Sylvia's Diary 05-04-24

Other people’s diaries may well start with memories of wonderful dinners, or walks, or visits to the grandchildren, but not mine. I will start with the thing that made me happy first. Though before I tell you that, I need to tell you how it all came about.

About 6 weeks ago, I picked up a very thin golden doodle (a golden retriever crossed with a poodle) who we called Yitty. She was tall, lanky, very scared and extremely thin. We knew she could not be spayed without risk of loss, so we set about fattening her up.  We added supplements and fed her Arden Grange, our really good quality food. We added a good worming plan, regular health checks and weighing too. Having had her 2 weeks Yitty started to bloom, however her back bone still stood out and her ribs showed, but she was getting a good little belly.

Two days later when I watched Yitty being walked I suddenly thought “My gosh this dog looks pregnant!". We took her in the vets and scanned her and saw the skeletons and heart beats of pups (we never abort pups). We prepared ourselves knowing we may need to supplement the pups feeding, if they survived. We had no idea when they were due, or what the dad would be. I called the breeder who gave her up and he said he had had her 5 months. She had been so stressed in kennels so he gave her to us. She had been kennelled with a standard poodle male, but never showed signs of coming into season. He was worried she was so thin and his vet said to call us, as all his other dogs were not thin, and he felt her poor weight was related to her being stressed and parted from her sister when the breeder bought her 5 months previously.

A week passed and Yitty started to nest and then without help had her pups. Amazingly she had 10, she came into milk and fed them all the first week. However the pups only chose some of her nipples as the back ones were inverted. We tried to release milk and pressure from the inverted nipples, but slowly we noticed them getting hot and sore, then hard.  Yitty had mastitis in those, so we bandaged her so the pups did not touch those incredibly sore nipples but she started standing and not allowing the pups time to feed so eventually we took her away from her pups and took on the HUGE job of hand raising 10 pups.

We started by tubing them, then bottle feeding, then as all of that was so time consuming, especially at night and they were older now, I made up a gruel with milk and mousse and with a big round dish to explore. When they licked their dirty whiskers and found they liked the taste, they started eating and climbing and skidding in the dishes, so at the end they were wet sticky messes. Next we got 10 tiny dishes and did the same. Feeding took less time, but was still messy.  For a week these little pups had runny motions. Then (and this is the exciting part) we seemed to have cracked it – FIRM POO’s “YES YES YES”! I was so excited but it was 2 in the morning. I ran upstairs “hey you never guess what Bill, the pups had firm poos!”. Not sure he felt as I did as 10 seconds later he was fast asleep again, but I lay grinning.

It’s still not plain sailing but we are, I hope, on the road to success. 10 little ginger babies getting stronger each day. Yitty, their mummy, though not with them, is recovering well and putting on weight so we can spay her and try to get her out of the kennel situation.  The hope of a full nights sleep ahead (which is something I am really looking forward to) seems promising!

Dupree our frenchie who has a form of megaoesophagus, went to the specialist. She was thoroughly examined, had blood tests, x-rays and an MRI. Sadly there was nothing that stood out to see how we could help her that little bit more. One of our staff Dan took her home and together with Lily his partner, they worked out a special feeding regime; oily food fed the same way a mummy bird feeds her babies, followed by a slimy sardine along with prescribed meds, it seems to be helping her a lot. Though we were advised to put her to sleep the staff and I knew her quality of life was great in between brief regurgitation, and she was, and is, very happy. Of course caring for her takes a good few minutes a few times a day, but Dan reports her love and happiness and zest for life are all well worth it. Maybe you have the time to help her? We are very grateful to Eastcott specialists who were very helpful and all fell in love with her and understood why we were so keen to help her.

I have been following Camp Beagle. They campaign for the poor beagles used for vivisection. It plays heavily on my mind. I feel surely at the very least the public should have the right to know straight away if animals, especially beagles, have been used to test so a product can be manufactured. Just like you can see on a label that a farm is said to be humane or on cigarettes you get this warning that they can kill you – it should have that on products tested on beagles, it should say for instance 'THIS BRAND IS TESTED ON BEAGLES'.

Anyway I saw a list of brands online that still test on animals and it really made me think. If you feel as I do, and have the time and energy to ask everyone in the UK if they’d like that information printed on each product as law, you could get a petition up. Also, I’d like some people to ask the question are the vans used to move these poor dogs Defra approved with fixed cages and proper ventilation, like we have to have to move dogs. I wish I could do this, but I do not have the time to do this justice. Those who spend days and nights trying to help the beagles find justice, live on the road side outside the gates of Britain’s biggest puppy factory, MBR Acres, Marshall BioResources, the industrial breeder of beagle dogs supplied as a commodity to toxicology testing laboratories and Universities, could be described as the canine equivalent of Auschwitz. These activists are heroes. You may like to tell them this with a small package of chocolate or cakes (they are vegans mainly), just to boost their spirits. If you email hello@thecampbeagle.com and they will advise how you may send donations.

This week we had a call from a breeder on the borders of Scotland (a very long drive) so we are off to pick up those dogs. Our vans do a ridiculous number of miles, the wear and tear takes its toll, so we are trying to plan how to replace the vans that either won't pass their MOT next time, or are simply so high in mileage we worry they are no longer reliable. These vans are very expensive, and very expensive to kit out too, so quite a worry. With the bills per month, we never have 2 years running costs in the bank of which we were advised to do, but I trust in God, and somehow we will sort this worry out.

Lastly, May is coming. In May we will have been running 20 years and saved many many thousands of lives. I have a surprise for the dogs 1st May and have spent 5 months working on this project along with others who have carefully followed my plans and dreams. I am so looking forward to showing you all this and think about it each day.

Thank you for your support. Without you, the dogs would have no hope.
Sylvia