Mollie - Arrived @ Tailends in 11th September 2007

Mollie is here. She arrived on Tuesday 11th September at 7am after the long trip from Ireland. I had to put her straight into the bath as she was lying on a blanket soaked by her urine on the long journey to Bristol. She had ear mites which I have treated quickly with canaural, and a deformed ear (due to an untreated haematoma) as well as being painfully thin and blind, possibly due to lack of treatment for diabetes by her previous owner. She was on the top tier of cages and our good friend Ronnie had to reach up to get her out and the pool of urine went all over him. Lovely! That is true dedication especially as he drove all the way to Bristol and met the transporter at 3am at a lay-by which he did not know. Tailends will now insist that we oversee all the arrangements for dogs travelling to us and that they come in private cars or rescue vehicles only. The sort of dog who needs to come here (ill, old, abused) should not be expected to travel in anything other than the best available comfort and not in a multiple transporter. A big thank you must go to our hero, Ronnie Callegari for giving up his time and a night's sleep to help Mollie.

Mollie had very low blood sugar - only 2 and quite dangerous. I gave her some biscuits to get it up a bit and we have to reduce the insulin. I did a urine test first thing on Thursday and realised there was no glucose at all present. Our vet did a blood sugar test. Mollie is going on Monday morning for another blood sugar test and I will monitor it over weekend with urine tests. If she is stable on Monday we will go ahead with a glucose curve on Thursday where she will stay all day for tests every 2 hrs to see how she is doing. Then if all is ok we propose to spay her the following week, as a season could seriously affect the diabetes and a chemical spay could be fatal. Her sight can be restored and we are in communication with a specialist opthalmic vet in Exmouth. He has quoted us £2,000 to operate to remove the cataracts from both eyes. We will be having a special appeal for Mollie to get her sight back. Normally we accept that elderly dogs often lose their sight and adapt very well, but Mollie's condition is different and her sight can possibly be totally restored. Our vet said her sight probably went very suddenly and bearing in mind this dog was wandering as a stray and having to find her own food, it must have been terrifying. I think she deserves a chance.

Mollie is now wearing a badge to say she is diabetic in case of emergency. She is very happy though and loves it here. She is so grateful to be cared for. She is trying out all the dog beds but also likes lying in the sunshine. The other dogs all like her and seem to know she has been through a bad time too. A big thank you to Mary for rescuing Mollie and caring for her in Ireland and also to Ronnie for going to so much trouble to help her.