Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Judd




This is Judd. He is a Redbone Coonhound. We think he is fullblooded. A friend of ours brought him to us after he rescued him from his cousin. Judd was in a 6x6 pen with no shelter, no food, no water. He was in inches of mud and poo. Our friend had Judd for about a month before he came to live with us.
We had him inside for about 5 min to see if he was ok with Nikki (he was 7 months old and she was 18 months old) and he guarded her from the cat and our other dogs. So we kept him since Gator is getting older he is not as fast guarding the yard.
Because of the filth that Judd was in he was in poor poor shape. We could see all his ribs and spine. He had the wariness that severly abused dogs get after too long. He had a hard time bonding with any of us. We still have issues we are working on.

Now a year later he is a little more filled out, his metabolism is incredibly fast. Which is what saved him last week.
Ivamec is the pestiside that is used to heartguard, ivomec, ivamectrim etc. Same ingredent, different name. I have never had any problems giving my dogs Ivamec, because they are large dogs, it would cost 60$ a month just for heartguard. Judd has never had it but is heartworm free (somehow) and I was able to get the meds to give it to the dogs. I gave each one a third of the dose.
Ranger and Gator who both have heartworms were fine. Judd had a reaction which is the first time I have had a dog have a bad reaction. Everything hinged on his metabolism, if he could get it out of his system fast enough then he would survive.

Ivamec attacks the neurologic of worms and other pests in the animals body. It does not kill the adult heartworms, it only kills the juvenile heart worms and all the rest of the round, long, whip worms. The adults die of old age eventually and hopefully decompose etc.

Now if your dog is the 1 in 1000( or collies) who is missing a certain gene that protects the brain from crap that is in the blood then that dog with have an almost fatal reaction to the pesticide.(sometimes it is fatal)

The blood brain barrier failed and the ivamec affected his brain/respitory. He could not eat or drink. He gasped for air. His eyes were dialted black and if he stood his legs were splayed out for balance. On the third day I pried his jaws open and spooned water into him. I got about a cup and half in him. It was enough to help him a little bit. I fed him macaroni on the fourth day and spooned more water in him. After that he seemed to get better.
This was all 10 days ago, he is almost back to normal. He is running around, and tried to climb the fence to get the meter man. He eats every night and got a bath today.

4 comments:

  1. OMG I hope he is doing better. I think it's great that you took in a rescued dog. We have a siberian husky mix that got from the humane society. He is the greatest dog he loves my daughter and grand daughter.
    Holly

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  2. Wow, this must have been super scary. I'm glad he's doing much better.

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  3. That is an amazing story. I LOVE ANimals sooo much I cannot believe the cruelty that people can inflict. I also did not know all that abut heart worm How long can an adult heart worm live before it dies!? We live in the southwest but I need to get the heart guard for my 2 pups one was a rescuce pup so he had lots of problems too. So glad you saved his life . and thank for sharing the story. Hugs Julie

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  4. @julie-- I think it can live up to five years per worm. Mostly they decompose without issues but sometimes they can cause blockages in the brain.
    @ holly, V, and Julie-- thank you post the comments:)

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