10/18/02 INTAKE PHOTO
 

FEBRUARY 14, 2003
After 4 months of loving rehab,
I'm ready to rumble!!!
Mickey is 100% healthy at 11 months old)

 

Mickey's Story

     I frantically dialed the phone as I was trying to rush to finish my work so I could pack and drive to Florida to help a friend move and attend the Florida Bichon Bash hosted by the lovely and gracious Bichon Rescue supporters, Dawn Brower and family. 

     The woman who answered sounded tired and sad. I explained that she had just emailed me asking for help with her Bichon Frise puppy .. but I was leaving town and how could I help her?  She proceeded to tell me how weak and sick her puppy was, and how they couldn't handle his illness anymore ....

        A few hours later, Margaret Hunter <margaret@bichonfriseusa.com>, one of the many wonderful Bichon Rescue volunteer foster moms, picked up the saddest little bundle of sick Bichon puppy you've ever seen .... barely 7 lbs at almost 7 months. ...  nearly 50% of his body was encrusted with thick nasty oozing scabs.  Yech! ..and so so sick.     Margaret beat feet to the good Dr. Johnson who frowned with grave concern.  This puppy is VERY sick, she said .. and needs immediate and serious treatment .....

        With that, Margaret & Dr. Cathy Johnson went to work to save this little sweethearts life .. and nurture him back to the healthy, happy, bouncy baby bichon you see above. 

WHAT HAPPENED to tiny Mickey ???  Mickey was apparently a bit of an itchy puppy. . . why ... we don't know.  . but his well-meaning mom had read that bichons sometimes had allergies, so she took him to two or three different vets within a few short weeks to get help with his 'allergies'.  Each vet administered a shot of cortisone and sent her on her way. . . .

. . . . and fairly shortly she had a dying puppy on her hands.  You see ... cortisone suppresses the immune system. and leaves that living being very vulnerable to all sorts of undesirables .. including his life-threatening malady, out of control Demodectic mange which is ever present on even healthy animals/humans, but really goes to town when the immune system gets seriously compromised.

Was his rehab easy?  No, no, no .....   

FOSTER MOM'S JOB:  Mickey's treatment required dozens upon dozens of medicated baths, and constant applications of ointment to rid him of the mange mite and relieve his ailing skin.  Margaret bathed and peeled off scabs... and bathed and peeled again and again and again ....  in order that the mange meds could penetrate deep into the cells that held the parasite.   His nurture routine required careful administration of immune bolstering meds, short but frequent walkies ..   and lots of TLC .. and endless snuggles of encouragement to convince tiny Mickey that he needed to hold on to life.

After 4 months of Margaret's conscientious and constant attention, Mickey is now in full health, energy, and love!!  He's become a typically active Bichon who loves to blitz and play and give BIG kisses to all he meets.

And that .. ladies and gentlemen, is what hands-on active rescue is all about.  This beautiful puppy now has a bright future of health and pampered living.-as he so richly deserves !

p.s. One special note:  Sometimes bichon puppies take a hit for being hard to housetrain... but even when Mickey was so sick & weak that he could hardly walk , he would get down off the bed in the middle of Margaret's sleep to go out through the doggie door and into the yard to go potty. Then he padded his way back to bed.  How's THAT for wonderful!?!?

THANKS TO ALL of you WHO SUPPORT BICHON RESCUE'S EFFORTS TO SAVE THE LIVES OF BICHONS JUST LIKE MICKEY!!! 
WE couldn't to do these very expensive long-term rehabs without your support!!

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