Since writing 'Jess the patient', it happened again! Jess was healthy and accompanied me down the drive to get the evening newspaper as usual. She was healthy and her usual lively self. On returning, I saw her run around the lawn toward the tidal creek boardering my property, to investigate a splashing noise, as I went inside. Jess makes it her job to keep rats and similar wild-life from the creek off the property. She rarely barks a warning, and didn't this time.
Jess wasn't in my thoughts again until after supper when I went out to put her into her kennel & run for the night. She is usually in her kennel waiting for me, or comes as soon as she hears me go outside, but this time Jess wasn't there. I called and waited, calling again and shone the flashlight around to look for her. Catching a glimpse of her at the side of the house, I called and she staggered over to me looking dazed.
Jess looked as if she was in shock! I wondered what had happened as I observed she couldn't manage to jump up into her kennel as usual. Being a female, the kennel and run was elevated three-four feet off the ground and Jess usually leaps in and out effortlessly. Jess was behaving timid. This night, I had to lift her, and observed her lower tummy and legs felt wet as I did this. I thought about her investigating the splashing sound and thought Jess must have got a fright from something or someone at the creek. Jess went to bed, safely locked up, with water and food.
The next morning when I could see Jess in daylight, and I was shocked. On closer inspection, Jess appeared to have fur scraped off in front of both lower tummy-hind quarters and around one side off her neck by her collar. Her skin looked red and bare, with scratch marks! I immediately thought someone had grabbed her by the collar and tried dragging her through the fence by the creek to take her. "No wonder she was dazed and timid when I found her" I thought, leaving Jess in the safety of her kennel, as I went to investigate.
To my surprise, there were no signs in the soft soil by the creek that anything was disturbed and definitely no holes or broken bank under the fence at the creek edge where I imagined Jess may have struggled to free herself. All I could see was the overgrown ground vegetation (wandering dew) flattened in a trail where she had ran along.
I took Jess to the vet and was told Jess either had an auto-immune disease or was poisoned by an allergy to wandering dew. Jess was given a steroid injection and I continued with the tablets and creams routine as previously. It looked like Jess had given herself cellulitis from scratching herself when itchy and reacting to the wandering dew. It had been growing on the property all of Jess's life!
The wandering dew had, with the mild autumn, recently rocketed in growth and I had been too busy with family health commitments to keep up with the gardens lately. I organized with my man that mows my lawns, contracting him to spray the wandering dew and get rid of it. I know it is often grown as an indoor pot plant, but in the New Zealand sub tropical climate, it takes off, sprouting roots within three days from every broken piece.
Jess was kept away from that part of the yard and recovered quickly. She showed no signs of an auto-immune disease. I have since found out from some neighbours and other dog owners, that their dogs reacted similarly to wandering dew around the same time. I didn't know wandering dew was poisonous to dogs!
