Gulf Coast Humane Society
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Pet Talk

Fostering

7/10/2015

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 By Lorraine Pescatore

I was asked to write about why we foster for Gulf Coast Humane Society.  We are retired and started walking dogs for GCHS in 2012 and when we heard that they needed someone to foster a mom with 6 pups I knew we needed to help.

Fostering a mom and her pups is really amazing watching as the pups change each day. They are so tiny when we get them and after being with us a couple days the mom learns to trust us and let us hold the pups, watching us very carefully to be sure we’re not going to hurt them. Even though they can't see their mother they know when she is near and they scoot over to her to be fed. Before you know it their eyes are open and they are trying to walk or I should say stumble.  Then it seems like next day, they are running and playing with their siblings.

We have put up an area that is fenced with a gate with a 4 inch ridge where the gate is located, one day they can't get out over the ridge and before you know it one is out then another. Poor mom gets no peace and quiet once they have all figured out how to get out and follow her.

The first time we take them outside, the look on their faces say, “Grass?  What the heck is that?”  They crawl all over us staying close until they realize they can walk on the grass and not get hurt then look out - they are everywhere. 

We love to hold and play with them every day as it helps to socialize them.  We are very lucky our neighbors also love animals and they come over to spoil each pup and their mom.

Since 2012 we have fostered 140 mothers with their pups, and loved every minute.  Of course we were foster failures twice.  We adopted the first mom we had and a pup from another litter. People can't understand how we can take them back to be adopted.  By the time they are eight weeks they are ready to bring love and kisses to another family. We watch the GCHS website every day to see when they are adopted to their forever homes.


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Everything you wanted to know about Heartworms but were afraid to ask....

7/8/2015

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by  Jeanette Barnes, DMV

Can you guess who I am?


I am well acquainted with dogs.  I am as long as two twelve inch rulers laid together.  I am very thin and active, white but with no hair.  Though I end up elsewhere, I begin life in a mosquito’s stomach and am microscopically small.   I am injected under the skin, literally vomited forth into the space between the skin and the muscle, which I promptly burrow into and cause damage to the skeletal muscle layers.  I grow and develop as I burrow, seeking the source of the pumping mechanism of the blood.  Deeper I travel until I am a full grown adult, swimming with the current of blood and resisting the pressure of the beating heart.  I move, along with my fellows, through the heart valves, where I cause the flow to be disrupted and keep the valves from shutting properly.  If there are enough of me, I can cause an audible murmur, as blood rushes the wrong way through the heart.  If I am in a cat, just one of me can cause sudden death, as I am almost as large as the great vessels, and I completely block the flow of blood, causing acute oxygen deprivation.

But in dogs, I usually cause slow, progressive problems.  I make their lungs fill up with fluid, and cause painful, hacking cough.  If a doctor can see x-rays of the chest at this point, she will see that the major lung arteries are blunted and deteriorated.  The dog’s lung capacity decreases, and I cannot exercise without coughing.  The dog may die at this point, or his heart may continue to enlarge.  All the dog’s systems are involved now, and I start producing baby heartworms, called microfilaria, which further clog the small arteries in the dog’s body.

Without treatment, the dog is sure to die a long, slow painful death.  Treatment is aimed at killing the microfilariae and also the adult heartworms.  The injections necessary for the adults involve a 1 ½ inch needle that is inserted in the muscle next to the dog’s spine.  Then an arsenic product is injected into the muscle and the arsenic kills the heartworms.  They die and are transported by the blood to the lungs, where they form scar tissue, pushing out healthy tissue.

OR ALL THIS CAN BE AVOIDED; both for dogs and cats.  Year round heartworm protection is readily available, and essential in Florida, where mosquitos are year round danger.  Suffering and misery from heartworm disease can be completely avoided with one monthly tablet.

Do not meet me by accident!  I am ruthless!


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 Gulf Coast Humane Society, 2010 Arcadia Street, Fort Myers, FL. 33916      
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Phone (239) 332 0364  Fax (239) 332 8676    
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Spay/Neuter Clinic (239) 332 1573
                            2010 Arcadia Street, Fort Myers, FL. 33916 
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Gulf Coast Humane Society Veterinary Clinic
2685 Swamp Cabbage Court, Fort Myers, FL 33901
                     Clinic  (239) 332 2719  Clinic Fax (239) 332 4391
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