Tues 29th Nov: Parvovirus takes its toll

With all the events this coming weekend and the following, I’d completely forgotten that there was even one more at Hong Lok Yuen, an important one for us because it’s so close to our Tai Po Centre.  This is more about raising awareness of HKDR and the dogs we have needing homes, so once again if you are free to help out at any of the Hong Kong or New Territories-based events – or indeed at any time of the year – please email volunteers@hongkongdogrescue.com as soon as you can.

Pups like this chubby youngster (Donna) need foster homes

Every morning one of the first things I do when I get up is to check the young puppies to see how they are.  The outbreak of parvo is doing its work, and today I saw three more babies weren’t well.  I couldn’t take them to the vet until the afternoon because all the electricity was off at Acorn, so I arrived in the early afternoon with the puppies in a box.  For the earlier victims of the virus there had been no question about trying to save their lives, but as one by one they have been dying despite the best efforts of the vets and nurses I made the decision not to put any further puppies through days in hospital and further suffering.  At the moment there are two puppies still hanging on, but one is very weak and the other was a later in-patient, so who knows what the situation will be tomorrow.

For now all I can do is keep those that have been in contact with the virus separate, and wait until they either succumb or survive.  Sometimes a puppy can have a mild infection, be quiet and off its food for a few days, and then back to normal.  That’s happened to one puppy so far in this case, and maybe some others have already developed immunity but I have no way of telling at this stage.

As I mentioned, I have a litter of younger puppies which I am really keen to get into foster homes, even for just a couple of weeks, to make sure that they don’t get infected.  They aren’t together with the sick ones, obviously, but it’s so easy to carry infection without even realising it, via clothing or shoes or anything, no matter how vigilant you try to be.  At this young age (around five weeks) the puppies are very easy to care for, and all you need is some space, a bed, food and water.  Oh, and lots of newspaper (they are very clean youngsters, as puppies always are given the opportunity).  Please email Maria at foster@hongkongdogrescue.com if you can offer a safe haven to a couple of puppies (minimum, as they must have companionship at this age).

If you are waiting to hear the final result for Peak to Fong’s fundraising effort, so am I!  It takes time to get everything in as some sponsor money (for the walk)  is still arriving, as are other bits and pieces.  I do know that we have already exceeded all previous years’ totals, and of course the donation of $100,000 from Disney (on top of the T-shirts and raffle prizes) certainly helped.  We are also still selling raffle tickets for the Big Draw at Whiskers’n'Paws on Sunday, so please keep buying!  You could win really amazing prizes, and even if you don’t want or need them for yourself they may solve your Christmas present dilemmas!

Inky approves

I finally solved the problem of puppies destroying my sofa when I took delivery of a metal-framed ‘day bed’ today.  I spotted it on AsiaXpat (although later found out it’s from Ikea), and a friend agreed to pick it up for me (it needed dismantling) and managed to get the low asking price reduced to nothing!  So after taking the puppies to Acorn, I bought a large piece of the heavy duty and waterproof material that’s used for sampan awnings (you can buy all boat supplies at Ap Lei Chau) and wrapped it round the mattress, and now hopefully have a sofa that will withstand the efforts of puppies to destroy it.  Inky was the first one to try it out (being the oldest and having priority) and she found it to be most satisfactory.