Hi all, welcome to Yorkshire K9's first blog! We genuinely love dogs of all shapes and sizes which means we also take a keen interest in their welfare.
This blog is about rescuing dogs from other countries. With a growing number of people kindly opening their homes and their hearts to international rescue dogs, we thought this would be a good place to start our blog. Many of our clients have rescue dogs from Romania, Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Dubai, China and even Thailand! It is such a beautiful act to rescue a dog, especially one who may have lived their whole life on the streets, and may come with their own individual struggles.
However, owners need to be aware and proactive when rescuing these lovely dogs as their training requirements may be more than expected. Like any dog they need a good structure within the home to enable them to feel safe, and flourish. Some, not all, may never have received this from people and may find everything a bit overwhelming to begin with. They may have been physically abused and neglected in their lives. Don't worry, it may all feel a bit daunting at first but we are willing and able to guide you through this should you need any help. We have years of experience with national and international rescue dogs.
The other factor, which is not widely known, is that in some of the countries which the dogs are being rescued from there are diseases which we did not previously have here in the UK. The two main ones that we would like to make new (or current) owners aware of are Brucellosis and Leishmaniasis. They are contagious and sometimes hard to spot, and harder to cure! Not many of the dogs coming over are routinely tested for these diseases so we would highly recommend asking the rescue, and discussing this with your veterinarian. If you have doggy friends who have been rescued from other countries we would also advise asking their owner the question. It's always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to your loved ones.
Ruth from Yorkshire K9 has a rescue dog from Romania called Max. Max had many behavioural problems when Ruth took him on as a last resort. He was extremely reactive to dogs and people, however work on this had to stop until Max had been through testing for the diseases. Ruth was on tenterhooks awaiting the results because the prognosis for Leishmaniasis is not very good, and Brucellosis can be passed to other dogs and people, which would have meant Max having to be almost isolated from other dogs for the rest of his life. Thankfully Max's results were clear, his training continued and he is now the best of friends with Ruth's Doberman Ox.
Sadly someone that we know who kindly let us share her story was not so lucky.
Flo was rescued from Spain, she seemed happy and well to begin with but in December 2017 she went to the vet with a swollen leg which the vet thought was probably cancer.
Kelli (Flo's owner) decided to get a second opinion and took Flo to another vet where she had various tests. They thought it could be mites and allergies due to the skin lesions that were now on her leg.
Kelli then moved to a different vet closer to home who diagnosed Flo with Lupus and put her on steroids. Nothing worked though, and her skin got worse, kidney function nose dived and they told Kelli that she would probably lose Flo in a matter of months.
Kelli went back to the vet with the lady who had brought Flo over. A week later a locum vet realised this lady rescues dogs from abroad and phoned to say she wanted to test Flo for leishmaniasis.
And here we are!
All the vets have always known where Flo is from as they stamped her Spanish passport for her vaccinations but they never put two and two together because it was so rare then.
3 years on from the correct diagnosis , and thousands of pounds later Flo is finally receiving the treatment she needs to give her a good quality of life, but her condition is not curable.
So, please do open your heart to an international rescue dog but be aware of what to ask so that you are prepared! We would always recommend insuring your loved one too but check that the policy you are taking out covers tropical diseases as well!
Until next time, stay safe from all of us at Yorkshire K9 ❤️
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