Nikita

Nikita 5/99

Nikita 11/27/99

Black, 4 yr. old female. The owner called and asked that we take her. Due to extreme depressive state over personal losses in the past year, the Chow experienced severe neglect. When we got her she had mats so bad that she HAD to be shaved :-{ We normally NEVER do that to a Chow, as the coat doesn't always grow back properly...however, as said, it could NOT be helped in this case. It was soooo bad, that it was like the shearing of a sheep...her entire coat came off of her in one big piece. But the real reason she had to be shaved, is because the night we brought her home, while brushing her in attempts to clean her up for her adoption the next day, we found that she was infested with colonies of ticks--both the hard bodied brown ones, as well as the soft bodied gray ones. Some of the colonies were at least 3" in diameter. In total, there were at least 2,000 ticks removed from her person between Friday night at our home and Saturday at the groomer. The groomers worked on removing ticks on her from 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. Her new owners picked her up from us at 4:30 p.m. and have since said she still has ticks dropping off of her at their home. We have an appointment set for Monday morning to have her tested for Lime disease and to see if any of the ticks that were crowded around her orifices have made their way inside of her. Her new mom and dad when first told of her condition and that she had to be shaved said that it didn't matter as it was cosmetic...and now that they have her, all they care about is that they already love her and she is now a new member of their family. She and her brother Chow (Moses) she was being adopted as companion for have already bonded...he waited at the groomer with her Saturday while she was being prepared for her new home.

...UPDATE!...Nikita's Heartworm test came back negative! So although our lil girl had open raw lesions where the ticks had been, she at least does not have HW and there was no evidence of entry of the ticks...now we only have to finish the testing for Lyme disease that is done over a period of a few weeks by the checking of blood levels.

Moses 11/27/99