Anxiety attacks? Blame the dog

Our girl Kisses  (Photo courtesy The Saint)

When you’re a writer, you try to look at any misfortune in your life as a type of blessing, because once you know how it feels to go through whatever it is, you can write about it with more authenticity.

The operative word there is try. Succeeding at viewing misfortune as a blessing is quite another matter. Right now I’m failing at it. There are some things I’d just really rather not go through, no matter how great a blessing they may be in disguise.

As one example, let’s take anxiety attacks. Definitely not on the list of things about which I’d say, “Sure! Lemme go through some of those so I can see how they feel then write about them with more authenticity. Yeah!”

To tell you the truth, being blessed with nerves more or less of steel, or at least pretty solid aluminum, I never understood the whole anxiety attack thing. I even thought they sounded silly. When friends cried on my shoulder about being plagued by this ailment, I was sympathetic and genuinely felt awful for them, but on the inside, I admit I was secretly rolling my eyes. “Oh, for criminy’s sake, grow up already,” it was tempting to instruct. “Don’t let life get the better of you. Chin up and forge ahead.”

In my heart, I was mean. I was judgmental. And boy, was I was stupid.

Blame it on a dog

As usual, there’s a dog to blame for this life lesson. She’s one of our large herd of rescued ex-street pooches at home with The Saint (hubsy) in San Diego. Her name is Kisses. I can’t even type it without crying. Last week a veterinarian said she might have only a year or less.

Even if she didn’t have an elevated calcium level, and even if that wasn’t possibly indicative of a tumor somewhere in her body, at her age, which is 12 or more, you can’t expect a long future.

Our boy Diogenes (Photo courtesy The Saint)

In addition to her there’s Diogenes, another senior, and none of the rest of our brood are young anymore either.

They’re in California. I’m in Greece. Between us lie 8,000 miles, and at the very least another month.

The freight train

While The Saint explained via Skype the results of all the vet’s tests on Kisses, including blood work, ultrasound, and x-rays, I listened calmly, rationally, thinking of important questions we should ask, and remembering to thank The Saint for taking such excellent care of everybody during my ridiculously extended absence.

Of course I had a good cry after we hung up—a normal, healthy response. Then I had to pull my chin up and forge ahead with feeding/medicating/walking Agapi, the ill street dog I rescued in September. That’s also a normal and healthy response.

It wasn’t until I’d come back inside and was innocently washing a pot that the first one hit. Like a freight train. No, let me rephrase that: slammed like a freight train, right into my chest.

Suddenly I couldn’t breathe. Felt I was locked inside a box with several tons weighing down on me. Sweaty and freezing at the same time. Like I needed to scream and cry for about the next twenty years, and it still wouldn’t be enough.

The best tranquilizer

In the week since we got the news about Kisses, the freight train has slammed through here about a dozen more times. I want it to stop. Toward that end there are relaxation exercises, focused breathing, and yoga-type things going on.

My foster boy Agapi (Photo: Katerina Lorenzatos Makris)

But no amount of yoga and whatnot will erase the fact that I can’t go home till Agapi finds his home—a loving, patient adopter. Given his health and behavior issues, this could take a while.

In an upcoming post, I’ll write about Kisses, and how she found her home—namely, ours. For sure it will make me cry to remember the first time I saw her, in a ditch in Houston. But it will also make me calm, as I think about the feel of her fur, as soft as a mink's, and her compulsion to bathe everybody with slurps (guess why the name), and her silly puppy yips when she wants to be pet, which is nearly always.

All the relaxation exercises, special breathing, and yoga in the world can’t top the calm you get from the presence—or even the imagined presence—of a dog you love.

That’s a life lesson I learned a long time ago.

More on why I'm in Greece:

How I got stranded in an old, cold, leaky house all winter 

More on Agapi:

A bloody dog standing in the road: What do you do?

Safety versus guilt: The animal rescuer’s dilemma  

Dog rescue styles: Ms. Savvy-and-Sensible versus the Wahoooo Cowgirl

Love comes home: the challenging rescue of a sick and bloody street dog  

A matter of hope: lab results tomorrow to determine ill street dog’s fate 

Curing a street dog of two deadly diseases might be easier than finding him a home 

Vet’s instructions for curing rescued dog’s wicked disease 

Read Melissa Beamish's excellent blog about her round-the-world trip volunteering in animal shelters, including a month at Kefalonia's ARK.

To donate or to volunteer on behalf of animals in Kefalonia, contact Animal Rescue Kefalonia (ARK) and Kefalonia Animal Trust (KATs).

