Fri 5th Feb: A crazy day

Tyler going home

Starting with the day's good news, recent surrendered doberman Tyler had his adoption confirmed today after a short trial with the resident dog, also an HKDR graduate.  Tyler is a sweet dog, calm and well-behaved, so he fitted in just fine. 

 I was getting so confused today as we had multiple dogs at vet clinics, my Lamma boy Batty included, and the messages and phone calls were coming in one after the other about each case.  Tai Po dog Giggle tested positive for both heartworm (which we expected as both siblings also have it) and erlichia, a type of tick fever.  The worst thing about the latter is that it's one of the diseases that means a dog is banned from entering Australia in the future, at least if a blood test confirms the presence of antibodies, and Giggle's potential adopters will be moving back to Australia at some point. 

Young mother Ellie

New-ish arrival from AFCD, mother dog Ellie, also tested positive for Babesia, so she's started on the "liquid gold" treatment and has luckily found a foster home where she can recover, as well as being taken back for regular blood tests.

At the same time another Tai Po dog, Anna, was also found to have tick fever but her case was complicated by the fact that she also had a splenic mass.  Removing the spleen is possible in cases where there's a growth, but not if there's also tick fever.  The prognosis was poor for Anna, an older long-termer, so I asked for her to be euthanised rather than face surgery when there was almost no hope of recovery. 

Batty had surgery to clean out the infection from his wound and a drain inserted, so he should be able to come home on Saturday.  That was the one happy piece of news for the day, even if the poor boy is sore and his leg is very swollen.

9 surprise poodle girls

While all of this was going on we had a surprise delivery of nine poodles, age and origin unknown as they don't have microchips.  They're all older dogs and very thin, also with a heavy flea and tick infestation so we can anticipate more tick fever cases.   The weakest of the group, all girls, will be sent for a vet check as soon as we can get appointments for them and we will be looking for foster homes if anyone is willing to take care of an ailing little oldie and be able to make potentially frequent vet visits.   Please email Cindy at foster@hongkongdogrescue.com if you can help. 

One of the three puppies coming

We're also expecting three puppies to arrive at Ap Lei Chau on Saturday, not babies, and they look as though they're old enough to be ready for adoption as soon as they've had their vet check.

If you're interested in potentially adopting any of our dogs and puppies, please start by completing the adoption questionnaire with as much detail as possible: www.hongkongdogrescue.com/adopt/adoption-questionnaire/.  Many of the forms submitted have such vague or little information that it's really impossible to be able to make any sort of initial assessment.  This questionnaire is the first step in what we hope will become a successful adoption, but not every home is suitable and we don't always have the type/size/age of dog or puppy requested.