Pilar / Pili

Next day. 

The family that said they’d adopt cancelled.  Paws Patas has no space. But we could arrange a visit to the vet in Turre. Ellen. The same vet we went to with Tex, a few years ago.

She thinks the dog is 4-5 tears old. She's too thin. 29 kilos is too little. The skin patch looks like a yeast infection. That can be due to leishmania, or a simple allergy. 

She took a vial of blood to send off to the lab to test for the 5 nasty Spanish dog diseases (leishmania, filaria/heartworm, ehrlichia, and two more).

PS

Blood tests came back negative for all 5 nasty diseases  That is incredibly lucky. 

We call her "Pilar", or short: "Pili", after the Cuentame Como Paso charatcter.

Skin

She has a big hairless patch, with strange looking scaly skin, and she smells a bit funny. "Elephant skin" the vet called it. Probably a yeast infection called Malassezia, see https://www.marvistavet.com/yeast-infection-of-the-skin.pml

There is a shampoo to treat this, "Malaseb".  Another way is to make the skin more acid, using diluted apple vinegar. Using both now, awaiting results. May take a while to clear.

Young female German shepherd in Sierra Cabrera, looks lost

When going to Cabrera we saw a german shepherd in the street. 10 minutes later she was at our house. Looking lost, but did not come when called, and fled. Hm.

Sent the photo to the estate agent, who lives in Cabrera, and has a dog herself. Do you know this dog? No. But it is outside a house clients are renting. She's outside the gate, crying. Hm. 

She does get water and food though. 

Why don't they let her in..

Facebook. She was already noticed before. Someone came up with a chip scanner. No chip. Ticks yes. And a skin condition, bald patches. Suspected leishmania. Not good, but not unexpected.

People noticed she's a very nice and lovable dog.

Paws Patas stepped in too. A family in Palomares came forward to adopt her, but could only come and get her the next day.  

We went to Cabrera that night (were still at the old house) and took her off the street.  That was easy.

Can't put a dog off the street with your own dogs right away. First a vet visit and some quarantaine.  

And a spot-on treatment against ticks. She must have a hundred.

Soo, engineer Jansen stayed overnight at the house in Cabrera to keep an eye on the dog, while engineer De Waal went back to the old house to guard the existing pack.

The couch was discovered quickly.

Sleeping arrangements. No bed yet, so make do with mattresses for sun beds and the floor.

Next day: The family that said they’d adopt cancelled, and Paws Patas has no space.

So now we’re fostering her, and killing the ticks. Been to the vet, blood test. Awaiting results.

All in all not too a great moment for us, as we’re moving house next week. 

We’ll manage. I hope. She’s absolutely lovely. So far it goes well together with our 6 dogs.

The dog is an absolute sweetie. If we can keep her we will.

Estrella farewell

On October 15 2021 Estrella came to live with us, she left June 9 2023.  

Farewell dear Estrella! After seeing you 4 years alone in your cage, fantasizing we would just grab you, you came to us, and stayed almost two years. But all really good things come to an end.

She suffered from an insulinoma, a malignant growth in the pancreas, excreting excessive insulin, causing glucose in the blood to be extremely low. The moment that is noticeable it’s already too late. Prognosis is bleak. We had an appointment for a diagnostic utrasound the morning of June 9, but the evening of June 8 it was clear there was no future, and we had to (make) let you go.

We had noticed some signs early on. Sometimes she would stumble. Fall clumsily off the sofa when stepping off.  Strangely crossed her front legs sometimes when walking.  But, don't we all? Mentioned it to the vet last year, but it was not that severe, could be something neurological, and we decided we'd just keep an eye. 

About a 3/4 year ago she would be reluctant to walk on, especially when we reached the end of the walk, and were on the way back home. She would drag, and be unwilling to walk the same pace with us.  Blamed that on stubbornness. This dog had character, you know.

April this year the stumbling became worse, and early May she had what we thought was an epileptic seizure in the afternoon. Took her to the vet later that evening, as the seizures did not really pass. Sedation is the treatment for epileptic seizures. Normally a seizure should then pass, but it didn't. She needed supervision and controlled sedation during the night, which requires 24h monitoring. Nearest that was available was the Vet Hospital in Murcia. Off we went, with a moaning Estrella all the way. She did not enjoy all of this, and neither did we.  The vet had also heard a murmur in her heart. It could even be a heart attack!

