[ SHOWGSD-L ] skunks
- From: Peggy <pmick12@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Showgsd-l <Showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2006 16:01:07 -0500
I'm sending this again because the subject line the first time didn't
mention skunks, sorry............
Peggy wrote:
>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/<WBR>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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