Straydog UPDATE posted TUESDAY 9/16/03 at ~8:37 p.m. CT

Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 16 2003

Heartworm Pill Day

     With 74 dogs in our care at the present time (still nine over our limit of 65) heartworm pill day is still a big production. There are, of course, different strength pills for each weight classification, and we had to match them up carefully, checking off each dog after he (or she) got his (or her) pill. The retail price for 74 heartworm pills is approximately $700. Luckily we found a source on the Internet where we got them at a pretty good discount, but they are still expensive. But the alternative to giving the dogs the pills is unacceptable: the almost certain contracting of heartworm disease here in the South, which is fatal if not treated. And the treatment for the disease is very toxic to the dog and very expensive.

Juany packs the pills inside a dog food meatball.

Sally and Alice get their heartworm pills, each hidden in a meatball, from Juany and Tina.

Juany checks off Sally and Alice's names on the big list.

     The above process took a couple of hours to make sure every dog got his (or her) pill. You can't just drop the pills in their food bowls at meal time and hope they don't spit them out. Some of the dogs are so clever that they'll take the meatball and appear to swallow the whole thing. Then a moment later when they think you're not looking, they'll spit the pill out. With these wise guys you have to actually stick the pills halfway down their throats and massage their necks till you're absolutely certain they've swallowed the medicine.

Newsletter in the works

     And I wish I had nothing else to do till the newsletter is in the mail, because our funds are running very low. I didn't realize exactly how low till I met with Straydog's accountant today. Right now we have only enough money to last a couple of weeks. We're spending more money than we did when Pat was alive, because we've had to hire several people to cover just the essential duties that Pat used to perform for free. I myself am doing as many of Pat's duties as I possibly can (still for free), but even working from five in the morning till nine at night I don't begin to accomplish what Pat achieved each and every day.

Julie's begun scratching the place on her eyelid from where the tumor was removed

     We've got the E-collar back on her, but Dr. Paulsen at the Animal Eye Clinic in Arlington, wants to see Julie to be sure she's okay, so I'll be leaving here with Julie early in the morning tomorrow to make the 180-mile round trip. [To Erin: Maybe we ought to take Jack and Jill along with Julie just to confirm how much Jack and Jill can or can't see. It would take Dr. Paulsen only a couple of minutes to give us the difinitive answers.]

Bobby has his (hopefully) final checkup Thursday at Dallas Veterinary Surgical Center

     After all these weeks Bobby is finally starting to put some weight on his left hind leg when he walks. His operation to repair the torn ligament in his left knee was successful, but it's been slow healing, and Dr. McDonald wanted to see Bobby one more time to be sure everything is okay.