Rescue
In several posts over the past nine months, I’ve talked about our rescue dog “Louisiana”. Lou, was rescued by the good folks at Lost Pet Recovery, including my wife Jenn, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana (hence the name). He was left broken in a parking lot at LSU, two legs and a hip – probably hit by a car. He’s a long legged pup, a year or so old. And he’s a regular Heinz 57 of breeds with Boxer’s paws, a Greyhound’s legs, and a Pit-like face.
The LPR team brought Lou home to Columbus, and paid the expenses as he had plates put in one leg, the hip relocated, and the other leg allowed to heal. For the first few weeks after he was kept by a great Vet-Tech from OSU in her apartment. But Lou had an amazingly loud “Pterodactyl cry”, and while he didn’t use it often, it was “inappropriate” for an apartment setting. So Jenn and I took him in to complete his long rehab, from October until February.
Lou got better, and became fast friends with another of our dogs, Keelie. There were a set, so much so that we couldn’t face breaking them up. Like Keelie herself, Lou became a “foster fail” – we adopted him. By February he was in a routine, hanging with the other three dogs, and had his place in bed with the rest of us (a King bed isn’t quite big enough anymore).
He even gets along with Buddy, our oldest.
The Last Hurdle
But Lou had one more hurdle to clear – and it’s a high one. In Lou’s wanderings before he ended up in the LSU parking lot, he contracted heart worms. Fair warning – the next paragraph explains heart worms – and isn’t for the squeamish. But there is a point to all of this beyond the physiology of dogs – so hang in.
Heart worms are literally what they sound like. They are parasitic worms that are transmitted to dogs through bites by infected mosquitos. The larvae migrate through the blood to the heart vessels – the aorta and other major arteries. They then attach inside of them and feed on bacteria in the blood. They propagate, with their “babies” circulating through the system (where more mosquitos can get them) and then find a place of their own in the dog’s arteries. Eventually, they clog off enough space. Circulation is restricted, and the dog dies.
Getting rid of heart worms is a two phase process. The first isn’t so bad – a month long course of medication that kills the bacteria that the “babies” eat in the blood. So they die. And if you leave the dog on that treatment for as long as a couple of years – then the adult worms may die too. But to really “cure” the dog, it requires a second step. And it’s phase two – killing the mature worms – that’s the roughest part.
The treatment consists of three injections of a drug called “Immiticide”. It kills the adult worms in the blood vessels. The painful injections are given over thirty days – the first at the beginning, and the second and third on the last two days. They literally “break up” the adult worms – causing worm material to circulate through the body. That means that the dog has to be kept calm. Increase in circulation risks lung damage, strokes and blockages as worm materials work out of the circulatory system. From the first shot to the “end of restrictions” is at least three months.
Getting Better
Lou’s a gamer. He got his third injection yesterday. It will be another two months before he can run in the back yard and tackle Keelie again. But he’s able to play a little in the house, and he does get to walk on leash when the others dogs are out. He doesn’t seem to mind too much that he gets all the personal attention from Jenn and I. The only remaining problem: part of the treatment is that Lou is on steroids, and that means he’s incredibly thirsty, hungry, and in need a lot of walks. Our new normal is a three in the morning stroll around the backyard. I hope Lou remembers where to go: my eyes are barely open.
And all of our other dogs? They are on heart worm prevention medication – the same medication that Lou will be taking once all the treatments are over. Yep, it’s a little pricey, especially for four dogs, but it’s a whole lot better than getting the worms and having to deal with them.
Our America
So why am I writing about dogs and heart worms? Well, first that’s become a major topic in our life, and will be for a while longer. But second, while this may be a bit of a reach – isn’t Our America a little like a dog with heart worms?
Right now, we are moving around OK, not really noticing too much that our national “blood flow” is gradually getting restricted. But the parasite is present. America has had a slow developing malfunction in our political circulation for years, well before the election of 2016. What used to be a more open “discussion” of issues and options, now isn’t allowed. We are polarized, trapped on our sides, and the room for negotiation and compromise is narrowed.
Our nation had the opportunity to take the “Immiticide” and resolve the issue. It could have happened after the January 6th Insurrection. But that moment seems to have passed, and while we might be “taking the antibiotic” to slowly get rid of the larvae, we really aren’t dealing with the problem. Need an example: look at the United States House of Representatives. This week the leader of the Republican Party led a purge of Party leadership because one was a “non-believer” in the “Big Lie”. Then he went to the White House and stated the truth – that Joe Biden was the legitimate President. Then he tweeted that Biden was “corrupt” and “socialist”.
We the People
I’ve been driving a lot lately, traveling to officiate track meets. I’m listening along the way to lectures on the definitive writings on the US Constitution, The Federalist Papers (it really doesn’t get any geekier than that). One of the critical points the lecturer makes, is that the Founders believed in an “ultimate fix” for failures in their governing structure. Ultimately, “We the People”, the citizens of the United States, could determine when our government isn’t doing what it should be.
They built in political revolution – right there in the Constitution. It’s called elections, and over four years the “righteous might” of the American people can alter the path of our political life. The Founders depended on that as the ultimate “check and balance” in the American government.
So if 2020 was the start of our “treatment”, the antibiotic to starve off the larvae, then we have put off the “Immiticide” until 2022. But sooner or later We (the people) will need to make the change, and purge our politics of the forces that drive us a part.
If not, then our government will be like the untreated heart worm dog – slowing down from lack of circulation, until – it stops.
