bacterial infection

A few days before Thanksgiving 2009, I received an email asking if I could help a stray that had shown up on a porch in southern Missouri. The woman requesting the help was 100% positive the dog was a wheaten Scottie but in very bad shape. She was concerned he might not make it through the night.

I requested pictures to help identity and upon receipt, I still wasn’t sure it was a Scottie but thought it was possible. One of our foster moms and I made the two-hour trip to pick up the dog, and upon arrival found an emaciated and matted Westie boy. He could barely walk; he had no upper front teeth and his front bottom teeth were worn down to loose nubs. He was scratching and underneath the mats, his skin was almost completely bare. The mats on his hind legs were so huge and barely attached that it looked like he was wearing “chaps”. With heavy hearts, we put him in the car, thinking that we were bringing him home to be euthanized.

Back in St. Louis, I backed out of the driveway after dropping the foster mom at home and looked in my rearview mirror where I saw Ralph (we had named him during the trip back) standing up, wagging his tail. With tears in my eyes, I headed to the vet’s office, dreading what might come next.

Ralph’s examination determined that he had a major bacterial infection, a possible heart murmur, luxating patellas in both back legs, slight cloudiness in both eyes, and the sweetest disposition. As the vet looked in Ralph’s eyes, Ralph rested his chin in the vet’s hand…I knew we had to do everything possible to get him healthy again.

The mats were removed, antibiotics started, shot given to control the itchiness, and Ralph went to his new foster home. On the vet’s recommendation, the heartworm testing was delayed until Ralph had some time to recuperate.

It didn’t take long to find out that Ralph had been someone’s pet at some time. He is housebroken, loves car rides, begs for food, and has decided the best place to sleep is on top of the back of the couch. He enjoys walks with his foster Scottie sister. He has gained weight, his hair is growing back, and since he was showing overall improvement, he went back to the vet’s office for his heartworm test. To our dismay, he tested positive for heartworms.

After considering the alternatives, it was decided to wait a month for Ralph to get in better health and then begin the preliminary testing to see if he could withstand the heartworm treatment. We hope to begin his treatment in January 2010.

Ralph has snuck his way into our hearts. His name has changed to Ralph Henry. We call him RH for short but then refer to him as HRH (His Royal Highness). His age is estimated at nine to ten years old and he deserves to live the rest of his life in a loving home.

He will remain in foster care until the treatment is done, and we are hoping that a door will open to a perfect “furever” home.

Many thanks to WestieMed for their help with Ralph’s veterinary bills!
Vicki Frazier St. Louis Scottish Terrier Rescue

Update January 7, 2010

Ralph - WestieMed Recipient December 2009 — Ralph – WestieMed Recipient

I wanted to give a quick update on Ralph. Took him in today for blood work. We will find out tomorrow or Friday if we can proceed with the heartworm treatment. His hair is growing in pretty well. He still has an aggravated spot at the base of his tail but the vet was overall pleased with his progress. We were able to get him trimmed up (especially on his head) today and think he looks very dapper. Thanks again for your assistance,

Vicki Frazier
St. Louis Scottish Terrier Rescue

Update June 26, 2010

We lost Ralph Henry on 3/9/2010. I had been to the foster mom’s home that morning and he greeted me as usual – happy and smiling. He was fine in the afternoon and greeted his foster mom the same way when she got back home from running errands. Just a little later, he threw up blood, etc……his foster mom grabbed him in her arms and ran a block up the street to her vet’s office. He passed shortly after.

He had finished the worst part of the HW treatment; received the final treatment for the baby heartworms and we thought we were home free. We were both devastated. When the foster mom called me hysterically, I drove to the vet’s office and said my goodbyes.

He truly enriched our lives and we are grateful to WestieMed for the financial aid. We console ourselves in the knowledge that he was happy and loved in the too-short time he was with us.

Vicki Frazier
St. Louis Scottish Terrier Rescue

November 2006:

We got Pirate when my husband and I were fostering Westies for Westie Rescue. It was the end of September when I went to pick him up. He was the cutest little thing, but oh so skinny. He came from a puppy mill in Missouri and was about eight months old. That is about all we knew about him. Anyway, we quickly decided on the name Pirate and he started to settle into our home. He played so well with our resident Cairn Terrier, Pedro, that we started to worry about how these two would handle being separated. Pedro had seen other dogs come and go, but he really seemed to take to Pirate. It seemed like the two worked in concert. Anyway, after about two weeks, we realized that we couldn’t let this little guy go, so we went ahead and adopted him.