ALL PHOTOS AND TEXT BY KATERINA LORENZATOS MAKRIS unless otherwise noted

COPYRIGHT 2012

The Dozen Dog Diaries (DDD) would be delighted if you'd spread the links to these articles. Please just keep in mind that reprint or re-post of more than a paragraph or two of the text or of any of the photos is allowable only by explicit permission from DDD, who may be contacted at youradopteddogATyahooDOTcom. Thanks for visiting!

Treating Leishmaniasis (Part One): Vet’s instructions for curing rescued dog’s wicked disease

His eyes bleed. (Photo: Katerina Lorenzatos Makris)

by Katerina Lorenzatos Makris

It’s no fun looking at Agapi. If you’re an even slightly empathetic person, it hurts. He’s a hideous sight: bloody eyes and legs, sparse fur, and an overall scrungy look.

But he’s getting better—fast. Of course it’s been helpful to get the plentiful chow (much of it freshly homemade by his handy slave, guess who) plus the clean water, soft bed, and low-stress life he’s enjoyed since we trapped him in a small village here on the Greek island of Kefalonia. He had reportedly languished on the streets there for two years before we brought him to our place a few miles away.  

But I believe two medications are largely responsible for the improvement: Zylapour (allopurinol) and Milteforan.

The cheap drug and the spendy one

Zylapour is often used for gout in humans. (Isn't that ironic, given that gout is something that typically afflicts folks indulging in fatty diets, while dogs who get Leishmaniasis and need this med are often starving strays who can indulge in fatty diets only in their longing dreams?)

The other drug, Milteforan, is a type of chemotherapy.

Zylapour is relatively cheap.  At three euros (about $3.80 U.S.) for a packet of 30, he’ll need to receive 2.5 tablets per day for the rest of his life. 

Agapi will need these pills every day for life (Photo: Katerina Lorenzatos Makris)

Milteforan is outrageously expensive. For Agapi’s weight, 28 kilos (about 61 pounds), he needs to receive 2.8 milliliters of the liquid form of this med for 28 days, at a cost of about 300 euros ($388 U.S.).

Both of these drugs are supposed to zap a vicious disease called canine Leishmaniasis, caused by a protozoan parasite that is transmitted via the bite of a certain type of sand fly. It’s tragically common and attacks millions of dogs in Mediterranean countries, giving them nightmarish symptoms like hair loss, skin lesions, rapid and twisted nail growth, organ damage, heart attacks, and more.

For Agapi, it seems this dynamic drug duo is already starting to take effect. Dr. Amanda noticed it first when she came to give him his second checkup last Friday. She pointed out the reduced swelling in his legs and paws. The sores and ulcers there are also looking less inflamed, with signs of healing, and some bits of fur starting to grow back in. The Zylapour, she said, often goes to work very quickly.

And now, after only three days’ dosage of Milteforan, I think I’m seeing even more improvement on the legs and paws. Not so much on the eyes yet, but Dr. Amanda predicts that will come.

Leg lesions looking better (Photo: Katerina Lorenzatos Makris)

More beasties

Agapi also suffers from a tick-borne parasitic disease, Ehrlichia, which we’ll cure with a month-long course of doxycycline, an antibiotic, after he finishes the Leish treatment.

Oh and let’s not forget, at the beginning he had additional beasties plaguing him: a tape worm on the inside and literally hundreds of fleas on the outside. But in the first week we nuked those with a Droncit tablet and a Advantix ampule, respectively.

Dosing dos and don’ts

Zylapour is relatively easy to administer. I break the tablets into small pieces and hide each piece in chunks of canned dog food. We started him on this drug a couple of weeks ago.

Now you see the pieces of the Zylapour tablet...  (Photo: Katerina Lorenzatos Makris)

...and now you don't.  (Photo: Katerina Lorenzatos Makris)

*Please see note below regarding feeding pets and being vegan.

Milteforan, which we started two days ago, is more complicated.

The Milteforan comes in a cute little boxed kit complete with a vial of the liquid medication, a syringe, and six pairs of oh-so-chic disposable plastic gloves. They really, really don’t want you to touch this stuff.

Boxed kit of Milteforan (Photo: Katerina Lorenzatos Makris)

Here’s what our vet Dr. Amanda said to do.

• Prepare a large amount of appealingly aromatic and tremendously tasty food, so as to mask the smell and taste of the medication, which I gather must be pretty nasty.
• Wear gloves
• Follow the package instructions to fill the syringe with exactly the right amount of med.
• Squirt into food.
• Thoroughly mix.
• Make sure he eats it all.
• Follow up with a chaser of a little more food.
• Don’t worry if he gets diarrhea—that’s normal—but if he develops vomiting, call her so she can prescribe an anti-emetic.
• Do not miss even one day of medication. If that happened, we'd have to start all over again from the beginning. (!)