They did a blood analysis. What stood out was very low glucose.  That can be the the after-effect, or the cause, of seizures, or a heart attack.  They would take care of her and let us know in the morning. We were home at 3:30 in the morning.

They called: she's up and about! They gave her glucose, and that improved her condition rapidly, no more sedation necessary.

We could collect her, which we did.

A dog can have epileptic seizures just once in it's life, to never have them again. So they wait to see if it ever happens again, and only then investigate, as the procedures are invasive. They want fluid from the spine, etc. Other causes were quickly mentioned, like low glucose can be a pancreas problem. A quick fix for low glucose is to put some honey on her gums, with your finger. That passes quickly into the blood.

Early May she stumbled and fell into the water bowl.  Hmm. And we saw more and worse stumbling.  A few weeks without major trouble, then end of May another seizure.  Honey on her gums did the trick. But... not good, this.  Meanwhile an enormously increased appetite! June 6 Coco needed vaccinations, and we took Estrella along for blood sampling.

June 8 the results were in: very probably an “insulinoma", a malignant growth in the pancreas, excreting excessive insulin, causing glucose in the blood to be extremely low. The moment that is noticeable it’s already too late. Prognosis is extremely bleak, even with treatment (an operation).

We had an appointment for an ultrasound for the morning of June 9, but by the evening of June 8 it was clear there was no future, she had more seizures that we could not stop. Not with honey, nor with valium. How to get her through the night? We really did not know. By midnight we called the vet's alarm number, she passed away at the vet's, June 9, 00:45.

Wrapped her in blankets and took her home for burial. We are so very sad.

We don't know her age, we think 8-9-10? Not young, but not old either. 4 years in that cage nearby, 1 and 3/4 years with us. Her attention seeking never ended, until now. Farewell dear Estrella, you were very welcome to stay with us for years and years more.

Our reasoning for letting her go was that if an insulinoma was indeed visible in the ultrasound it was probably too late to operate, and if not, what else? And if yes, when could an operation be arranged? The success of seeing an insulinoma on ultrasound is low, too, max 40%. Also, the first signs we saw a year ago, which is a long time for this disease, where metastatis is more common than not. A max survival time of two years post op is a bleak future. And how much of those two remaining years are with a good quality of life? As said, we did not see how we would get her through the night before the scan. Goodbye dear strange funny lovely Estrella.

Crying again.

But life goes on, there are now 6 left to care for.

May 6 2023

May 6 2023

April 30 2022

May 31 2022

May 31 2022

May 6 2023, see her left eye is half blue?

May 6 2023

July 2 2022

October 31 2021, climbing the fig

December 4 2021, escaping over the back gate

Coco plucked

Now that Coco is getting older, she gets bristly hair. You can brush her all you want, but those hairs won't come off. But, if you pick at them, with your thumb and finger, they come off! Never knew this! And look now! We have a completely smooth young lady again! (And she loves this plucking!)

Even her ears. What a difference!

Estrella welcome

Meet Estrella, Lucero’s older sister.

After seeing her in her cage 4 years, never let out, apart from the 2 times she escaped and ended up at our gate, she finally is with us. She is lovely, but quite attention seeking. We hope that betters soon. Now chipped and sterilised and vaccinated.

That means we’re at 7 dogs, which is way over our limit, but we’ll see how we fare.

Tex (25 June 2021 +)

Did we mention Tex yet? Here he is, at a small park here in the neighbourhood, May 2021. Some people encountered him, petted him, called in some officials for a chip test, but did nothing. Suppose he had fleas, can't have that in your car! So they left him but put his pic on Facebook.

Then a few weeks later, there he is again, at a house not far from here:

Went over there, and indeed he was there, but was afraid of us and fled, so we could not catch him. Apparently he slept on one of the neighbours terraces, and they fed him once in a while, and provided water. We said that if they could catch him we'll collect him. And they did. 

Skinny!

They do seem to get along well, so far.

Best friends!