About a month later, my husband noticed a bloody spot on the bottom of Pirates neck. We didn’t know what it was, so we took him to the vet. She looked him over and decided it was a hot spot. She shaved the area, which is standard procedure for hot spots, but a “Hot Spot” is NOT what this was. When they shaved the area, they razor burned Pirate, and the next day the darn thing grew in size and had scabbed over. I read on the internet that this can happen with hot spots, so I just kept on giving him his antibiotic and spraying the thing with hydrocortison.

Pirate - WestieMed Recipient — Pirate – WestieMed Recipient

It continued to grow, and since I live in a university town with a great vet teaching hospital, I decided that I needed to get him into seeing a dermatologist. Problem was, I couldn’t get an appointment for another two weeks. In the meantime, Pirates “hot spot” continued to grow. It got so awful and HUGE! I was getting desperate and was searching the internet for anything I could find to help me deal with this problem.

That is when I came across the WestieMed site. They have pictures of a dog named Millie who had severe Malazessia and it looked so similar to what I was seeing on Pirate. I started taking pictures of Pirate and sending them out to WestieMed, and just for good measure, also to Westie Rescue. Both organizations came to my aid, but I couldn’t believe the response that WestieMed gave me. They said it was the worst “hot spot” they had ever seen! My heart sank. What was going to happen to my poor little Pirate?

Then Westie Rescue responded and wanted me to see the vet that they use. I had to drive about 50 miles, but it was totally worth it because this vet found the REAL problem. Pirate has Demodex Mange! It was never a hot spot, to begin with! I was given a stronger antibiotic and was supposed to start dipping in Mitaban as soon as some of his oozing sores healed up.

I waited two days and felt that I just couldn’t take it anymore. I tried the vet teaching hospital again and was begging them to move up my appointment, but they didn’t think they could do it. All they said I could do was to bring him to their emergency room and perhaps if I got lucky, there would be a dermatologist on duty who might be able to look at him. Well, I took my chances and brought him in.

This next part just blows my mind! As I was walking Pirate in, Pedro got away from me and was running all around the parking lot. I was trying to catch him when this nice man started helping me and calling for Pedro. He finally caught him and when I went to get Pedro, he told me that he was my neighbor and that he recognized Pedro from seeing us walk him around the block. He also told me that he works at the Vet hospital and that he is a Dermatologist! Oh my Gosh, this had to be from the Lord because I couldn’t have hoped for anything better. I told him that I was here to get someone to see Pirate and he agreed to see him right away.

Well, he confirmed the diagnosis of Demodex Mange, and also that the bacterial infection was causing major havoc too. The good news was that they have another form of treating Demodex that doesn’t involve dipping or waiting for wounds to heal. I could start Pirate on it right away. The only thing was that some dogs don’t tolerate it well, so it would take a while of increasing the doses to see how Pirate is going to handle it. Well, it has been about ten days now, and Pirate is taking the full dosage, and so far, tolerating it just fine. He is back to being a bouncy little puppy. His ears still flop down though, because he has some demodex sores on them that weigh them down. He also has to wear a collar sometimes to keep from scratching, and he has lost a lot of hair. That doesn’t matter to us though, because we would love him even if he was bald.

Our journey isn’t over yet. Demodex is largely a disease of the immune system. See, all animals and even people have these little mites living in their hair follicles. It’s just that for most of us, our immune systems keep them in check. For some reason, Pirates immune system either was compromised briefly or just isn’t super strong, probably as a result of poor breeding habits at the puppy mill. Anyway, he will have to take this medicine for a couple of months and have repeated skin scrapings to see if the mites have been eliminated. Hopefully, we will also find a way to boost his immune responses for the rest of his life, but right now getting rid of the mites is the first priority. It isn’t going to be the easiest thing to deal with, but I think we are going to get through it.

I couldn’t imagine how I would be dealing with this if WestieMed hadn’t been around to help. Not only would I be worried sick about Pirate, but I would also be worried sick about how to pay for all his vet expenses. Some people have had to put their dogs down because they couldn’t afford the vet bills. Demodex can be expensive because it takes so long to treat, and some dogs may need help for the rest of their lives. WestieMed is giving Pirate a fighting chance, and they are saving Pirates life. He isn’t even a year old yet. The people at WestieMed have also been a huge moral support. Best of all, Pirate is getting better! He is a great little dog and totally worth saving. I wish everyone who has contributed to WestieMed could meet Pirate because I am sure they would be reassured that their money, time, and talents are being put to good use. We are all so thankful for WestieMed. It reminds me of a story I heard about a little boy who was walking along the beach one day and throwing the beached starfish back in the ocean so they wouldn’t die. A man came along and said, “son, what you are doing is fruitless. This is just one little beach, and there are thousands of beaches full of starfish who are dying. It just doesn’t really matter if you throw these back and save their lives.” The little boy thought awhile, and picked up another starfish and threw it back into the sea. Then he said, “Well, it matters to that one.” Thanks again Westie Med!