18 May 2006

The CDC wants my dog!

Yes, the Center for Disease Control is after my dog. The luckiest dog in Sicily is a wanted basset. Fortunately, her defense is being planned as we speak.

Little Girl has leishmaniasis, a common complaint among canids in the Mediterranean region, which means she develops subcutaneous lesions, which then swell and burst, and get infected etc.. Also, she looks like a binge and purge teenybopper when the protozoa are on the rise. Massive weight loss, and so forth. Took them over 18 months to figure this out... although I have to grant that they have tested her a few times with no luck.

She's a small basset... only about 26 lbs when on the upswing, and very personable, but I hadn't realized bassets are such drama queens before acquiring this one. Long, silly stories on that, I might relate later. Right now though, the CDC is hounding us.

Turns out, they think she is the only dog in the US with this disease. To which I snicker... I know at least one other person with a dog shipped back from Sicily that has it. I believe he is out in CA, but apparently, the US Navy failed to report this vital information on a communicable disease to the proper authorities. Not that the vector for it exists in the US- it can be transmitted directly from dog to dog, or dog to human, but the likelihood of that is on the low end. Like, aliens taking her for testing low end.

So she got tested for the 4th time 2 weeks ago... and came back positive. So now the CDC wants her for testing, because she is such a novelty. It isn't to the "Give us your dog now!" stage, but they have been inquiring politely so far.... oh and so has Auburn, who ran the test in the first place. I think maybe we should just sell blood samples, might pay for the treatment:)

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