[ SHOWGSD-L ] Re: be on the watch.........horrible, sad story...
- From: Cinosam GSD <cinosamgsd@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Peggy <pmick12@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2006 16:28:28 -0800 (PST)
No, I didn't miss it. I was talking about the remaining puppies and the risks
associated with keeping them alive.
Peggy <pmick12@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Obviously you missed the part where it said the skunk tested positive for
rabies.
Peggy
Cinosam GSD wrote:
This is very sad but it is my understanding that the only way to truely
test for rabies is to put it down the animal and examine the brain tissue.
I do question the comment regarding the treatment of rabies and the fact that
it is not 100% effective. I have never heard through news reports or any other
source of someone contracting rabies after being treated for it, and in fact
many animals lives have been saved because invididuals have volunteered to have
the treatment rather than see the animal put down. It would seem to me that
if there was still a possiblity of getting rabies even after receiving
treatment, the animal would be put down regardless to verify for sure whether
the animal had it or not thus allowing for other possible treatment options for
the person bitten or exposed to the rabid animal.
Cindy
www.cinosamgsd.com
Peggy <pmick12@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This is coming in on almost every list...but I haven't seen it on this
list yet, so I'm sharing it....it concerns a litter of Leo (Leonburgers,
I assume) puppies that
the owner thought were safe, contained in an enclosure in her
yard......... guess again.
Peggy
Permission was given to forward.
I have a terribly tragic story to relate to everyone in the hopes that it will
prevent this from ever happening to another litter of Leo puppies. I'm sorry
for the length of this story, but I felt I had to include all the details.
Last Friday the 27th, it was a nice, relatively warm October day, so I put my
4-1/2 week old litter of 9 puppies outside in an ex-pen. The ex-pen was located
about 20 feet from my back door and was a 4 ft high pen with extra-heavy
gauge wire. After the pups were out for about an hour, I was about to bring
them in when Sarabel looked out the window and noticed a skunk by the puppy
pen. I went out, expecting to shoo it away by shouting, but it took no notice
of me at all. Then I saw it put its head through the wire and grab a puppy. I
ran into the house, grabbed a broom, and smacked the skunk over the head, but
it still took little notice of me, not even spraying me. Finally
it wandered away, and we rushed out and brought the puppies in. Then the
nightmare began. A phone call to my vet made me very alarmed when the first
thing he said was that the skunk might be rabid and to check the puppies very
carefully for injuries. On close examination, two puppies had bites/scratches
on their faces, one which was an obvious bite. On my vet's advice, I
immediately separated those two puppies.
The next day, the skunk appeared in my neighbor's yard and walked toward their
son as if to attack. The skunk was killed, and on Tuesday the results came back
positive for rabies. By that time the girls and I had already started post
exposure rabies treatment. The nightmare continued as the more I talked to
health officials, vets, and others, the more
horrible this story became. It was clear that my puppies were almost certainly
going to contract rabies. I have learned more about rabies and how it is
transmitted than I ever wanted to know. Young puppies are extremely vulnerable
to contracting rabies when exposed as they have no immunities to it and are too
young to vaccinate. Vaccination after exposure does
nothing to prevent rabies. I also learned that bites on the face, especially
near the nose, are the most dangerous. Both puppies were bitten right next to
their noses.
One of my puppy buyers is a nationally known infectious disease epidemiologist,
and he told me that the puppies that had obvious bites would definitely get
rabies and the other seven were also in danger. I did not find any obvious
injuries on them, but the tiniest unseen scratch would be enough to infect a
puppy with rabies.
This has been the most difficult week of my life. Saturday morning I had the
two bitten puppies euthanized, a decision that I had agonized over all week.
After making two previous appointments and not showing up for them, I
finally found the courage to do what had to be done. There was no choice; I
could not allow those puppies to reach the point of being symptomatic of rabies
and contagious, which they most certainly would have in a few weeks.
The fate of the remaining seven puppies is unknown at this time. None will be
going to their families at 8 weeks. The local health dept. has them quarantined
at my home with strict regulations imposed. There are so many unknowns which
makes it difficult to know what to do. Because I don't know how long the skunk
was there and how many puppies it tried to
bite/scratch/bite/scratch/grab, it's impossible to know if any or all also been
exposed. Puppies naturally mouth, bite, and lick each other, so if they stay
together and one becomes rabid, that puppy will immediately
infect the rest. There is also a potential risk to our human family. The
post-exposure treatment is highly effective, but is not 100 percent foolproof.
There are cases where it has failed.
I am continuing to explore all possible options and to talk to as many
knowledgeable people as I can before I make a decision on the seven puppies.
All week I have told myself that this has to be a terrible dream
and not a reality. Unfortunately it is a reality, and I have learned a terrible
lesson. I have now built a pen within a pen creating a double barrier; a six
foot high chain link pen surrounding another six foot high pen, with the
puppies in the inner pen. I want to warn all breeders to never allow your young
puppies to be outside unless they are in a pen with
a double barrier or in an extremely secure pen with openings small enough to
stop any wild animals from getting heads and claws in.
Alida
von Alpensee Leos
The final outcome...as of today November 10, 2006, all the puppies
have been put down.
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Cindy
www.cinosamgsd.com
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Cindy
www.cinosamgsd.com
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POST is Copyrighted 2006. All material remains the property of the original
author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind
are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the
Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY
MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS
PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY
FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE
PROSECUTED.
For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxxx
VISIT OUR WEBSITE - URL temporarily deleted due to AOL issues
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