It's been a long night and Im really tired, but basically I had to put to sleep a little dog we tried to rescue last week from BARC. The little guy was fairly normal when we got him home, but got progressively worse over the coming days. He was in so bad a shape yesterday I took him in. Vet tells us he should not have been up for adoption, that his heartworm case might be much worse than they let on, that it looks like he may have some other virus or complications like pneumonia on top of it. Of course, it's not till after all this that I find out BARC's track record. I feel horrible and bad for my wife, who was just trying to do a good thing. I'm not going to tell an animal lover not to try and save the pets at BARC, but just a warning to those who might about what you could be getting into. Never had to make the decision to euthanize a pet before. It sucks. Very sad and very pissed off, been a rough night for the family.
Rokkit, not a good holiday story, and there's nothing like putting a pet down. I've done that a couple of times. Good vibe shout out to you and the Mrs.
Thanks guys. Yeah, it wasn't exactly the holiday cheer we were looking for. I had really thought we were going to save him.
i've heard some bad things about BARC... when i adopt a dog it will probably be through a no-kill shelter, like Friends for Life...i've heard great things about that one.
Props to y'all for trying. Look at it this way...you did save him. A quick euthanization was probably the best thing for him. I hope this doesn't stop y'all from adopting another pup from somewhere else.
Sorry to hear about this. I love the hell out of animals and have owned mostly strays but I'm not sure I'll ever adopt an animal again (although my gf will beg to differ). I know it's the noble thing to do but between the hidden health issues and the unknown temperament issues of adopted dogs (especially around the kids) I just feel the safe bet of buying (from a quality breeder) outweighs the whole "I saved a life" feeling you get from adoption. Of course, my view on dogs, dog breeding and dog ownership seem to put me in the minority.
Hey man, at least you tried. For the few days he was out, he was free. Probably had a great time living like a normal dog again.
I remember a story about how BARC would send the dead animals to the dump on the back of a flatbed that wasn't covered adequately so you could see a pile of dead animals like every week rolling out of that place until they started putting them in individual trash bags.
Unfortunately, its not just BARC. I adopted from the Houston SPCA. Now, my pup didnt have heartworms, but he became very ill the very first night i brought him home. He played in the afternoon, and towards the evening, all of that stopped. He just laid there. Didn't eat, drink, wouldnt even really go to the bathroom. I took him to an emergency vet clinic the next day (it was sunday). The people there said he either had pneumonia or distemper (sp?). They had to inject him with fluid since he was dehydrated and they gave me some pills that they said "might" help. Luckily it did. And I'm happy to say he's doing well. At first he didn't really like other dogs or people, but now, after a lot of training, he's coming around. Here is a picture of him playing with my girlfriend's sister's dog. Bobo, my dog is on the right. Spoiler I guess what I'm trying to get at is, don't give up on adopting a dog. Once you find one, kind of hard to think about him/her not being there.
BARC is pretty bad - I've been there multiple times and my wife has been there hundreds of times. There's been efforts to improve it by people, but it suffers from poor location, lack of funding and bad staff. Your dog probably had distemper. We've pulled a few dogs from BARC with distemper before. It is a horrible disease and usually fatal. We had one dog that got past it eventually, but more than a few that ultimately had to be put down. It is a heartbreaking process for a number of reasons - you've grown attached to the dog, you've spent days or weeks helping it and hoping it would turn the corner. I know you feel bad about putting the dog down, but if it had distemper - and it is likely it did - you made the right decision. Again, dogs can rarely get past it, but it is rare, and barely ever happens with younger dogs. We've probably gone too long on a couple that we pulled with distemper - some of the last symptoms become neurological...man, it sucks when it gets that far, and you'd be feeling far worse. My wife has also pulled dogs sometimes that BARC had as heartworm negative but were clearly positive, and in a few cases, the dogs have even been listed as male or female, when they were clearly the opposite sex. There ARE some good groups out there that work with BARC to selectively pull out animals and adopt them. My wife's group is one of them. Their dogs are here. Be sure to check out the animals on page 2. The animals up for adoption have all been vetted and are generally good to go. Feel free to email through the board if you want more info.
I appreciate the recommendations everyone. Not sure how eager I am to get back into the situation too quickly, but I would certainly feel better about a place recommended here. Been a sad day, this does help.
