Mon 14th May: Sorry Willy, no luck today

I have to retract the premature announcement about Willy from yesterday, as that adoption sadly didn't happen so he is still very much on the hopeful-and-waiting list.  His foster family love him to bits but can't keep him as they already have two dogs at home. However they have provided Willy with the very best start in life and that will stay with him for ever, so if you are looking for a fantastic family member who is great with children, Willy could be just right for you.

Who can take their old dog to abandon at AFCD?

I had to take the recently-surrendered shiba inu to AFCD to arrange a license change, and left with one new puppy and an old pom who had been surrendered.  It's incredibly sad to see old dogs, especially the tiny ones, being taken to Government Kennels and abandoned like that.  Dr Andy at Acorn found there was pain in the back and legs but no other obvious signs of illness, so "Old Pom" (no name so far) was dispensed some pain relief medication and we'll see how that goes.

I also had to take the most recent litter of AFCD puppies back to Acorn today to have their blood re-tested, and the results were interesting.   All of the pups had come with a low red cell count, a sign of tick fever, which was expected given where they had come from, and two were treated with a Berenil injection while three had another less risky option.  The two who had Berenil had improved considerably while the red cell count for remaining three had plummeted.  Berenil often works very well but it does also very occasionally have fatal side effects, which is obviously very upsetting, so I have been avoiding using the drug lately. However today's results speak for themselves and I ended up having the other three pups injected with Berenil and assume that it will also work for them.