New places, new faces and new vets

Elska itched continuously and intensely for long periods of time

 

I woke up at the astonishing time of 6.00 am on a Sunday morning to call my husband (still out of town) and to check on my new dog. Elska showed sincere happiness when she saw me that morning. She did a sort of an electrocuted jump for joy when I said ‘Good morning Elska!’. She seemed more relaxed in her new surroundings. I now had enough ammo to win my husband over with woeful tales of this mistreated dog, and upon relating the story of the incident where she shrunk from me as if I would hit her, it was a done deal.

Elska's mange

Elska ate, or rather swallowed her breakfast and did her business in the house, to be expected as she had obviously not been toilet trained. I reprimanded her gently but firmly and she ran a few feet away from me when I did so. I would learn with time that Elska’s toilet habits were rather strange. She couldn’t ‘go’ with us watching her and her as soon as she made her business she would hide, even outside she would run under our jeep and peer at me to gage my reaction. Even when I praised her for peeing outside she would stop midway as though she really needed me to go away for everything to go smoothly. I wondered if this was a result of my reprimanding her on that first day, maybe she didn’t know that peeing inside was bad, but thought that peeing in general was bad. Or more likely that her previous owner had not taken too well to her peeing in the cage. Either way, Elska needed her own space for toilet time and really, which one of doesn’t?

I watched her a lot on her first morning. She spent a lot of time just looking out at our garden. We have a one acre property which can seem infinite to a small dog. She explored some, ate a few plants and was already following me everywhere. In the meantime, previous holder of the title of most pampered dog, Tinkerbell was giving me a cold shoulder worthy of the North Pole. I wished there was some way to explain to her that she was spoiled and had been told she was wonderful every single day of her life, and Elska had a lot of love and attention to make up for, but of course she was a dog and I didn’t speak dog.

Elska takes an immediate liking to three-wheeler rides

 

Of course Elska had to be taken to the vet. I had no idea what was wrong or what could be wrong and there was the matter of vaccines too. My usual vet from my first dog has been Dr. Ching on Fife Road. Yes, he has been there forever. But he is still, in my opinion, the best vet in Colombo. I hear mixed reviews about Dr. Ching. Some hate him and others swear by him. My personal take on him is this, Dr. Ching can’t stand stupid people. If you are intelligent and take an interest in your animals then you are worth his time. He has saved Tinkerbell time and time again from the brink of death (she is a very sickly girl) and I know without a shadow of doubt that any other vet would have left me with a dead dog. I have the utmost confidence in Dr. Ching and would trust his judgment wholeheartedly. I like to think he likes me too. Well more than he likes my husband at least. When he inquires about any ailments the dogs have on their regular visits Dr. Ching has been known to reply with a short “ask your wife, she will know”. He also calls my husband Mr. Aiyar, which is my last name. It is painfully obvious who he thinks wears the pants in the family.

I took Elska on in a three-wheeler to the doctors. When we got there, thankfully Dr. Ching himself was there. I placed Elska on the exam table and Dr. Ching took one look at her and said “Why have you bought this dog??” 

Under his stern gaze I explained myself to which he announced to no one in particular as the three people on duty at the clinic that day were in the room with us, “see this Miss Ashwini has gone to buy a rooster and bought this dog BECAUSE SHE FELT SORRY”. He emphasized the last part to make sure that everyone understood why I had made such a stupid decision. To be honest I think he did think I was a little bit of an idiot for buying her. But only a little.

At the vet

He then instructed the other doctor to test for filaria. Micro filaria, or heartworms is a common condition that many dogs in this country suffer from. It is transmitted through mosquitoes and it can cause death. The problem with this disease is though it is simple to test for, there are no visible symptoms in the dog until the disease has progressed to the latter and deadly stages. If you own a dog, I urge you strongly to check them regularly for heartworms.

Dr. Ching proceeded to list Elska’s ailments loudly and with disdain. “Aiyo mange, you will have to apply and give tablets”. “Aiyo weak knees, must be from being in the cage” and then finally when the slide was ready for viewing he sat down in front of the microscope and yelled at me from the next room “Aiyo, VERY BAD case of filaria” and then again to no one in particular “see this Ms. Ashwini’s dog has a VERY BAD case of filaria”

I was then ordered to see the worms under the microscope myself. In that one droplet (I say droplet here, because it wasn’t even a proper drop) that was smeared across the slide, there were no fewer than seven worms. Dr. Ching counted. The worms appeared like thin glass noodles and made darting ‘s’ shaped movements as I watched, like snakes that propel themselves forward by using objects in the vicinity and form those reptilian, quivery movements on National Geographic advertisements. So at seven worms per droplet, that meant that there were millions of worms coursing through Elska’s blood. I knew then that Elska would have been dead in a month when the worms infested her little heart and stilled it forever.