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'It's A Dog's Life!!' |
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14th May, 2001 Written by Helen James This year has been the year of the dog and cat for us! In October 2000, we became the adoptive parents of an abandoned puppy on our front porch. We called her Vinnie, fed her well with plenty of doggy vitamins and she has grown into a beautiful looking dog, quite different from the mangy mutts that inhabit this town. She doesn't have a mean bone in her body, but has become a great little watchdog, protecting us from those vicious donkeys and cows that prowl out the front of our house every night, just waiting to attack us in our beds! (That would be Vinnie's version if she ever told it in a doggy bar!). All was going fine with our small family of 3, until March 2001. While I was away in Australia visiting with my family, Vinnie found an almost dead little kitten that had wandered onto our back porch. When Mark went out to investigate, he found a starving, filthy, practically furless kitten so weak from hunger, that she could barely stand up. As most men know instinctively about how to take care of babies, Mark proceeded to feed it steak and sardines! This kitten was lucky to be 4 weeks old! The kitten stayed inside the house for the next week or so until I arrived back from my trip. The kitten was certainly alive, I hestitate to say well...but she was still filthy and black. I had brought some dog and cat products back with me and proceeded to give her a tea tree shampoo bath to see if I could actually get a real colouring from her! A little ginger and white fur started to surface! She looked better after her bath, but still needed a couple more baths in a few days to completely clean her up. I also decided to begin a gardening hobby on my return. I bought pots, and trees and plants and of course, potting mix to start my garden! I hoed and raked rocks and tilled soil, mixed with the new potting mix until I had 2 healthy looking plots to start my garden. I had to wait a couple of weeks until my seedlings started to grow and in the meantime Vinnie had decided to join me in my hobby. She took a great liking to my new pot plants and the freshly tilled dirt. Night after night she would dig in my new garden and I would find dirt all over the patio every morning. After about 3 days of this, she started to break out in small lumps around her snout, mouth and eyes. They got progressively worse by the end of a week. The cat, although starting to look more like a cat than a gremlin, was looking great, except for these bald ears and bald spots on her forehead and eyebrows and a black nose. To make matters worse, I started to develop some lesions of sorts on random parts of my body, the main 2 being on my right breast! The distance apart in similarity to a vampire bite!! I let a week pass and they got bigger and more started to appear, especially on my legs and underarms. Now at this point, we had a dog with a fungus face, a bald headed kitten, and a spotty me! We didn't know if the dirt gave it to the dog, or the dog gave it to the cat, or did the cat give it to me and the dog, or was it just the potting mix that gave it to all of us! The only one that didn't seem affected by anything was Mark! SEARCH FOR A VET Now in a normal country, this wouldn't be a problem, but people don't care about their pets here, so a Veterinarian would probably starve trying to make a living! Someone told us there was an 'animal' doctor in the next town and so we took Vinnie to him. He in fact owned a 'feed store', so I guess this qualified him as the next closest thing to a Vet! He looked at Vinnie and ascertained that he thought it was an allergy, probably to the dirt and gave her a shot of something and sold me a bottle of vitamin tonic. After 7 days, we saw no change and her face was getting worse and so were my spots. The kitten remained in the same semi-bald state. A friend showed photos of Vinnie to her family vet in the US and he suggested that it was probable that it was a fungus from the potting mix and to add some Anti-fungal cream, such as humans use for athletes foot, on her lumps. Aside from using a whole tube of cream, that ended up in her mouth because all she did was lick it off each time I put it on, we didn't see much of a change. After extensive research of animal pages on the net, I found similarites in all 3 of us for Ringworm. Now Ringworm isn't really a worm, but the definition is Tinia, which of course is athletes foot and jock itch among other things. It is a fungal infection and not a worm. That must be it I thought! I was actually excited to believe I had Ringworms! At least it was a plausible answer! My theory was, that the cat had it originally, and because she plays 'scrath the face of the dog through the screen door', she was probably infecting Vinnie with her little scratches. Because I was the nurturer and constantly nursed the cat in my right hand and nursing her to my right side, that would explain all my lesions being on the right side of my body! I was brilliant..or so I thought! I called Mark at work and informed him of my find. Made sense to him..so he thought he would ask around at work if anyone knew of a proper Vet in the city that we could get the animals treated, or perhaps buy a Ringworm treatment. Not only did Mark find a man that called himself a Vet from the next town, but he offered to come to the house and do a house call on all 3 of us! Now this worried me a little..was this man a doctor who loved animals or a Vet that hadn't seen a woman for a long time! He came to the house and studied Vinnie, speaking Spanish through a translator, he claimed that Vinnie was going solo on this and did in fact have an allergy to the potting mix and not Ringworms. Sooner wasn't so lucky, he suggested that she more than likely had Ringworms on her head, thus the baldness, and that she did pass it to me. CONFUSING SOLUTIONS They drove to a human pharmacy here in Adicora and got some animal medicine...go figure! They came back to the house and he prepped to give Vinnie 2 shots in the butt. One was an antibiotic and one was an allergy shot...both of which Vinnie hated getting! Next, he pulled out a pink bottle of liquid and said he had brought that for me, from what Mark had told him, but after looking at my right breast, thought it might be too potent for me and suggested I use it on the cat instead LOL Now, I'm no expert, but how do you use the same thing on a human as on an animal??? All in all, he recommended that I see a REAL doctor the next day. After a year of living in Adicora, we never knew that there was a so-called Medical Centre here. He showed Mark where it was, only a couple of blocks away, and assured me that there was a real doctor that worked there. So the finality of this is: Vinnie has had her shots and he is sure the lumps will go away. Sooner has to stay completely away from Vinnie (almost an impossibility as they spar all day long with each other.) I have to stay away from the cat while I'm receiving treatment and she is receiving treatment. So in fact, the 3 of us can't have direct contact! LOL I have no idea how we are going to accomplish this, but wouldn't it be funny if we all became well and then Mark came down with everything!!! The cost of all this fine Doctor/Vet service from the one man? In a civilised society, a visit like that including needles and medicine would probably come close to $140..but the May special here in Venezuela..a low, low 5,000b, not even $10 (7,000b being $10)!! We thought he was worth at least 10,000b for all 3 of us..so that's what we paid him. I'm sure we can have personalised home service for human or animal anytime we want now!!! Will keep you all informed of the outcome....hmmm..why do I have a sudden urge to go chase cars??? |
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