Last week I mentioned we had to return home early from holiday with my family in the UK, as our lovely house/animal sitter and a friend with kennels in the village had to rush my galga Carmela to the vet, after she collapsed at home. Carmela was kept in the vet clinic over the weekend and the following Monday, 10/09, we collected her and took her to the La Rochelle vet hospital for a brain scan. She was diagnosed as having suffered a stroke.

The following day we attended our own vet again, where Carmela was found to have lost 5kg in weight, sadly looking like one of the starving abandoned dogs of Spain, rather than a very much loved rescued galga of 13 years old. She was put on Oromedrol 16mg once a day and Candilat once a day; the latter was medication which had been prescribed by our vet for our old French lurcher.

Carmela is improving little by little each day. Her head still tilts to the left but she is walking normally, sometimes even a little trot. She is on 4 small meals a day of puppy croquettes, chicken, sausage, gourmet dog meat, with salmon for her tablets! She is also on Nutri-plus gel to encourage her appetite.

Today she has been back to our vet for a checkup. She has gained a finite amount of weight, is walking better although a slight problem sometimes with her left front leg which crosses to her right. A very slight tilt of the head to the right – barely noticeable unless one is looking for it. Now medication reduced to half a tablet every 2nd day and then back to the vet for a check up in a month. Possibly then the Oromedrol will be stopped but she will be on Candilat for life. We don’t have a problem with the latter as OH French lurcher Floyd was on that and it certainly prolonged his quality of life up to his final day at 16 years.

Great to have my beautiful galga back to almost normal…our canine family is complete once again.

I cannot praise enough our wonderful house/animal sitter Caz and my friend and neighbour Suzette (owner of St Pardoux Pension pour Chiens) for their instant reaction to Carmela’s problem. They raced to my vet who took Carmela in as an emergency. Without all their help I doubt Carmela would be making such an encouraging recovery.