From Selayang Pound, we took nine of the sick-looking puppies to our panel vet, Healing Rooms, for diagnosis and treatment.
One of the sick puppies had LOTS of ticks.
Gives you the creeps? I’m used to picking out ticks, so I’m ok.
As I sat outside Healing Rooms, waiting for the vets to finish two surgeries, I must have plucked out no less than 300 ticks from this one puppy. No, I’m not exaggerating. You have to see it to believe it. Ainey and I spent about two hours or more, just plucking out the ticks. And that’s just one puppy!
She’s really quite pretty, has a bit of Siberian Husky, won’t you say? I really hope she can be adopted later…after all the ticks are gone! She is incredibly obedient, or maybe just very tired?
The vets had a long procedure to do (and that’s also one of our cat cases sent in this afternoon – story later), and finally, at 7pm, the vets were ready to look at our nine sick puppies….
Puppy Number One – is none other than Miss Husky (the one with hundreds of ticks, who by now, probably, hopefully, only has 50? or less?)
Miss Husky, up for a physical examination first. All the puppies were weighed, so that Dr Vijay could administer the correct deworming dosage.
After deworming, Frontlining the ticks! Dr Vijay said I needn’t have plucked them out. Frontline would take care of everything. Yes, I know…but we were waiting and we had nothing to do. And it’s hard not to pluck them out when you see them right before your eyes!
Temperature taken. Miss Husky had a temperature above 40 degrees. She was given Doxycyclin.
How are we going to identify them for treatment? Names? That won’t do also. So, Dr Vijay said the safest way would be to shave a number on them. I know it sounds like what they do to jailbirds, but never mind. Better be safe. And shaving is not harmful too. So, Dr Vijay did the first shaving. The number ONE!
The first masterpiece….the number ONE. Very nicely done, won’t you say?
Miss Husky aka Number One – we really hope to get her adopted once she is well and healthy. She is very pretty.
Number Two is up next. This one is a wee bit snappy. But that’s only because he’s afraid.
Same procedure for all. Number Two had no fever. So, it’s deworming, Frontlining and that’s that. And he had no ticks!
Up next…the two really sickly ones.
Tick infestation!! I started plucking them…instinctively.
But she is very pretty…hope she gets adopted. No fever also. She is Number Three.
Swollen lymph nodes. Will have to monitor that.
You are Number Four, little one… He is the smallest of the lot we brought to the vet.
What do you know? He was given a clean bill of health! So I asked if Ainey would like to foster him for the time being, since he’s definitely better off in a home environment than the clinic, especially when the rest are sick. Ainey said ok.
So, we did not shave a Number Four on this little one. Dr Vijay says he is a picture of peace.
I bow before you…thank you for saving my life! May I kiss your hand, please?
He is so, so incredibly cute!
You’re most welcome, little one. But we have to Frontline you too, ok? By the way, Little One had no ticks.
Snappy is up next. He should be Number Four, but Dr Vijay says since “4” is unlucky, we’ll spare him having that number. He snaps! But Dr Vijay knows how to deal with snappy dogs. You just hug them close to you, and let them know they are safe. Easy as pie? Yes, for an experienced vet.
You’re safe, don’t you worry. Nobody is going to harm you…
Finally, we had to muzzle him to Frontline him.
Now, for the last four – the ones that looked very sickly, partly because they had skin problems.
He doesn’t look too good right now, but Dr Vijay says it’s mange and it can be cured easily, provided there is no other problems. But the whole litter had diarrhoea too, so they have to be monitored, in case it’s something else like Parvo or distemper.
Wait till I get better, please….don’t pass judgment yet.
Ivermectin for the mange, and that would cover deworming already. No fever. He’s Number Five. By the way, Dr Vijay and Dr Loh took turns to carve their masterpieces on the puppies for identification. We were impressed.
This is Number Six.
Oral Ivermectin for all four of them. They are definitely from the same litter.
Number Seven.
Number Eight. This entire litter looks like they have medium-length hair. Once they recover, they would look very pretty. Dr Vijay is carving the number “8” on him (by shaving his fur, it doesn’t hurt, don’t worry).
All four are in the same cage since they all have the same medical condition. They were fed ID (to arrest the diarrhoea). They all ate very heartily.
Number Three is the one Ainey had wanted to foster, but she is sick, so she has to be boarded at the vet’s. Ainey will foster Little One (the smallest one).
Fast asleep…must be very tired after the adventure today. That’s No. 2 and Miss Husky (No. 1).
Snappy had diarrhoea as well. Poor thing.
We finally finished the examination for all eight of them. It was 9.20pm.
We want to thank our vets, Dr Vijay and Dr Loh, for staying back to help us out with these puppies.
By then, I definitely smelled like a dog, had a few ticks crawling all over me, and poo and pee all over my clothes, which by then had already dried.
Comes with the work. No worries…lives are saved.
So, for the record, eight are boarding at our vet’s now. One is being fostered by Ainey. While the puppies do not look as though they have any life-threatening disease today, we can never be sure. It is possible that some of them have already been infected with Parvo and distemper but have not shown any clinical signs.
Dr Vijay’s protocol is to treat the clinical signs, so we have to wait and see. It would help very much if all of us can send positive healing thoughts to these puppies to help them along. And pray…that there is nothing seriously wrong with them.
Two have fever, and five have diarrhoea. They are being treated with medication already.
We have offered to share out the cost of today’s medical examination for these puppies, but MDDB’s Wani says they want to cover since they will eventually be taking over these puppies for rehoming.
We will sponsor puppy food for the remaining puppies, and tomorrow, I’ll go see if any of them need treatment. We can help out with that.
Let’s see what we can do, together, for these animals.
If you’d like to help out, we definitely need fosterers for these puppies. There are 13 more whom we have not brought to the vet’s since they looked “ok” and it was too much to ask of our vets to check all 23 of them this evening!
The puppies would definitely be better off in homes rather than placed together since some may be sick. They also need tender loving care.
If you can help with the fostering of these puppies (there are at least ten who are very young, like the one Ainey is fostering now), please contact Wani at 019-3576477 or contact me at 012-6935870.
All of these little ones need fostering. We’ll get them checked by the vet tomorrow, and if healthy, please help, if you can foster.
All the puppies are up for adoption as well. If you’d like to have a puppy, please do consider adopting one of these rescued puppies. If you have the space for a local breed, they are generally much stronger and easier to look after, compared to purebreds. And you will be really saving a life.
All adoptions are free.