Ireland Harris
Ireland came to me for just one night and ended up staying for 7 weeks. What a wonderful dog!
I rescued Ireland from one of our area shelters and took him to our vet for his medical needs. He was heart worm positive
so was scheduled to stay there for awhile until he had completed his treatment. He developed a slight cough shortly
after being rescued and was put on antibiotics. He got over his cough only to have a bout of diarrhea. Again,
he was started on medication for that which he got over. Before he could start his heart worm treatment, though, he
developed a strange eye infection so his treatment was delayed again. Finally, the vet thought maybe he was allergic
to something in her office so the decision was made to take him to one of our foster homes that has had good luck in treatment
of allergies. I agreed to pick up Ireland and keep him at my house for one night because the foster wasn't going to
be home until late that night.
The next morning, I heard Ireland cough a couple of times. I called the volunteer that was expecting
him that day and told her I would keep him for a few days to make sure he wasn't sick. She had a dog going through chemo
therapy for cancer and it wouldn't be good for her to have a sick dog in her home. Later that day, I started noticing
a slight bob to his head and by the evening, he had started to twitch in his front right leg. By that time, I suspected
he had distemper. The vet confirmed that he probably had distemper the next day. We watched the twitching worsen
just in the short time he was at the vet. We contacted a vet that specializes in the treatment of dogs with distemper
in Dallas. He advised us that he had not have much experience with treating dogs that had entered the neurological stage,
but he was willing to try. We started Ireland on the supplements and medicines recommended by the vet. I set up
a 'sick room' upstairs to keep Ireland away from the other dogs in my household. Even though they had already been exposed,
I didn't see any reason to unnecessarily expose them any more than they had to be.
Ireland fought so hard to stay alive. He was in terrible pain at times and I thought maybe it would
be better to let him go. As long as he was willing to fight, though, I decided I would fight with him. He
relied on me for everything. When he wasn't drinking enough, I would give him water from a syringe to keep him hydrated.
Luckily, he would eat canned dog food easily so it made giving his medicine easy. He would follow me around everywhere
I went so I would move from room to room to get him to exercise and keep up his strength. After three weeks, his
fever finally broke. We thought he would be fine. He started getting stronger and we took him to the neurologist
to see if there was anything else we could do to help lessen his neurological symptoms. A few days later, he started
getting weaker for no apparent reason. Ireland continued to get weaker regardless of what we were doing for him.
He finally got so weak he could hardly walk. He was like a little rag doll. I knew it was time to have him reevaluated.
I got up one morning and gave him a breakfast of ice cream, which was his favorite thing. He was so weak I had to hold
his little head up for him to eat it. I took him to the vet and we agreed it was time to let him go. He crossed
the bridge while I was holding him.
Ireland taught me so much the short time he was with me. His unconditional love and trust was more
than I had ever expecteed. He was such a sweet boy and didn't deserve to be so sick. I am very thankful for the
time I got to spend with Ireland.
