Hi gang. As you guys know my husband and I recently (few days ago) got our dog from a local humane society. She is super, super sweet, and is generally adjusting very well.
I'm just irritated right now thinking about the condition she is/was in. This dog was given up, apparently, because she had a flea problem that was exacerbated by the fact that these people who had her had several other animals which made it more difficult to control. Instead of helping her, I guess they just opted to give up and leave her at a place where she could have been euth'd (don't get me wrong, the shelter was a great place with kind people, but she
is an older dog...)
So, she ended up at the shelter, which, since they have many other animals and not a whole lot of funding, was only able to keep an eye on her condition somewhat - she was checked over by a vet but still, you know...it's a big job. Now, we knew going into this it was possible (or maybe even likely) she would still have a flea problem. Sigh, after a few "good" looking days, she does. And, now, hooray [>:], she has worms (going to bring a sample to the vet immediately after work, I called them as soon as we found something to make sure we didn't need to bring her in ASAP. Hopefully they can give her meds right away.) Not to mention what we already knew, which is that she has some crummy looking teeth (going to try and get the full cleaning soon) and that she wasn't getting a whole lot of food, or at least, not good food - she's pretty thin (though not from a lack of eating! [
] She has a great appetite.)
Now, I've seen the horror stories - abused animals, puppy mill dogs, etc, and I know that our dog has probably lived through nothing even close to that terrible. But it still frustrates me thinking of this dog being repeatedly infested with fleas, possibly underfed, and with a mouth that is not being properly cleaned (she has one or two cracked teeth also.) I know fleas are hard to fight, I know dogs
do get fleas and worms on occasion, but nevertheless - I just can't wait until she's all cleaned up and she can just chill out at our house and stay healthy for a while!!!
OK, end of my rant! [
] I will feel much better once the vet has checked her over and given us some stuff to fight the pests with. Just had to complain, I guess!