Crouching in the median of a busy street...

[SnickerKitten]

Crouching in the median of a busy street I saw this.....

Marbleday1.bmp

 

Not sure exactly what she is. I'm guessing she's about 9-12 months, maybe an aussie/border mix. She has no tail, a smooth short coat (very very thin and dry with several bald spots and lots of scabs), and the same build as a border collie or aussie. She's smart and alert, has diarrhea, knows "sit", but NOT how to walk on a leash. Seems to be mostly housebroken, not settling into the crate very well yet. LOVES kids, other dogs, and cats it seems. My daughter decided we should call her Marble and she's already picking up that "Marble" means her. Poor thing had little flying things that look like fruit flies all over her when I grabbed her. I thought they were fleas that I could see, but then they started flying. Ewwww. She's been bathed, scrubbed, wormed, de flead and de flied, had her ears cleaned, will trim her nails in the morning.

 

NOOOOO, I will NOT be keeping her. She had a collar on but no tag. I'm thinking there's no way she's gotten into the condition she's in overnight and she's not underweight so I don't think she's been lost or away from home for long so I'm not sure if I should try to find her owners or just start looking for a new forever home after I get her diarrhea, coat, and skin shaped up. My friend Audrey was wth me when I found her and thought it was funny that her coat and skin look alot like Stormy's did when I got him... but WAY less severe than his was.

 

Lori

[Dixie_Girl]

Oh, Lori, thank you for helping this girl out! I am sure she probly wouldn't have made it through the night had you not stopped! I dont' know what I would do about finding the owner, so many things could have happened. For instance the owners themselves may have recently got her and she got away from them. But who knows. Too bad no tag. Good luck and keep us posted on her progress! You are her angel!

[1sheepdoggal]

Thats a very noble thing youve done, but in the shape that you have described the dog to be in, I would reccomend a quartine for her, as you dont know what types of problems have caused her to be such a mess, and she could be not only passing mange or ring worm to your own dogs, but your kids as well. Have you had her to the vet yet to see if she had been chipped? I would definitly reccomend you getting her to one asap and put her up, away from the other dogs until you do. I try to help out strays myself when I run across them, but I dont put them with my own dogs or family members until they have been vet checked and have a clean bill of health. Been there done that, ...just the voice of experience. Good luck. Darci

[SnickerKitten]

Oh, I know all about bringing home horrid diseases. I had a litter of orphan kittens I was bottlefeeding that seemed healthy at first but soon developed panleukopenia (aka feline distemper). Ohmigosh the scare over the safety of MY cats was intense. Then another time I had a cat that tested NEGATIVE for feline leukemia when I got him as an orphan and ended up just crashing one day when he was 10 months old and had seemed healthy up till then. In fact, he'd been to the vet 2 days before for a recheck after conjunctivitis (only illness he had) and had gotten a clean bill of health. That was on Thursday and on Saturday evening another cat went over to play with him and he ignored the other cat and tried to walk away. I panicked and took him to the emergency vet. He was so anemic and they didn't have a donor cat so my husband ended up driving our biggest cat down to act as a donor. Of course the first questions they asked were about leukemia and I told them he'd been tested and not been outside since then. Well, turns out he'd apparently been exposed to it VERY close to when I got him so the test hadn't shown up positive at that time.

 

Long story short.... my other cats were at risk without my even knowing it because I tested him right away and never thought about it again. One other cat did end up having it as well, but again we found out MUCH later when he became symptomatic because we had all the cats retested the next day after finding out Coconut had it. We should have waited till three weeks after he was dead to retest. Yes, I ended up having to make the decision to put him to sleep when the blood transfusion and other treatments made no difference at all.

 

Okay, so now I've made myself cry thinking about my beloved Coconut. Of all the animals I've ever had for short or long term, Coconut was the one that next to my Stormy that was most treasured by me. Sad thing is I've aquired 5 more cats after his passing and even put together they can't fill the hole he left. Gosh I miss him.

 

*sigh* Anyway, thank you for the reminder, Darci. The worst part of rescue work is when rescuing one animal causes harm to another one. Fortunately, since I do take Stormy around other dogs and because he's intended to make a search and rescue dog he has had as many precautions taken as possible to protect his health.

 

Lori