I received a call
Wednesday morning around 6 am it was Emily with
ranch rescue. Everyday she received a list of pets scheduled to be euthanized at the M
aricopa County animal care and control on this to particular morning there was a 1 year old pit bull with mange. She was the first scheduled to be euthanized if not claimed by
5 pm. after much consideration I decided to pull her.
Emily worked hard trying to get all of her resources together to get her a ride from mesa to Casa Grande, since I had to work until 6 that day.
From the moment I pulled up at Emily's house and saw her face I knew there something special about her. She was bouncing at the end of the leash begging for Emily to play with her. I was taken back by seening her in person, I assumed she was a red pitbull from her picture, we were going to name her Cherry, when truth be told she's a blue nose, her skin was so irritated she looked red .The problem was the type of mane had not yet been determined, are worst fear was sarcoptic, although easier to treat it was highly contagious to people and animals. We are going to have to wear gloves and keep her in a kennel until I was able able to take her to work the next morning. Her skin was inflamed and a secondary infection had started where there where deep wounds with pus pockets. My first concern was getting her home in a calming oatmeal bath hoping to relieve some of the itching. After that I decided to take her for several walks around my property, I knew at the pound they are not allowed alot of leg room. It was obvious she has not been taught any basic obedience, she jumps and spins place, and love bites my arm trying to get me to play with her.
The next morning I brought her into work where we performed a skin scraping, I was relieved to find that her mites where in fact
Demodex which is not contagious, the first thing I did was rip my gloves off and give her a good back scratching. The infection was worse than I thought and she also had a secondary
yeast infection in her ear. We started her on a oral antibiotic, oral wormer and topical wormer also anti fungal ear medication. She will also have to wear and e-collar to prevent her from chewing at her skin.
When I got home it is time for her to meet my other dogs. She was so happy to meet everybody she couldn't sit still! she does have a little bit of problem kennel aggression. Today one of my cats was over by her kennel and she was in the other room laying on her bed, and she let out a low growl as if to say hey that's mine.
Today 3/5/2011 was Ellie's first hike, it's obvious to me this is never been allowed to roam freely, I'm not even sure if she ever left her backyard. At first she didn't want to get farther than a foot away from me I had to keep reassuring her that it is okay to play. After a while she caught on and she went to investigate with the other dogs. She stumbled upon a lizard which I'm pretty sure made her day. Water isn't really her thing though, as the other dogs where swimming in the canal she just sat patiently waiting for them to come back and so she could play again.
