Dos: The beginning

The first day and vet visit #2.

Dos was brought to me by accident.


I work at a dog kennel located near a vet clinic. One morning, a family drove up with a dog in the back of their brand-new looking pick-up truck. Thinking it was a boarding drop-off or a groom, I greeted them outside.

I then noticed the dog looked kind of sickly.

"We want her put to sleep," they said.

I explained to them we weren't a vet clinic and didn't perform that kind of service.  My assumption, at first, was that the dog had been sick for a long time and perhaps just couldn't be saved and they wanted her humanely put down.

I was wrong.

"What's wrong with her?"  I ask.

They explained that she was 'too old' (I find out later that she, at the oldest, is five years old and has probably been forced to have multiple litters of puppies)

After some quick questioning, it was made very clear that if we didn't take her right then and there she was going to be dumped somewhere or shot and that they wanted to make no attempt to save this dog, nor did they actually care about her or want her in the first place.


So I offered them twenty dollars for the dog.

They said to "just take her," then proceeded to THROW this dog from the truck and speed off.

I didn't even have time to get their license plate number.



And, as much as this family had OBVIOUSLY abused and neglected this dog, she watched the truck drive away, confused as to where 'her people' were going and leaving her there.

It was a heartbreaking scene.

So there I was, with the dog. Covered in callouses, smelling like a bad yeast infection and a severe case of mange and barely walking, I put her in the backseat of my car and called Capital Vet which is right across the street.  They were closing, but being the wonderful people they are they they said they'd stay open until we got there.

It took me fifteen minutes to get her out of my car and into the office.

They ran a skin test on her and discovered she had a severe case of Serctopic mange and a whole-body yeast infection, as I'd expected. They gave me a treatment for her and some antibiotics and VERY detailed instructions. They stayed more than an hour after they closed taking care of her.

I have a vet of my own that I wanted to take her to for annuals, just because I was SURE she wasn't current (if she had ever had any at all), so I called over to South Branch Pet & Bird clinic to see if we could make an appointment-it's right by my house, too, so I wanted to set up a doctor-dog relationship so I could rush over there if I needed to.

I explained to them the situation, and even though they were booked to the gills, they managed to fit us in.
 

On the way home from the vet to start the mange treatments. (she's got so much skin, I couldnt figure out of she's a Basset Mix or a Walrus mix!)

(for the record, I Love Love LOVE my Vet!)

They gave her the annual shots and ran a heartworm test and he gave her a once (and then twice!) over.

He confirmed what Dr. Scroggs at Capital Vet had said, Serctopic Mange and a Yeast infection...but there was even more


HEARTWORMS. Very very very severe heartworms.
Because of her dehydration they could only get a small amount of blood, but in that TINY sample of blood was a MESS of heartworms.

He told me there were few options.

He couldn't treat her immediately because she was already so sick; the treatment might kill her-and I couldn't pay for it (even though he was going to do it for half the price it normally would be.)

He  said the best option was to give her HeartGuard, that it would help to kill some of the baby worms so that maybe she could actually live long enough to get the treatment.

He also said the HeartGuard, because she was already infected, might kill her.


But I had to take the chance.


When she lived through the first night (last night!) I was relieved.
And when she put her head on my knee and weakly wagged her tail (twice!) I knew we had a fighting chance.

This is Dos' story. Named "Dos", for the Spanish number two. A second chance at life.