Thurs 11th May: You REALLY don't need pet shops

Wiggle was so happy to be out of AFCD

It seems like everything has just gone crazy in terms of the dogs arriving at our Homing Centres, or due to arrive, which means that on top of needing to sort out vet visits (and dog names) I'm also frantically trying to reply to all of the enquiries for the more desirable little ones.  That means the very young, like dachshund Alexa and just-surrendered mini poodle Raisin, and I fully expect that Raisin will be adopted by the end of Friday latest.

Raisin is 1 year old

Even Raisin's case had its complications, as the now ex-owner said he was a year old and he certainly seemed to be very young.  However when I took him to AFCD for scanning and change of owner they said he was licensed as seven years of age, which I found very hard to believe.  When I got to Acorn with all of the new dogs (next paragraph), I asked Dr Tony to estimate the poodle's age and he said no more than a year old.  In the meantime Iris had tried to get information from the Aberdeen vet clinic we believed Raisin had been registered at, and as unbelievable as it seems. the clinic don't keep a record of dogs' microchip numbers so couldn't tell us.  AFCD agreed that if the Acorn vet wrote a letter stating that examination showed that the poodle was a year old, they would amend their records.  Later on and after calling more vet clinics, Iris found that the poodle had been to the Ap Lei Chau Main Street vet and was indeed only a year old, the error having been made in someone not being able to distinguish 2010 from 2016 in the application.  So at least that was one situation resolved.

Bill and Ben are also very sweet

A visiting AFCD vet had been to the Pokfulam Centre to finally clear the dogs for re-homing, and I left with a tiny chihuahua who clung to me like a little monkey, a poodle and pom pair surrendered from the same home, one of the Stanley Barracks puppies (female this time), two incredibly cute and happy baby pups (girls) and a couple of four-month friendly puppies.  There are still others waiting to be approved, including another Stanley Barracks sibling.

The new Stanley Barracks girl looks just like Teabag from last November

We are also expecting more surrendered poodles, and many of our current "stock" of small dogs at our Ap Lei Chau Homing Centre are young adults, even if not puppies or one year-olds.  Obviously there's only one Raisin but one of the expected surrender poodles is a two year-old girl, so please be a little bit flexible if the particular dog you were interested in has already been adopted.  The chihuahuas are two years to four years old, still very young, and they are all friendly.

Many, if not all, breeder dogs have lived in poor and cramped conditions where infectious diseases like mange and ear mites are common, in fact so common that we assume they are all infected.  We are constantly asked if mange is infectious and the answers can easily been found on the internet, like this site here http://www.2ndchance.info/mange.htm

The short answer is obviously yes, sarcoptic mange, known as scabies in humans (although it's a different kind of mite that lives on dogs) passes from dogs to dog but the good news is that it's easy to treat.  Demodectic mange, or demodex, is usually passed from mother to pups but not to other dogs however treatment takes a few months.

We had some good news back from Acorn regarding various lumps and bumps that had been removed from different dogs and sent away for testing after removal, as all came back as benign (meaning not cancerous).  Two of those dogs were sweet Chessie the shi tzu and Louis the poodle, both of whom have now been given the all-clear for anything nasty.