I found a dog today

This afternoon I heard a group of kids laughing like
maniacs in front of my house. I went outside to see
what was going on and found the kids using their
feet to shove around this tiny little grey dog.I yelled
at the kids to leave the dog alone and then called the
little guy to me and brought him into my fenced back
yard. Buddy is not very dog friendly with dogs he doesn't
know, so I kept Bud inside. On closer inspection, the dog
is a intact, mature male Lhasa Apso , with grey coloring.
He appears to have mange on his back end, and is missing
fur in those areas. I called Animal Care and Control & an
officer came to take him in. She seemed like a very caring
person, and told me she would tell Rosie Ellis from the
Southside Animal Shelter (no-kill) about this guy in the
morning. Rosie rescues animals from local pounds all
over the State and actually had more dogs & cats adopted
out last year than the local pound. I'm trying to think positive
about this little guy and my question is this;
mange is treatable isn't it ?

to my knowledge YES its treatable, we treat it all the time at our shelter

Liz,

There are 2 types of mange. Demodectic and another one that I can't think of the name of right now. Demodectic is treatable and not contagious, it is, however, never going to go away if the dog has that kind. I guess all dogs are born with the demodectic mite (well actually they get them from their mother soon after birth), but some have a compromised immune system and can't fight off the mites and so are destined to continue to have them all their lives and it comes and goes. Dudley has demodectic and was fine until just recently and he is losing hair again, so Dr. B has him on Keflex (sp?) again to ward it off, we'll see what happens. The other kind of mange is contagious, but as far as I understand, is gone once it is gone. Please let us know what happens.

Molly

Thank You,

After I calmed down a little bit, I did remember to look
it up online. It's just a guess on my part about if it is
mange or not, but the Animal Care lady called it mange.
This little guy was so sweet and so tiny. He had a very
healthy appetite , so he's not "sick" sick. I e-mailed &
called and left a voice mail message for Rosie from the
no-kill shelter b/c the AC person said she would tell Rosie
about him when & if she saw her in the morning. It seems
that Rosie makes regular rounds of the local pounds &
is allowed to take any of them into her rescue program.
She's listed on Petfinders.com as a resource here in town.
If you could have seen this tiny little guy waiting inside
my backyard gate when Animal Control came. :( :( :(

One wierd thing is that he never made a sound the whole
time he was at my house. Not a bark, not a cry or wimper.
He did lick my fingers when I tried to pet him.I'll call the
no-kill shelter again tomorrow to tip them off that Animal
Control has him. If mange is curable, this is one adoptable
little guy for sure.

Oh Liz, what a heartbreaking story. :( I do hope that the little fellow will be ok, and whatever his skin problem, that it can be treated. You did a good thing. I'm so glad you have good resources to use when something like this happens. Unfortunately, we don't in my neck of the woods. Please keep us updated when you can.

Logan

Poor little thing. :( . I hope he gets better soon.

Poor little guy :( Can you believe those kids? I am afraid of what they will grow up to be with that disregard of animal life! I hope all those nasty kids are sterile! As for little male Lhaso, I am sure he will find a home, granted he's not too ill. Those fuzzy little guys seem to be more in demand then the larger dogs. I will say a prayer for poor little Lhaso. I hope he's ok enough to adopt out :( Thanks for saving him from those nasty kids, Liz.

What an experience you had today Liz. I hope Rosie get the little guy to her shelter and gets his mange cleared up so he can find a forever home!

I called the Southside Animal Shelter this
morning from work & talked to Mrs. Ellis herself.
She was on her way out the door to go to the
city pound just as I called. She said she had not checked her e-mail as yet, so did not know all
the details about my finding him or that he was
now in the care of Animal Control. Dumb me, in my
rush to get out the word to her , only left my
home phone number & not my work number, so she
had already called me & left a message on my VM.
When I talked to her this A.M., I told when he
was picked up, and the name of the Animal Care
officer.I did tell about the mange problem but
that he was a very sweet & friendly little guy.
She is going to make a point of checking him out
this morning on her "rounds" at the pound. In my
e-mail, I offered to help with his medical
treatment if she thought he was treatable.
If ever any pup needed a friend, it was this
little guy.I'll try to check back with Rosie
later on today, or tonight after work.Please say
a prayer that Rosie can take him & he can be
helped. Thanks Everybody. Liz & Buddy.

Bless your heart, Liz, for all you are doing to help this little guy. Keep us posted. Paws are crossed for the little guy here.

What luck for the poor little guy that you saw him out there! :) I really hope the mange problem is treatable and he will find a good forever home soon. Thank you for your quick reaction Liz!! ;)
Any chance you can have a chat with the children and educate them on how to treat animals? I'm sure a kind approach will work the best. Just a thought!

Fingers and paws crossed for this little guy! :)

Both types of mange are treatable. We treat both kinds at my shelter. The problem with a lot of city shelters though is that they will not want to use the resources to treat the mange and figure it is easier to put the animal down rather than have them sit in the cage longer and perhaps spread it around.

This is not the mind frame of all shelters by far though!! It sounds like you have a great contact and I'm sure she will treat it and has had to treat mange in the past.

The other type of mange is sarcoptic. These mites are easier to kill. We treat both types of mange with a dip. There's also and injection I think. We actually have 2 poor little mange puppies in foster right now who are almost completely bald :( :(

Eating high quality food is good preventative from getting mange back again.

Aly, thanks for the info. It's precisely because
of his medical problem, that I didn't think the
pound folks would look much beyond his pitiful
appearance.He could be put down quickly.That's
why I was so desparate to notify Rosie at the
Southside Shelter, so maybe she could check him
out today. There was an article about her work
last fall in the local paper;

http://indystar.com/library/special/...e/rosie16.html

If Rosie can't help him then no one can. I'm
getting a headache just worrying about him.

Do you know anyone that might be able to foster him if Rosie won't take him? I hope she did. I'll bet your offer to help defray medical costs will help the situation. God how I hate people that would do that to a little one. Please let us know as soon as you know something...I'm on pins and needles here.

Liz, you are an angel for taking that poor little pup in. I hope he can be cured quickly and rescued. Good luck.