Manza died yesterday morning. Even though I only had her for a week and a half, I loved her very much and am very sad about it. So what happened?
Most dogs are born with worms in their stomachs. In the States they come to you all clean and worm free, but here it doesn’t work that way. Last Saturday I noticed that Manza was pretty lethargic, and by Sunday it seemed like she was in pain. A vet came and gave her the medicine to kill the worms, and so I was relieved. As the night went on, she passed 2 or 3 worms like normal. But starting at 3 in the morning, it got way worse. She puked one, and then passed 6-7 at once. After that, she could hardly move, it pained her to breathe, and she couldn’t stop crying. I didn’t sleep all night because I was literally watching her breathe. Then Monday morning I took her to the vet. Of course getting there was a complete disaster, and it was the first time in Paraguay I a) broke down crying and b) wished I wasn’t in the country. Eventually though we made it and I got her to the vet. The vet let me know that when the worms die, they release toxins in the body. Because Manza had SO many worms (the vet was shocked when I showed him a picture of the big group that came out), the toxins were what were making her so sick. She survived the night, but Tuesday morning passed away.
One thing I learned from this is that I am very lucky to have my Peace Corps friends and Paraguayans. Between Sunday-Tuesday they went out of their way to do what they could to help, and I am so grateful for that – so THANK YOU.
Still up in the air as to whether I want to get a new dog or not. I’m leaning towards yes if I can find one in the next month or so, but we will see.
I will leave you with the best photo I have of her! I posted it on the last blog, but such a fabulous picture deserves to be posted twice. Here’s to you, Manza. "A brilliant little pup" (as Andrea said) that I loved very much!
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