Little sister's household is in a bit of an uproar right now. A guest who visited their home on Christmas Eve brought their newly acquired, six week old puppy with them. Everyone took their turn to cuddle and coo over the cute little puppy. Someone played with the puppy all evening. It was passed to all.
About fourteen days later the owners of the pup and some of the guests began to itch and break out with little itchy red bumps on their skin. Prior to Christmas Eve, the puppy had been taken to the vet a couple of times because of persistant scratching by the pup. They were told by the vet that the puppy just had a case of dry skin and to rub some lotion on it. The scratching still didn't stop.....and were told something else to do.
Finally, when they went back to the vet yet another time, they too had an itchy rash, so the vet took a skin scraping (I'm assuming from the puppy) and told them that the puppy had a bad case of mites....and mites that could and would spread to anyone who handled the pup. Since the puppy was too young to be treated with something as simple as an application of Frontline, the puppy had to return to the vet for treatment twice more and its owners were advised to go see their doctor and get some sort of body cream. They informed all who had contact with their puppy to also seek medical attention.
Little sister, althought no one in her household was itching, contacted her doctor and got four tubes of cream at a cost of $90.00 to her, after her insurance paid its part. They were told to apply the cream everywhere except the head and are to leave it on for 17 hours, and to wash their bedding. The mites can't live on inanimate objects for very long and can't be spread human to human.....except to your sleeping partner...and I guess they aren't considered human.
Moral of the story...Don't take your pet visiting without a clean bill of health or prior consent. And don't take your pet to someone's house that doesn't have any pets. There's a reason why they don't have any pets....it's because they don't want any in their home.
I love pets though, so you can bring your puppy to visit me....you just have to watch out for the cats because they aren't afraid of dogs....They will let a dog walk right up to it...touch its nose....and I guess if they don't like the dog....they scratch it right across the nose. Ouch.
2 comments:
I recently read this article on CNN about how bedbugs were staging a resurgence in New York City's five-star hotels and how difficult it was getting rid of them. When I lived in New York, it was cockroaches and large, brown rats. Now it's bedbugs and mites. What's this world coming to. Your post illustrates that bacteria and viruses are taking over everything. We are doomed to itch and scratch.
I also read that in addition to other drug-resistant afflictions, such as MRSA, bird flu, and TB, head lice were again invading our schools and hitching rides home.
How generous of those visitors to little sister's house on Christmas Eve to bring to the party the type of present that keeps on giving and giving.
You made me chuckle with your last remark.
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