Which reminds me… time for today’s dose.

In the next post we’ll review the fascinating Milteforan package instructions. I’m not kidding--I find the little kit riveting. Or maybe I’m just desperate to squeeze some entertainment out of that dang 300 euros.

UP FOR ADOPTION: In about a month when Agapi completes his Leish treatment, he will be available for adoption. We will handle transport to nearly anywhere. Please contact youradopteddog@yahoo.com.

Please visit The Dozen Dogs Diaries again soon for upcoming articles about Agapi.

Better yet, sign in with the 'Join this site' button above to receive an email notice whenever there's a new article.

For previous articles please see archive to the right, including the following, and more...

Love comes home: the challenging rescue of a sick and bloody street dog  

Curing a street dog of two deadly diseases might be easier than finding him a home 

Can love find a way? Deciding whether or not to euthanize sick, defensive street dog 

Read Melissa Beamish's excellent blog about her round-the-world trip volunteering in animal shelters, including a month at Kefalonia's ARK.

To donate or to volunteer on behalf of animals in Kefalonia, contact Animal Rescue Kefalonia (ARK) and Kefalonia Animal Trust (KATs). 

*Please note:  Regarding the photos and references to feeding Agapi and other dogs and cats, there's the issue of using animals to feed animals. Before I came to Greece I had worked my own horde of dogs in California up to a homemade 80% plant diet. It was a process to develop recipes that would work for all of them. When I'm in Greece rescuing dogs off the street, often in emergency situations, I resort to commercial dog foods and cooking chicken stews for them in the beginning, then try to segue to plant foods, but in my experience sometimes it can be tricky digestion-wise and takes time. An ongoing dilemma.

ALL PHOTOS AND TEXT BY KATERINA LORENZATOS MAKRIS unless otherwise noted

COPYRIGHT 2012

The Dozen Dog Diaries (DDD) would be delighted if you'd spread the links to these articles. Please just keep in mind that reprint or re-post of more than a paragraph or two of the text or of any of the photos is allowable only by explicit permission from DDD, who may be contacted at youradopteddogATyahooDOTcom. Thanks for visiting!

Can love find a way? Deciding whether or not to euthanize sick, defensive street dog

A disease called Leishmaniasis causes lesions and sores. Photo:Katerina Lorenzatos Makris

by Katerina Lorenzatos Makris

Love dies every day. People kill it. In the U.S. it’s at least three million to four million times a year. That’s how many dogs and cats are put to death in animal shelters for no crime other than being unloved.

Instead, most of them would gladly have given all their love, in copious, wiggly, slurpy, furry, irrepressible quantities, to almost anyone who asked.

Love dies in other ways, too, all around the world. Starvation, poisoning, beating… the list of grisly fates for companion animals is nearly endless.

One dog here on the Greek island of Kefalonia, a tall, bony, black and white street dog, would certainly have met one of those grisly fates if he hadn’t “walked into our headlights,” as friend Melissa Beamish puts it.

Melissa and I were driving through the village of Troianata under a full moon when we spotted a creature that at first we couldn’t even recognize. Or maybe we didn’t want to. It was too gruesome: eyes bright red and rimmed with blood; blood streaking the legs.  Maybe we just didn’t want to believe that this horrifying sight could be a dog. But it was.

Legs covered in lesions. Photo:Katerina Lorenzatos Makris

After a ten-day search and hard work by a team of friends, the tall dog finally came home with me. I’ve never felt more relieved.  During those days while we tried to capture him, it was hard to sleep knowing he was out there on his own in that condition.

It was during one of those sleepless nights that his name came to me—“Agapi,” the Greek word for “love.”

Sick, but strong

Agapi has a wicked disease called Leishmaniasis, common here in Greece and in other Mediterranean countries. Carried by a certain species of sand fly, it can cause the grotesque skin lesions as well as joint swelling, weight loss, blindness, organ damage and a long list of other troubles.  He also has Ehrlichia, another nasty disease transmitted by ticks. At the beginning he had tapeworm, too, and he was crawling with fleas.

The last two problems have now been solved thanks to a pill for the tapeworm and an Advantix ampule for the fleas. And according to our vet Dr. Amanda the first two problems—the Leishmaniasis and the Ehrlichia—can also be cured. The level of Leishmaniasis in his blood is high but not too high, and in spite of everything this dog is vigorous and zestful, so Dr. Amanda believes Agapi’s chances for a long, full, healthy life after treatment are excellent.

The Leishmaniasis treatment consists of two doses per day of a medication called Zylapour, or Allopurinol, which he’ll need to stay on for life, and a 28-day course of another one called Milteforan, which is outrageously expensive—somewhere around 350 euros (about $450 U.S.).