Until...! There was some excitement, and a fight between Lucero and Tex, early October 2021. Tex got bitten like this, while Lucero was bitten across his head, and had a puncture in a cheek, which was nastily swollen..

Lucero bettered quite quickly, with antibiotics and anti-inflammants, but Tex not so quickly. This wound is in a nasty spot, as the skin there moves with every step. But, by applying honey-salve, and bandaging in December 2021 the wound finally closed. Currently the skin has it's black pigment back, but still no hair.

What to do. 

First advise: "cut off their goolies"! Tex is now a year old, which means his testosterone levels are super-high, irritating Lucero, causing trouble irritating Tex, etc. 

We hesitated to do an actual castration right away, as some dogs change their character, or become frightened. Fortunately there is a temporary and reversible solution: a hormone implant called "Suprelorin".  That sits under the skin, and suppresses testosterone. There are 6 and 12 month versions. The vet had the 6 month available, so they both got that. Then wait 2 months for their balls to shrink (really), and testosterone levels to go down. 

Meanwhile we needed to keep them separate at all time, or they'd fight again. And dog fights are no fun. Scary too. So, either Tex was free in the garden, while Lucero and Papaya were inside the house, upstairs. Or, text would be locked up on the cave room downstairs, while Lucero was free.  We had to keep that regime up since October 2021. 

Currently (May 2022) we still cannot let them free together. They are reasonably ok together, but there still are moments of excitement where they will growl at each other. Mainly Lucero at Tex, actually. That means we still have to keep up a dog watch where either Lucero is free and Tex on a leash, outside, or both on a leash outside, or one of them inside the house. A bit like the river crossing puzzle with the cabbage, the goat and the wolf..

There are cute moments like this:

But, as soon as one gets a bit agitated there still probably is trouble.

So, in March 2022 they both lost their goolies, and we now have to see how things develop. Currently the separation regime is bearable. The alternative would be to rehome either Tex or Lucero. Tex would have the better chance of finding a new family, he's a really very good dog. But were quite fond of them both, so.. We hope the best of their castration, and will see how things develop.

Zoomba tricked

Zoomba escaped twice in three days, despite the 2 meter high fence. But how? No gaps under the fence. Did she use the hibiscus to climb over the fence? The almond tree? The yucca? This one can climb trees you know, especially if there’s a cat up there.

We went outside the gate and made cat noises while calling her. It turned out to be the yucca. Poor Zoomba. Fell for our little trick.

The cut off yucca we planted, of course, as Burke explains.

"Virry hippy, think you virry much", sid thi hippy Yucca iwner.

Aperro

End of October: lots of excitement among our dogs, woof woof, bark bark. Usually that means: cat. Or hedgehog. Or an airplane (Zoomba). Not this time. Two pups in the riego tube in front of our house. Quite shy. hm.. Not very approachable. Put down a saucer with some dog biscuits, and some water. That did get eaten when we were not near.

Contacted some near charities. To no avail. Patas had the usual story: we're full. Others advised us to wait and see if the mother was around. Indeed, the next day we saw her. And the (possible) dad: a big white labrador-ish one. They looked quite happy, and were rummaging around. A bit of a relief.

Till November 16-17th, when there were heavy rains. The neighbour Spanish lady came to our gate that there was a puppy in the lemon grove that was not doing well.
"He was sitting down all the time."
You don't catch him?
"No, I go to Jaen today."

We went over there, but nothing. An hour later there was. I heard faint squeals. And there he was, lying on the ground, soaking wet and cold. Picked him up, took him home. He smelled a bit odd. Garlic? Towels to dry him off. Into the bench. Two bottles with warm water. Covered by towels. Hope he recovers.

But, he did not.

Bye beautiful dog we will not know, or him us.

And the other one?

Is it life? Nature? Destiny?

I do know it is sad.

Stray dogs

Two dogs, next to the rotonda of restaurant La Brasa. Not a great place for a dog.

Although there is food.

Still not a great place for a dog.

The white one was easily caught.

And was freed of ca 20 ticks.

But freed herself, through the terrace gate.

/AND the outside gate. And is now back at La Brasa, with her brown companion, at the restaurant.

The other was not caught.