For Peaches

In the last two years the plight of the street dog has garnered much support within both the local and the international community. Organizations like Embark, Blue Paw, Canine Life Support and the more recent Adopt a Dog in Sri Lanka have made great efforts to enlighten the world about the everyday perils, cruelties and hardship that dogs on the street endure. I applaud their efforts and truly believe they do good work but wish to draw light on yet another issue that must be given equal weight in the mind of the animal lover. That is the case of the pet shop dogs.

You may have read a story that I documented a few months back about my own experience with pet shops, when I decided to buy a Dachshund who was in pretty bad shape. If you haven’t you can read it here. We came to a point where we believed she would die, and while I held on to the belief that she would not simply because she could not, as what would be the point in world where a dog finally found her family, only to be taken away from them a few short days later, I wondered in my heart for all those families that were not as lucky as I was?

A few days ago I saw that a friend of mine had got a new dog. A tiny little Shihtzu pup, 2 and half months old, who had been aptly given the name Peaches. She had been bought from a pet shop where she had been in a small cage along with two German Shepherds, a Pug and a beagle who looked unwell. I looked at the picture on Facebook, even showed it to my friends and we all gushed at how cute the puppy was. The next day my friend told me that the pup had fallen ill and the vet had told her it was mild case of tick fever but not long after Peaches had begun to vomit and when they had taken her back to the vet they had been told that it was Parvo. The word Parvo in itself is terrifying to a dog owner, in the same way that the word cancer is terrifying to a parent of a small child. The only difference being that cancer has the possibility of treatment but with Parvo- the rapid progression of the disease means a very, very high chance (91% according to Wikipedia) that your puppy will die in 4 or 5 days. 

Parvovirus is extremely contagious and spreads from dog to dog with alarming ease, through direct and indirect contact. The only household disinfectant that kills it is bleach, without which the virus can remain active for even up to a year, withstanding even extremely hot and cold temperatures. The only way to protect your dog is to vaccinate, usually given as soon as immunity from the mother wears off at just five weeks old. Symptoms begin with lethargy and loss of appetite and progress to intense vomiting and diarrhea. Parvo in itself does not kill, but it is the dehydration that does it. 

Peaches was two and half months old, any immunity her mother may have had would have long since worn off and being a Shihtzu, which is a small breed of dog, intravenous fluids would be a challenge as her veins would be very small. From the onset, her future did not seem promising. She was not put into quarantine, she was simply given treatment. My friend had been informed that there was a supposed “parvo epidemic” with six other dogs having come in with similar symptoms. 

If you are a dog owner and you have had a sick puppy in your house then I do not need to tell you what it is like. The constant worry, the sleepless nights, the nagging thought that you are going to lose him or her. They can’t talk, they can’t tell you where it hurts and you can tell them that the bad man with the needle is actually a doctor who is going to make you better.  You cry and then you cry some more. Days pass with alarming speed, nights are long and restless. The world spins. My friend went through all of this with Peaches. And despite a marginal improvement on the second day, today on day number four she has taken a turn for the worse. My friend woke up this morning and found her motionless, though she was still breathing. They took her to the vet where she was put in a back room and they were asked to leave her there. Now we wait and pray. Only a miracle will help her now.

I vowed that despite however angry I may be I would try to keep my own feelings out of this article and only report the facts, leaving you to form your own conclusion. A difficult task, when it seems like an innocent puppy is paying the price for a disease that could so easily have been prevented, but I shall try. This incident has raised the following questions which I will leave you to answer.

Why was the puppy’s vaccination not given? Why is it that with any pet shop, when breeds like Great Dane pups, bellies distended with worms, underfed and unhealthy can cost up 35,000 rupees, the dogs are never given a vaccine which is a fraction of that cost? 

Why was the puppy not quarantined at the vet until the last day? Even a suspected Parvo case MUST be quarantined? Was there really a ‘Parvo epidemic’ or did one infected pup come in and spread the disease to all the others, through the shared vet?

Life is hard for all of us in Sri Lanka. But most of all for those that do not have a voice and cannot raise it in protest. If you can’t trust the breeder and you can’t trust your vet, then who can you trust?

Peaches passed away a few hours after this article was written. A fate probably suffered by the other puppies in the cage as well. She is not the first; she will not be the last. May she rest in peace.