30/07/2024
This is going to be an intensely weird adoption post, that's going to start with some adorable photos, a short - what should not even have to be said - PSA, followed by a rescue story, and ending with a graphic detailed description on what willful ignorance in Arizona can do.
Here's the PSA. Brachycephalic breeds are 'built different'. Not in that toxic macho bro 'I'm built different' way, but in the 'I'm a freak of nature and the basic bodily function required for me to live are not the same and a lot more fragile' way. Brachycephalic dogs in Arizona are at EXTREME RISK for heat stroke. And no, heat stroke isn't 'oh my God he's so hot his tongue is out and he's pancaked to a cool tile floor afyer he comes in'. It kills dogs. A lot. A lot lot in Arizona.
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So, here's the rescue story. For those of you who don't know me, I'm a tech supervisor at an Emergency Animal Clinic in Phoenix, AZ.
This gorgeous English Bulldog is Pork Chop. In early July, Pork Chop was brought into my work by a good samaritan as a stray, who they found in front of a gas station in 110+° weather, ACTIVELY GIVING BIRTH. She had already had one baby on her way into us, another flew out within moments of us rushing her to the back. Her temp was over 104°. Her babies were dead. Those babies easy-bake-oven'd in her overheated body. I spent half of my shift playing midwife trying to coax the last dead baby out of her hot, tired body. Because someone 1) didn't care enough to spay her and 2) someone didn't care enough to keep her inside. BUT SHE WAS ONE OF THE LUCKY ENGLISH BULLDOGS WHO CAME INTO OUR ER THIS SUMMER. We got to her before she fully heat stroked, and she recovered.
All of the strays who come into the ER go to the humane society where they are held in hopes their owners come for them. Her owners never came. I knew FULL WELL that if she went up for adoption there, someone was going to walk in there, see this cuuutteeee puppy and adopt her with absolutely zero knowledge of the breed or how to keep them safe, and she would end up back in my ER, not so lucky the second time, and heat stroked, and dying. The humane society doesn't vet their adopters. You sign a paper, and you take a dog home. So I went down less than a week after I had had my whole hand up her va**na trying to pull dead babies out of her and snatched her up before she went up for adoption.
Over these last few weeks, I gave her time to heal, to decompress, to feel safe. And now it is time for her to find a home.
Pork Chop is young, 18 months is my estimate. She's approximately 40 pounds. She is spayed, microchipped, up to date on vaccines, and kennel trained. She is good with other dogs, but can be forward (fearless) with intros.
PORK CHOP MUST GO TO A HOME WHO UNDERSTANDS THE DELICACY OF OWNING A BRACHY BREED IN ARIZONA. My personal brachy dogs have a 10 minute maximum outside, with access to water, and my sprinklers go off for 5 minutes every hour to keep the ground cool and wet.
Pork Chop prefers to be near her people. Even when I close the door to go to the bathroom, she politely scratches to door to remind me I have forgotten to include her.
Pork Chop has entered her curious and destructive puppy phase. She collects shoes. She hasn't eaten any, but she will have a pile of them that she has found around the house, hoarded to whatever location she has chosen. She has eaten my sunglasses. She has chewed up a plastic water bottle. She needs training, and guidance. Pork Chop needs help with potty training still. It's likely she never had consistency or maybe even lived indoors at all. The fact that she's quite content in her kennel leads me to believe that's where she spent most of her life.
Pork Chop has that so very distinct human like bulldog scream to notify you when she needs something. It's charming, adorable, makes your heart melt, but is also at that 'CPS might be called because someone things you're murdering a child' decibel.
If you're interested in adopting Pork Chop, please fill out my preadoption questionnaire
https://form.jotform.com/223323664848159
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Now, here comes the graphic, detailed lecture half of this post. This is why I'm being such an a**l retentive ass about owning bulldogs in Arizona. All summer, and every summer, emergency clinics in Arizona see case after case of heat stroke. And I really don't think people know what heat stroke really is, or what it does, or how painful, horrifying and devastating it is.
Do you know what happens when a dogs body reaches 106° or above? Their brain swells, causing confusion, seizures, coma, death. Not sometimes, almost all the time. Their blood loses the ability to clot, and they bleed into their skin, our of their asses, out of their nose, internally, externally. And it's not just because they're hot.
Do you know why most of the heat strokes we see are English bulldogs, French bulldogs, American bulldogs? Because they have large and often elongated soft palates. It's the reason they snore. When they get worked up, they pant, and the harder they pant, the harder it is to breathe, because that palate begins to swell. So they work harder to breathe. And their temperatures keep rising. And rising. And rising. It's not because they're left outside for extended periods of time, it's because even shirt periods of time causes such strain on their ability to breathe the effort of trying to GIVE THEMSELVES AIR IS TOO MUCH WORK.
Most heat stroke dogs die within 24 hours, and that's with thousands of dollars in hospitalization and intensive laborious care from their medical staff trying to do anything and everything possible to save them. Bringing down their temperatures often isn't enough, not when they get to that point. We do our best to bring it down quickly, but not too quickly, to keep their organs from roasting but not putting them into shock from cooling them too fast. But the damage has already begun, and we have to work hard to support them. They are oxygen dependent. So many have to be intubated, just so they can breathe. And if you're lucky enough to have a dog that survives? It doesn't mean its over. Their kidneys can be permanently damaged, and kidney failure can still set in. They may have lasting neurological affects. Or maybe they get lucky, and manage to make a full recovery.
It takes one day of willful ignorance to kill a dog. And your vet staff has to clean up their blowout bloody diarrhea, give them meds to keep them out of the insane pain that their intestines dying and their linings being shat out causes, keep them sedated enough to keep them intubated. Try to correct life threatening electrolytes imbalances. Try to keep their blood pressure from tanking as they lose blood. Just to try to k eep them from dying.
And I refuse to allow Pork Chop to end up back in my ER because someone wasn't prepared to own a 'cute' dog with tailored needs.
So, if you're not a total idiot, you're probably a great candidate to own a bulldog. If you think Pork Chop has been through enough, and are able to offer her the life she deserves, I'd love for her to meet you.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
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