The Poisoning

One day a farmer came to our yard, he has his chicken farm about 2km away from us. He said that one of our dogs killed one of his chickens. At this point we had already fenced the entire area as good as possible, so that if a dog should escape from its enclosure, it actually cannot run from the yard. We talked to him and asked why he is sure that it should have been one of our dogs. Cause we have chickens too in the yard...

He couldn't answer, but we offered to pay for the dead chicken so as not to stir up bad blood. He declined (we later found out why) and walked away dissatisfied.

I had just rested after lunch and got out of my hut to continue working on the canopies and dog houses. Right next to my hut is a small separate area for two of our "problem dogs" who are not suitable for packs. It's Onza and Gordo. As I walked along the fence of the two of them, I noticed a hellish stench that I couldn't define, at the same time I heard Gordo gagging.

I ran to both of them in the enclosure and saw Gordo choke something out of his stomach. It looked like a large piece of gut from an animal, and that's what caused the stink. I didn't know exactly what it was, but I knew I couldn't make him eat that again, cause he wanted to swallow it twice. I took these stinking innards and looked for a place where I can put it down safely first. A place where the dogs can't reach. However, this is not easy on our farm. I found a piece of wooden board and packed the innards on it and could only put it in a raised fork of a tree and told Jade and Dita about it.

After a short time the dogs either managed to get these innards off the tree or it fell down. Some dogs, including many of Ana Rita and Barriguda's puppies, ate the stinking offal before we could take it away. It started shortly afterwards, and 16 dogs became seriously ill and showed symptoms of intoxication. They vomited, they could no longer eat, they lost weight extremely and quickly.

We got my saline solution which I brought with me from Germany as a precaution and only found a 5ml syringe. The dogs had to be given between 60 and 100 ml of saline solution every 6 hours. At that time we had no money to take the dogs to the vet and the situation was generally very bad, as I invested all my money in building materials to build canopies and stable accommodation, I also had to buy tools on site ...

For the next 1.5 weeks we gave the sick dogs subcutaneous saline solution day and night. Since we had no other options. There are also weather conditions that make it impossible to get into town or to let someone come. Sometimes we're trapped in the yard. But the poisoning was too severe for 9 out of 16 dogs. There were pups among them who were less than 8 weeks young and who died miserably. It was hell! A few days after the incident, we saw the neighboring farmer secretly sneaking around our farm and watching us. We don't know exactly, we can't prove anything, but we could guess why he "looked over" and checked.

(Dona Kiki and Ciclete short after the survived poisoning, still weak)

written March 26th | 2021