BULLETIN N°23 - June 2003
Relais des associations
12, rue Delille
06000 NICE
So that here and now cruelty to animals
is no longer tolerated
Tél et Fax. 04.93.85.59.50
Sur Internet.
www.stop-abus-animal.com
   
Firsthand Experiences
   
At the Friends of Guénady, during the more than two years of our activity, we have received testimony about experiences that ought to be shared. And as well in the context of the ongoing construction of our internet site (www.stop-abus-animal.com), we present hereafter a few stories to read and to make others aware of... The knowledge acquired here might permit you, one day, to save a life...
   
   
The ball stuck in the dog's throat
   
In vain did people try to warn Mrs A about the risks of letting her German shepard mongrel play with a tennis ball. Impossible, she thought, a tennis ball is after all so large, how could it put the dog in danger? ... One day, she threw ball very high and it came back down again with great force. The dog, jumping to catch it, judged his target too well. The ball plunged deep into the animal's throat and all his efforts to spit it out failed. Panicked, Mrs A tried to slip a finger behind the ball to catch it and drag it out of her dog's mouth. But this effort only pushed the ball deeper into the animal's throat. To her horror, Mme A saw that the dog was trying to get rid of the ball by swallowing it! Then, she understood, death by strangulation would quickly follow. In despair, she seized the dog's throat from the outside with one hand, just under the spot where the ball was stuck, and with the other hand she tried to hold the mouth open. Pumping on the outside with one hand kept the ball from going down, and she managed (to her joy!) to create a force (perhaps with air from the lungs) to push the ball out of the throat and out of the dog's mouth, where it bounced up off the ground. The dog, not at all worried, immediately jumped to catch the ball again. But, as you can imagine, he hasn't been allowed to play with a tennis ball since!
We also have testimony about a dog, a doberman, which hadn't eaten for several days. The veterinarian looked into the throat and immediately found, and extracted, a ping-pong ball that had gone part-way down and then gotten stuck!
So, give some thought to the toys you give your animal!
   
  The foreign body in the brain
   
Mr B took his female dog to the country for a weekend of relaxation with the family. During their stay, the dog began to have some problems with an irritated jaw. Mr B brought his dog to the village vet, who gave the animal a cursory examination and a prescription for something to bring the swelling down. Back in the city, the problème persisted and even the eye on the affected side became irritated. Mr B brought his dog to his ussual veterinarian, who gave him another prescription for products to bring the swelling down. The problem just got worse. Again, he made a visit to the vet and was told to continue the treatment, the problem would go away. But it kept getting worse. Finally, Mr B insisted that his dog be put in a scanner. Afterwards, the vets told him that his dog was the victim of a rare, inexplicable occurence : a foreign body had gotten into her brain. There was no way to save her, she had to be euthanized. Mr B was indignant. What had his dog agonized all this time, if nothing could be done for her? What did he have to insist on the scanner to discover the problem that the vets hadn't found? Having contacted our association through which to make this complaint, we were able to discover, thanks to our medical advisor, that the story of a foreigh body in the brain was a hoax. In fact, one of our medical advisors told us, the skull is conpletely closed so no foreign body can get into the brain. The vets were taking advantage of Mr B's ignorance to get him to swallow this story, so as to coverup their own error. In reality, the dog probably had a small wound at the level of the gums (perhaps from eating a fox-tail along with weeds in the country), and because this wound was not treated, it became infected. This infection was not treated as it should have been, with antibiotics, so the infection migrated, first to the eye, after to the brain, at which point it is true that there remained nothing that could be done to save this unfortunate dog, except to end her last suffering. Our medical advisor confirms that this dog should never have died from this problem. In fact, any infection in the orifices of the head should be taken very seriously and treated with antibiotics without delay, in order to avoid the problem of migration, eventually to the brain. The first veterinarian to treat this dog should have spent more time looking for the source of the irriatation at the level of the gums, and afterwards he should have treated the wound with antibiotics. Even if we want to avoid these last as much as possible, there are moments when this is impossible. And even if the source of the irritation is not found, one of the vets who examined this dog should have prescribed antibiotics as a precaution. No one took the time to do his job correctly (too much in a hurry to finish one consultation in order to take the next?).and this negligence alone is responsible for the suffering and death of this poor dog.
   
The fatal blood test
   
Mrs C has some problems with the health of her poodle, whom she adored, so she was having him treated by her regular vet. The latter had almost become a friend, after 20 years, first with a previous, female poodle who had died at an advanced age, and now with that one's replacement. Of course, Mrs C had ended up realizing that, with the first little poodle, the three operations for uterine tumors were not really necessary (in fact, she herself had finally suggested to the vet after the third operation that the next time the uterus should simply be removed, something he could have done in the first operation, avoiding the three that followed... except that these operations were very lucrative for the vet), but Mrs C had confidence in this affable and gentlemanly vet anyway, and mostly she was simply in the habit of going to him and nowhere else. She was in the habit, for example, of holding her dogs while he took blood for testing, which he took from the vein in their necks.. On this day, with the little male, no one knows why, he decided to take the dog into another room for the blood test, and he left Mrs C alone to wait. A lot of time went by. After a half an hour, the vet came back with her dog, holding him in his arms, soaking wet, seemingly comatose. The veterinarian explained that the dog had had an attack, but did not specify what or why. Mrs C left with her dog in her arms but, home again, she could see that her dog was getting worse before her eyes. She returned to the vet two hours later, where he announced that the dog would have to be euthanized. But why? What had happened to him? She asked the vet for a report on the treatment her dog had been given, and when she received it, she saw immediately that the document did not make any mention of a blood test. She came to see us and (again with the information given to us by our medical advisor), we were able to inform her: blood is normally taken for testing from the animal's leg where, if the vein is missed, no harm is done. The vein in the neck is bigger, and so more accessible, but also more dangerous. If the vein is missed, there is a risk of perforating it, causing an internal hemorage which is inoperable and, inevitably, the death of the animal follows. Despite being confronted with this information, the vet, almost a friend, would not admit the truth of what had happened with her dog out of her sight that day. One thing is certain, this vet lost a client, if not a friend (and a pigeon to be plucked!).
   
   
   
   
Ladies! Gentlemen!
Let Us Wake Up ! We Have Been Sleeping Too Long !

"Never believe that a few caring people can't change
the world.
For indeed, that's all who ever have."
Margaret Mead