Dulce Vita – a small-town dog from Southern Spain

Dulce is a podenca with a peculiar gait. Her front legs move like a trotter (French racehorse) and her hind legs move like a crab. She’s a happy little dog now, but she nearly died.

After the life she has led, she has no right to be happy. She is yet another illustration of the love a dog will give to kind humans, after suffering unimaginable cruelty at the hands of galguerros.

Dulce is now with me for fostering. She has a potential forever home, but first we must find out why she moves as she does.

Some volunteers found her in the Spanish countryside on the side of a road. Totally cold, incredibly thin, with a stiff body, like as if she were dead.

She was barely breathing, she was dying. They put a blanket around her and, while they were doing this, they noticed that her body was totally cold.

They hurried with her to a vet, connected her immediately to the whey (serum ?) . She was totally dehydrated, couldn’t stand up, was very weak, undernourished, maybe poisoned. She had nothing broken.

She was fostered for 8 months ! At the beginning she was could only lie down, not moving, and was also incontinent. The volunteer gave her DACORTIN, VITAMIN COMPLEX, ANTIBIOTICS, and warm chicken soup, the only thing the poor podenca could eat, and which gave her some strength. Little by little she began to recover, very slowly, until she began to stand up.

I’m told that, although x-rays could have been done to ascertain why Dulce moves like she does, in the smaller towns in southern Spain there is not the equipment which the vets in Madrid have access to. And, on the whole, the vets are very reluctant to help a dog from the streets. It’s also a matter of cost for the volunteers, who work on a shoestring to run refuges to save the abandoned dogs of Spain.

Dulce has recovered because of the enormous amount of love and care given to her by the volunteer who kept her at her home. It has been very difficult for both of them. Compared to when she was picked up, dying, in the middle of nowhere, Dulce is a totally different dog. It didn’t matter that she has a strange way of walking. They just thanked God for letting her live and recover.

It’s a small town, where Dulce lived. people heard about her, and soon a hunter asked around to know how the podenca was doing, because he said it was his…the volunteers said that she died in order to avoid any complications…

Dulce was brought out of Spain by L’Europe des Levriers, she has been with me now for a week.

I took her to my vet to see what might be causing her peculiar gate. There is nothing wrong with her vision or her hearing. But the damage is cerebral, possibly caused by concussion, being hit with something very heavy, a tumour, or even poison.

The vet prescribed Megasolone 20g, a course of tablets for one month. However, because she has a possible forever home, EDL have asked me to arrange with my vet for Dulce to have a scan. That way, we will know for sure if there is a tumour or not. So I am now about to telephone my vet to make arrangements.

I’ll keep you posted about her progress.

Suffice to say that she is an amazing little dog, full of love, happily trotting around the courtyard and down the lane, barking at the cats, horses and sheep in our meadows!

Update – Dulce is now with her lovely forever family and is going to their veterinary clinic in Poitiers for a scan, next Friday. I’ll let you know the results.

Update – Dulce had her scan yesterday. It is clear, there is no sign of a tumour. The vet pronounced her in good health, so the only treatment he prescribed is lots of exercise to improve her mobility and co-ordination, and a surplus of love and affection! There’s certainly no shortage of either of those in her forever home.

A happy ending for a determined little dog, brought back from the brink of death.