence to this skeleton, with some unidentifiable piece of meat in his mouth. I retrieved it from him before he could swallow any of it.

By this time, Zara was now "just" laying; eating but laying; pooping hard, no vomitting, but "just" laying; tail-wagging but "just" laying.

I woke up this past night to hearing Zara "scream", it was 0130. She looked so sick and I just hugged her and told her to "hang in there". Darn it, the other veterinarian clinic wouldn't open up until 09.30.

The morning light hit our bedroom, and Zara was still laying very still; not moving, not eating. Now she couldn't even walk well. Todd had to carry her down the stairs so she could pee pee and poo poo. Luckily, no sign of blood. When he gently tried to nudge her toward the door, by pressing gingerly on her chest/shoulder, she yelped in pain. When we carried her out to the car, she layed still the whole way out.

I carried her into the new veterinarian clinic and the veterinarian looked at her, then felt her body, "she has internal bleeding" he reported. He did his blood work and told me she was really bad, maybe she would need a blood transfusion --- they needed to find a big dog. He reported that she has a chance to recover... but just a chance.

So, right now we are waiting for good news Amore! Please keep Zara in your prayers.

Ratatouilles Short Visit

This morning didn't start out very well for one rat. The dogs were out in the garden and suddenly I sense something is going on--mother's instinct maybe? I look outside and can see Clyde our big Collie and Capri our mix jumping and being totally exited.

I ran out yelling at them to stop it! It is then I see what it was they were all excited about... they were trying to kill a rat!!

Different emotions flushed through me. Scared since there is something about rats that makes me get goose bumps. Old fairy stories, maybe?

The other feeling was, "oh, no, poor thing!"

With the dogs off of it, I could see the rat was still alive but in shock. I took the dogs inside and went out several times to check on the rat. I didn't want it in the yard, and I didn't want it to die. So many mixed feelings about rats, since I actually have had rats as clients in Sweden and I know they are very smart. But nobody wants to deal with the normal garbage/sewer rats they have here in Italy!
Our dogs' veterinarian told me once, "Rats are very intelligent creatures and carry the poison around to watch what happen to the animals they place it on."

The little Ratatouille died while I was debating what to do with it--and with a shovel my neighbor took him--sorry there is something about rats and snakes even if they are dead--and then what to do? .....Up in the trash cans?

No, I cannot put the rat there--ok, I am not buying a funeral for him, but it just feels so....so disrespectful to throw a formerly living creature among trash...well it would be like being buried in a Smorgasbord for it, wouldn't it?! Hmm... maybe not a bad thought.

For him, garbage is Amore!

Poisoned Again

Last week you could read about Tjojs being sick. We had to go to the veterinarian clinic for treatment and later give her an IV at home. What I didn't write was that one week later Clyde got the same symptoms as Tjojs and another round to the veterinarian clinic for Clyde's treatment. In my mind I couldn't understand how my dogs that are otherwise so healthy started to get sicker and sicker. They where kept more isolated from other dogs than before, no play friends. And de-wormed and front line regularly. Same food as always, I couldn't understand what was happening!

Outside our house is a small area of dirt and high grass that ever since we came here, we let out the "kids" once a day so they can run off some energy. Sometimes, our neighbors had their dogs out also, so little new "business cards" to read by our dogs. This area is slightly downhill from the street where trash piles up.

Recently, suddenly, two of our dogs became ill, with internal bleeding. My intuition told me it could be rat poison. With all the garbage here it didn't feel like a wrong thought at all. I talked to a veterinarian who said it was very rare that they would put out poison, but my husband commented that there was a noticeable lack of rats considering the abundance of trash at the moment.

One evening my landlord came by and in poor Italian I asked if he had put out any poison. Oh yes he had, but the doctor told him it was not harmful for children or dogs. --Eh, mammals-- we all have stomachs and of course it is about the volume of poison. Even if our dogs don't go snooping around the trash, rain run-off from the trash could come down into the grassy area, and end up in the grass. The same grass that Tjojs and Clyde will eat when their stomach isn't quite right.

I asked for the name and froze when I got the label in my hand...Facorat/Brodifacoum a very strong rat poison that can kill not only rats, but possums, fish and even humans. When rats eat it, it causes a long and painful death. When the rats who have eaten it are urinating they are even letting out poison in grass--where some dogs chew.

Internal bleeding, painful and long death. I do wonder how many stray dogs have gotten this poison into their system, and are right now laying somewhere waiting and waiting to be relieved from their suffering. And how many stray cats have caught and eaten a dying rat... and are now poisoned themselves?

Wouldn't it be better if they just collected the trash like every other civilized country?

This is painful Amore