Willy !
Willy was brought to the Guildford Animal Hospital and after being vaccinated was released to the Surrey SPCA. It seemed as if his immune system was compromised, and he was placed on Prednizone and antibiotics.
A few days later Big Heart Rescue received word that this dog was in desperate need of assistance. Willy’s health was clearly very fragile and medical intervention was needed. BHR arranged for a vet to take a TSH test to determine if he was Hypo Thyroid, which is both manageable and inexpensive to maintain.
BHR also located a potential foster home for Willy, the “Mom” being a qualified vet tech who started to rearrange her life so she could foster this very ill boy to bring him back to a happy and healthy state.
Meanwhile, the TSH test results came in negative for thyroid. The SPCA indicated that given his medical needs, if a suitable foster home could not be located quickly, Willy would possibly be euthanized. But they would not give a time frame for this drastic action. The pressure was on.
Willy had significant loss of fur, which could indicate mange and/or food allergies - both completely treatable and manageable with the proper home, medical care and healthy diet. BHR arranged for Willy to be taken to SunWood Animal Clinic to have skin biopsies completed and the tissue samples were sent to Spectrum Lab's in Arizona (who had donated their time and lab costs) in order to determine specific allergies.
The next day, a member of BHR provided ear cleaning and an oatmeal bath for Willy, then after some miscommunication within the SPCA, was able to secure his release into Big Heart’s care.
Willy began to recover in a warm and loving environment until symptoms developed that resulted in Willy being admitted, in distress, to Alouette Animal Hospital. He was immediately placed in isolation, on an IV drip and given injections of Beytral. His symptoms included and were applicable to Canine Distemper:
Fever, loss of appetite, mild eye inflammation, eye and nose discharge, depression, and anorexia. Conjunctivitis, diarrhea, fever, labored breathing, rhinitis, vomiting, depression and a type of seizure that affects the head, and is unique to distemper is sometimes referred to as a “chewing gum fit” because the dog appears to be chewing gum.
A series of communications ensued between Surrey SPCA, BHR and the veterinary clinic.
Although Willy was now eating small amounts and regaining strength, he still had a yellow mucous discharge from his nose, red eyes, low energy, and he was observed to stumble significantly and bump into walls.
It is very difficult to diagnose distemper because mucous samples and blood work can show a lot of false positives. There is not a definitive test for distemper so it is diagnosed through symptoms and reading between the lines of lab results. Dogs have a 50/50 chance of surviving distemper but the neurological symptoms can continue to progress over time to the point incapacitating the animal.
The next day, two members from BHR comforted Willy at Alouette Animal Hospital as he was given a tranquilizer and a lethal injection to end his struggle for survival.
Strangely, the SPCA requested that Willy’s body be released to them, despite the fact that he had been signed over to the care of Big Heart Rescue 10 days before.
As a last step in a sad story that turned out well for nobody, especially Willy, Big Heart Rescue brought the following questions to the attention of the CEO of the Surrey SPCA:
1) Why are animals that have obvious compromised immune systems routinely vaccinated?
2) Why were additional animals admitted into the Surrey SPCA when one of the animals in their care had a possible diagnosis of distemper?
3) Why could the Surrey SPCA not provide a time frame guarantee against euthanasia, when it is SPCA policy that animals are no longer euthanized due to space limitations?
4) Under what authority could the Surrey SPCA contact Alouette Animal Hospital to request Willy's body be transferred back to them?
5) Why, in this case, has there been such miscommunication between SPCA staff, SPCA management and the Alouette Animal Hospital?
Willy, the Big Heart Rescue team loves you, and misses you.
Contact Big Heart Rescue for more information.
