Intro to Ringworm
January 21, 2019
It sure has been a day of surprises. When I awoke this morning, I saw that another foster family needed help. I volunteered to take their two foster pups so that the husband could tend to his sick family.
I was familiar with these baby girls as they came up for foster on the tail end (pardon the pun) of our time with Fudge and Divinity, and when the SPCA received them, they were emaciated and had worms.
I picked them up and brought them home this morning, only to find out this afternoon they’re positive for ringworm. This is something that Farley never got, so I never had to treat it before now.
Well LET me tell you how it’s done:
First you gotta go get this special lime dip, which sounds like a delightful Mexican hors d’oeuvre, but is actually the opposite of delightful. From now on, we will reference this medicine as “liquid fart.”
Given the arctic weather conditions, you preheat the bathroom with a space heater and then gather your materials. You mix up the liquid fart solution and gather the poor, unassuming babies and put them in the tub, wash and rinse them as usual, and then you have to split one gallon of liquid fart solution between the two of them, applying it with a wash cloth and working it, with gloved hands, into their fur and onto their skin, to cover their entire bony little bodies while you’re apologizing profusely and telling them it’s not their fault.
You finish that and you can barely stand up straight as your back has gotten accustomed to and quite stuck in the flexed position, the babies are shivering and pissed off and are ready for a towel, but you can’t wrap them up because the liquid fart solution has to dry on them.
So then you find yourself in a stinky, sweltering bathroom with soggy puppies, still apologizing, feeding them treats over the edge of the tub, and begging them not to lick each other. You can no longer distinguish the farts of one of the puppies from the smell of the room, and you know you’re sitting at the bottom of a mountain of laundry.
And that’s when you decide it’s going too slowly for everyone, get the hair dryer and speed things along.
They then go in the kennel with blankets and the space heater to finish drying while you put the first load in the washer, only to come back and discover one of them has shat in there, so you ditch the idea of cooking dinner tonight, never forgetting that this a gift. Sure, to get to love puppies is a gift in itself, but the universe calls on me when it’s hard — when there are seizures and poop and throw up and gross things that many people wouldn’t do, that’s when it’s my turn. And 2 days before the 1st anniversary of losing my best high maintenance little buddy, I can’t help but feel glad to be back in the stinky trenches doing “dog mom things” this week.
I’ll see all y’all after the laundry is done.
January 23, 2019
https://www.facebook.com/1398065792/videos/10218964219321959/
January 26, 2019
Poor Cordelia has been a sick girl. One of her sisters tested positive for Parvo which means they’ve all been exposed, so my overbearing mom mode has been fully activated. Today I took her in and got to learn to give SQ fluids and an injection. She’s on home cooked food, lots of TLC, and she’s doing much better tonight. I’m so excited to have these new skills as I think they’ll make me a better foster mom since I get the sick ones! My EMS experience is still coming in handy, but now for PUPPIES!
**This foster ended abruptly when I was asked to take parvo puppies, Yoshi and MewTwo**