Eddie's Story - Part III
14 August 2008
Parvovirus -- the worst thing he could be diagnosed with. If anyone does not know the extent of this debilitating disease please click here. It is the worst way for a dog to die. Basically, secondary infections set in, dogs dehydrate, shed profuse amounts of blood through vomit and diarrhoea.
We had to transfer him to a vet hospital that has isolation facilities. It is so contagious that it is necessary to remove him from all other contact with dogs. So far we had spent $1100 in medical bills, and were accruing daily charge of $500.
Eddie had to have his first plasma transfusion on Friday as his protein levels are too low – a cost of $370. This is definitely money we did not envisage spending. But thanks to an amazing lady, my friend and guardian angel from Joondalup Retravision, Vanessa, helped us in paying his bills. I spoke to the vets 3 times a day for updates… at the last update at 8pm Friday night he is doing fairly well… still only 50/50 odds that he will survive. He is very flat, but noted as being “alert responsive” which is good. He takes interest in the nurses, who spend quite a bit of time with him (he has 24hr care) and whines when they leave.
He is starting on a small quantity of convalescent food – very concentrated and high in protein. He has only vomited a few times today and no bloody diarrhoea. I have had to throw out all of his toys/bowls that he came in contact with, bleach all the floors and verandah as it is the only thing the parasite cannot survive through. Muffin (our other dog) has been updated with her vaccines, and the cats are safe from it.
Now the story gets more interesting… I contacted the Sunday Times Readers Mart to see if they would be able to give me more details of who the seller was – all I had was her name, that she lived in Fremantle and her mobile number. Evidently the Sunday Times knows of the lady. They have had complaints about her before – selling puppies that were diseased. They stopped her from placing ads, which only lead her to go to the nearest newsagent and placing ads with them – the Sunday Times cannot identify advertisers when they are done on behalf of a newsagent.
The lady at the Sunday Times couldn’t for privacy act reasons tell me the name of the newsagency but did say... so I started to ring the newsagents located in Fremantle – and much to my surprise actually found the newsagent she uses. Once I explained the situation to the manager, he was more than happy to help as much as he could. She places ads for various breeds nearly every week, if not second week, always using a different name and mobile number saying that she is selling them on behalf of other people. The cut-off time is 11am for placing ads for the following Sunday and her routine is to show up between 10 and 11am.
The details she told me about her breeding was that she only had the two golden retrievers and it was their second litter. A lot of her stories weren’t adding up. By now she is no longer answering her mobile and I am guessing the mobile is a pre-paid untraceable one. I have contact the RSPCA and they are very interested. They will be able to track her through the police channels with this as it falls under the Cruelty to Animals Act. I also contacted Today Tonight and A Current Affair… basically I am not going to let this woman get away with harming any more animals like Eddie.
She deserves to be treated with the same contempt she shows these dogs. Whenever I spoke to her about the illness Eddie was suffering, her only response was that she had spoken to other buyers and all their dogs were healthy, and it must have been something I fed the dog.
Posted in: Eddie's story on Monday, September 8, 2008 at at 9:12 PM 0 comments
