A LITTLE DOG'S HISTORY CASE

By Dr. Edward Drach, neurologist (Ukraine)

As for me, the dog in my home a long time was something unreal.
I dreamed about charming puppy during all my childhood.
My parents refused any request and it was a lot of wise reasons.
Then this dream was completely lost somewhere in a mad student s life with its exams,
seminars, and lections.

Dog? Nothing but medicine!

It was a lot of dreams I lost that time. And frankly speaking, it was not a real tragedy.
Of course, everybody have to choose the main. My wife and son began dream about
little puppy of spaniel together and aloud. The first time I proudly refused to listen,
like my parents refused my requests. It was a lot of wisest reasons.

In the other side, my friend, biologist, S. Kopylets pushed me to take a puppy of tazy.

These dogs need some acclimatization in Ukraine. Being a mountain hounds in Kazakhstan,
they need quite another weather, landscape and mode of life at all. That s why especially in
first generations they require more attention for their health (which especially could be affected
by hypodynamia, as far as I understood later). And persons with professions related with
biology and medicine are welcome, because of returning such a dogs to heavy-industrial Ukraine.

They disappeared from Ukraine in the first years of Soviet power as attributes of non-proletarian life. Several months my friend tried to explain me why I have to be taziatnyk (tazy-owner, ukr.).

He gave me a lot of information about. And as more I received it, as less I was sure that I m ready
to take such a dog in a little apartment, which I rent in a capital of our country. Several times
I asked him to help me find (for my wife and son, of course) something more simple & little among
his friends in Kyjiv s Hunters & Fishers Club, Spaniel, for example. Good indoor.
Charming, friendly, etc., etc+ But when I took just the first look at my future little friend, tazy,
I could not hesitate anymore. He at once remind me everything of a childish dreams.
We picked up the name together with Serhij, Bounchouk. It sounds really proud.
It means the banner of a colonel in Turkish, Kazakh and Tartar languages.
The same meaning is in Ukrainian language, because in the Mediterranean-Black Sea region
all cultures and languages are madly mixed. You know, this banner (bounchouk) was not
a real banner in European sense of this word. It s a tall staff (cane) with a horsetail on it.

Compare with a hound tall, slim legs & body; and ears like a peace of a horsetail.

Real Bounchouk banner of a colonel.

I told you this story and in the beginning it was completely nonmedical.
The problem is that I am not veterinary. In this case I am just like everybody of you.
I just love my friend and when he is sick, I try to cure him like I cure the man.
That s why it s not a real history case. It s just a little story about a sick friend.
When our family came to Serhij s village, we only the next evening could go home.
Because we could go only with a new friend. Quick, handsome, ready-to-play every
time we find him fantastic. My son played with all family of tazy mother Cheetah, elder
sister Nazee, and little sister Tonia. He gain the great success. Hounds tired, running
with him within the yard! We remembered O Henry and very similar boy in one of his books.
But the yard was closed and hounds cold not reach Canadian border . Waking up in the
morning we revealed that everybody of us have seen Bounchouk in a night-dream.
This fact was a little mystic. Spaniel good dog, but our s better, I think , told my wife then.
Much more better edited a family decree our little son. Our? was my thought, - Yes, our .
Only one moment disturbed me, slight cough. All his family Cheetah, Nazee, and little Tonia
had a slight cough too. Reviewing these two days then I pointed changed behavior of dogs.
They were lazy, every time wanted to be in a shadow, failed to run with my son after certain
time of a day. It was not a real behaviour of healthy hounds. But that time I didn t know it.
Then I and Serhij find a rest of pestilential bubo s in a center of belly s of all hound s family.
All dogs overcame the illness well. There were only that symptom s I described before.
But my Bounchouk could not. He was only 3 month old and occasionally drunk mother's
milk a great immunologic support for him. But in a new home, where was not such a support
and slight cough become first symptom of severe dog s plague. First two days we even didn't
understand what happened. We thought, he just missed his mother and everybody of us tried
to be mother for him. But, step-by-step, symptom-by-symptom the illness made Bounchouk
lazy, weak and then completely sick. Water, lost with diarrhea and vomiting then lead to
cramps and seizures, slight cough become severe. Bounchouk lied and could not even take
a head.

Some my friends told me that in such cases veterinary is good thing but not every time
available. They tell me without any reflection : You could lost a dog - In the way to veterinary
clinic - In the clinic - After clinic Possible causes, they pointed:

1. May be somewhere are veterinary ambulance resuscitation cars, but nobody seen such in Ukraine.
May be they are, but imagine the price! You work in state medicine and you don t make such money,
they say.

2. And it s better for such sick dog to stay at home. Without such ambulance resuscitation cars they
are non-transportable.

3. Every time in such cases we have to remember about aftertoughch of a dog's plague the returning
of the illness after certain time.

And there two other causes for my next decision to cure my dog by own efforts

1) We have no laboratory methods to find bacteria and we really don t know whether dog's
plague is caused by bacteria or by viruses

2) Because of that we have no any antibacterial and antiviral remedies for our dogs.

I and my wife (she is not a doctor, she is a teacher) decided to try own selves.

1. We gave him as much water as possible.

2. The water was given by syringe without needle directly to the throat.

3. The water has to be warm and its better to make decoct of chamomile,
the best for stomach disturbed by nausea.

4. We used an old pediatric rule 24 hours tea-water pause in a case of severe
diarrhea. It s hard do not give any food to your little friend, but it s needeble
to avoid a complications. Rice water (decoct) only.

5. We gave him sorbent activated coal two tablet s twice a day (1/2 of usual human dose)
also directly to the throat (I think, everybody who have a dog know how).

It was made to prevent his organism from bacterial (or viral) toxins. First week we spend fighting for his life. It made him the right member of our family. And it made us the elder members of his troop.

(C) Ukrainan Naturalist magazine