Lajkó Diary 20.6.2011-20.7.2011

Lajkó Diary 20.6.2011-20.7.2011
2011.07.23.

The first Lajkó Diary has some good and less good news. But fortunately there are more of the good ones.

Let’s start with the bad news.

About 1.5 months ago, when I took Lajkó to the major he peed blood. Not bloody, but in fact blood, and he had fever. I called Meggyes who took him to the doctor on the following day. It turned out that he had a lot of urine sand which had to be removed by surgery. The first step was to end inflammation. Or it would have been, but as it was not manageable for two weeks, our doctors decided to perform the surgery. He was operated on 8 July. The surgery went very well, at home he walked to the emergency room on his own feet.

„The surgery was successful, large amount of urine sand was removed from the bladder. The sample was sent to the lab, because the type of sand found within the dog had to be detected: the sand was formed for some reason, but it shall be prevented in the future by making the pee acidic or alkaline, so this would never happen again.
The lab showed struvit-type crystals from the sample, though this type is rather characterised by stones, not by sand, as in the case of Lajkó, and it is more frequent in female dogs.
The chemical name of struvit is magnesium-ammonium-phosphate. Such stone is formed if the pee is full of this material. This happens if such bacteria proliferates which are able to produce an enzyme (urease) which catalyses the transformation of carbamide to ammonia and carbon-dioxide. Such bacteria are for example the E.Coli, Staphylococcus kinds. As the bacteria activity greatly contributes to the forming of stones, the stones formed this way are often called urolith with „infection origin”. Sometimes, infectious factors may also produce struvit stones, but this mechanism is not known. As due to the bacteria activity ammonia fills the urine, this results in the forming of crystals, which is a component of stones, and makes the urine alkaline, which provides better conditions for stone forming. Under normal conditions urine is acidic, but due to the ammonia it turns to be alkaline. If the urine becomes alkaline, it boosts crystal forming, while the proliferating ammonia irritates the wall of the bladder and thus promotes the bacterial inflammation. Due to the infection cells are ruined on „both sides”, and the cell debris which is formed of dead bacteria and the cells of the urethras provide basis for stone forming, because these will form the „core” containing organic materials, on which minerals will be deposited later. Further problem is that the urine is full of minerals and it may be worse if the food’s protein content is too high, thus too much carbamide is formed in the urine, which together lead to the forming of stones. For dogs sturvit is a frequent illness.”

On the day after the surgery

Though the surgery went well, the next control also revealed much sand. In the future this may be avoided only if Lajkó eats only special food. Its price is very high, the 12 kg bag of Hill’s pet food made especially for struvit is about 22,000 HUF. In addition to this Lajkó receives vitamin C and a paste preventing the forming of stones.

Presently Lajkó is very much in need of a temporary owner. Under animal shelter conditions this is very difficult to make him eat separately, because he is a kennel of many, and his pee and drink shall be also inspected.

My heart breaks because I cannot take him home. Everyone may think that this is marketing staff, but it is not. Every day when I spend time with him and than have to leave him, a part of me stays there.
Lajkó is a perfect dog, except for his spiritless. He is house-trained, compatible with cats and dogs, he is not pushy, does not want anything else but patience and love. His little mind would get well quickly in a flat, with a family, among people, and he would really become the best dog of the world.
To which he gets closer and closer, in fact, as it may be read below.

And the good news.

Lajkó’s rehabilitation is going very, moreover, extremely well. This is also due to the fact that because of his illness he sleeps in the emergency room and spends much time among people. Therefore he arrives to the gate of the kennel very happily, flamishing and smiling, whenever someone appears there. Naturally, he is not perfect yet, and if he leaves the kennel but does not yet return to the emergency room but spends time with us in the major, he is still freezes down a bit, but compared to his previous condition he is in great shape.
One time, before the surgery Reni and Niki took him out of the animal shelter for a while and sat down with him under a shady bush. I think that the pictures speak for themselves.

The girls made friends with him already on the first day. And I am also lucky that two such super patient and understanding people registered. Because Lajkó needs much of these. One shall sit with him, talk to him for long minutes, and naturally he is not like an average dog who may be hugged and kissed, because he is still very much afraid of these and thus needs lot of understanding. It has happened to me several times that I really wanted to hug him, or touch and caress him, or to kiss his nob, but these are still matters of the future.
When the girls called to soon (within 24 hours) I thought that they had not really considered this thing and would not come again, maybe only two times to take him for a walk, and that’s it. But no. The girls came, and came again. They spend their last day before vacation with him, as well as the days between two trips. People disappointed me again, but this time this is very positive. We will make a great team and we get closer and closer to our goal: a happy Lajkó with an owner.

(I hope that those negative people who said that Lajkó would not be anything else but a less friendly dog, moreover, that our mission would surely fail do read this diary and will see how much we advanced. But we say thank you to those who think this way, by you we are stronger and happier when we see our results.)

Lajkó’s surgery, diet and paste extremely burdens the animal shelter’s budget, therefore we ask everyone to support Lajkó with their donation, if possible.

Please indicate: „Lajkó” as note!

Our bank account number:
11710002-20083777
For money transfer from abroad:
IBAN: HU62 1171 0002 2008 3777 0000 0000
SWIFT (BIC): OTPV-HU-HB
OTP Bank / Budapest, 1102 Kőrösi Csoma sétány 6.

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