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| Our only Christmas Even adoption was Rollo |
I arrived late at today's Christmas Eve Puppy Afternoon, just as Rollo was having his adoption photos taken and about to leave with his new family, and the only lucky pup for the day as it turned out.
Dani Bartlett was our volunteer photographer for the day, and of course many thanks to her for turning up on Christmas Eve (and a wonderful set of photos), as well as all of the other volunteers:
I had made a visit to Acorn with one of my Lamma dogs, Naomi, whose swollen face and neck hadn't been the insect bite I'd first suspected as it hadn't gone down as these things usually do, and with the clinic being closed for Christmas I didn't want to leave it any longer. I'm really glad I made that decision as it turned out, because Naomi had a high temperature and suspected erlichia, a type of tick fever. If not that then it's an autoimmune problem, and of the two I'll choose the tick fever as being far easier to treat.
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| Naomi with a swollen face and neck |
Naomi has never been the healthiest of dogs, and she has had babesia (another type of tick fever) previously, and I think that as with everything and all diseases, a poor immune system is a big part of it. When I have thought back over the dogs who died at a relatively young age, ten or eleven years old, they had all had some serious illness at one stage of their lives, most commonly tick fever. Dogs like Hilton, Ginny and Ottilie all died from cancer, but they had a history of tick fever, as well as Ottilie's near-death experience after having been bitten by a cobra. That's my theory anyway.
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| Melba enjoyed her afternoon regardless of not being 100% well |
Of course the immune system of puppies is much weaker anyway, just like baby humans, so tick fever is far more common, especially in pups that are born living outside. The last litter of four that I took from AFCD had come from the Chai Wan Cemetery and all are infected, but the smallest, now called Melba, was the one who needed a blood transfusion. She also had to go for a pre-holiday blood test to check that her red cell count was stable, and although it's still lower than it should be I took her to Whiskers N Paws and let her play with the others (tick fever isn't infectious).
Other than Rollo's early adoption it was a quiet afternoon, but a wonderful sunny day, and I was happy to be able to wish everyone a personal Merry Christmas!
Babies Beatrice and Eugenie seem to be getting into the swing of things in their new foster home!
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| First Christmas for Beatrice and Eugenie! |
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