The Saint (a.k.a. my hubsy) has kindly volunteered to fund it. Melissa has also offered (repeatedly and firmly!) to help with the costs. And after that treatment is done, the Ehrlichia will be easily conquered with just a one-month-long prescription of doxycycline, an antibiotic.

So… great, right?  Isn’t it all good? Agapi can be cured, then adopted by a loving family?

Technically, yes.  But practically speaking… I don’t know.

Because he’s got another bit of a problem.  He, um, well… he wants to… eat people. All people but me.

Rubbing his inflamed eyes. Photo: Katerina Lorenzatos Makris

A little grouchy

First he growled at Yvonne Walser, friend and fellow animal rescuer, who kindly came over to meet and visit him just a couple of days after he arrived.  Then a few days later at Keith Preston, another friend and big-time animal rescuer. Then he lunged and barked ferociously at Vasilis, who’s helping us repair the house.  Not even Dr. Amanda escaped one of his impressive displays when she came over to give him a second checkup on Friday.

This depressed the heck out of me.  Last week I sank into deep sadness.  It’s hard enough to try to find a good home for a healthy, friendly dog.  Finding one for a Leishmaniasis dog who also does his best to scare folks?  Yeah, right. Like looking for a needle in a whole farm of haystacks.

And no, I can’t keep him myself because we already have a house overflowing with previous rescues, and my mom needs to come live with us soon after I get home to California, and it wouldn’t be fair to our own dogs or to a new dog or to Mom or perhaps least of all to ourselves to take on another right now.

‘Put him down’?

Friends whose opinions I highly value—friends who do a ton more rescue than I do—urge me to let him go. Put him down. Send him to doggy heaven. Be content with having given him a couple of weeks of comfort and safety, then give him a premature but easy and painless death.

There are too many healthy, mellow dogs desperately needing homes to spend so much time, energy, and money on just this one difficult case.

On my mind have been the 200-plus wonderful dogs at the Animal Rescue Kefalonia (ARK), a shelter with scant resources that’s struggling under the constant avalanche of animals nobody else wants. I’ve been hoping to help out there by photographing, writing about, and trying to re-home at least a few of those worthy angels.

Agapi, such a needy fellow, is sucking up all the time and resources I had hoped to spend on them instead.

It’s not wise to keep him alive. It’s not cost-effective. It’s giving in to the heart when the head should rule.

A sensible person would euthanize him.  I can be sensible.

A strong person would euthanize him. I can be strong.

I should do it. I know that.  And I’ve cried about it all week.

Does he deserve capital punishment?

This is a dog who has seen little in his life but the worst of what we humans have to offer. 

My soul slogs through day after day of it—the horror of what too many animals of all kinds are forced to endure. It’s on Facebook, in photos from all over the world, and it’s up-close-and-personal here on the streets and in the backyards and fields and orchards of Kefalonia.  It’s inescapable. There’s not one hour of the day when I’m not either seeing it, grieving about it, researching it, or writing about it. Even when I sleep, it doesn’t go away, but fills my nightmares.

I’m tired of it.

OK, so he’s sick. OK, so he’s not keen on strangers.  Who among us hasn’t been sick?  Who among us has never wanted to growl and bark?

Do those crimes deserve capital punishment?

Maybe the next terrible case I take on, maybe for that one I’ll have to do the sensible thing, the strong thing.

Not this time.

This time, in this one case, if there’s any possible way, if it’s at all in my power, this one time, love will live.

Agapi gently accepts a cookie. (Photo: Katerina Lorenzatos Makris)

Please visit The Dozen Dogs Diaries again soon for upcoming articles about Agapi.

Better yet, sign in with the 'Join this blog' button above to receive an email notice whenever there's a new article.

For previous articles please see archive to the right, including:

Love comes home: the challenging rescue of a sick and bloody street dog 

Read Melissa Beamish's excellent blog about her round-the-world trip volunteering in animal shelters, including a month at Kefalonia's ARK.

To donate or to volunteer on behalf of animals in Kefalonia, contact Animal Rescue Kefalonia (ARK) and Kefalonia Animal Trust (KATs).

ALL PHOTOS AND TEXT BY KATERINA LORENZATOS MAKRIS unless otherwise noted

COPYRIGHT 2012

The Dozen Dog Diaries (DDD) would be delighted if you'd spread the links to these articles. Please just keep in mind that reprint or re-post of more than a paragraph or two of the text or of any of the photos is allowable only by explicit permission from DDD, who may be contacted at youradopteddogATyahooDOTcom. Thanks for visiting!