It was a day of drama at Ap Lei Chau today, starting first thing when little puppy Ned had to be rushed to Acorn with breathing difficulties (again). This is the pup that came to us as a very young baby with eating challenges, a result of megaoesophagus as shown by a CT scan. One of the effects of this problem is that food or milk/water can get into the lungs rather than the stomach causing aspiration pneumonia. We had thought Ned might die during his first battle with this and now the same thing has happened, just before Ned was due to go to his forever home too.
Later in the day during the afternoon feed, new-ish puppy Radar (show here with brother Otto) was being bullied by the older and bigger William, and as a result a piece of kibble went down the wrong way and Radar started to choke and then collapsed. Quick-thinking Iris luckily saw what was happening and was able to get the biscuit out by holding the puppy upside-down and thumping Radar's back which caused the lodged kibble to come out.
As if that wasn't enough excitement, I'd got a message from AFCD Pokfulam letting me know there was a new puppy there which needed urgent medical attention, so Ming went to pick the puppy up and drive it straight to Concordia Pet Care (where he had just come from). The puppy had an extremely low PCV of only 7% and platelet count barely supporting life. A blood transfusion was needed immediately, but it was already six o'clock and the Ap Lei Chau dogs had been fed (including the drama with Radar).
We would normally send a larger dog from Tai Po as a blood donor but there was no time to do that, so we discussed which of the Ap Lei Chau dogs would be most suitable. It was shy Feta (the middle dog in the photo) who ended up being chosen, and to jump to the end of the story she's fine although I'm sure not happy at having to spend the night at the clinic. As for the puppy we'll have to wait and see, but at least she has some healthy red blood in her now and can start treatment.
This reminded me very much of when I first got my Lamma dog Stardust from AFCD as a tiny ball of fluff and with a PCV so low I was told she would be unlikely to survive. Stardust is thirteen years old now, so there's always hope.
You may already know that large areas of the New Territories are being cleared for development and whole villages disappearing. I'd seen a post on Facebook about two lovely young dogs living in a cage in one of the areas being forcibly evicted by the government, and in this case it's actually a very lucky turn of events for those particular dogs as the owner has to give them up. I'd read that the dogs were very friendly so I offered them a place at our Tai Po Homing Centre, and they'll be coming on Thursday. For some dogs the "home" we can offer is so much better than they have had to endure, and that certainly applies in this case. If you want to give them even more, meaning a proper home of their own, please complete the adoption questionnaire at www.hongkongdogrescu.com/adopt/adoption-questionnaire/
Beautiful dogs living in a cage....
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