Updated info on 'Healthy Solutions' page. (Sharav's story)

,One of these was just disappearing under the front gate in the drizzling rain yesterday. Its a fire salamander. I was just going to take the dogs through for a short walk but they were so busy jumping around they didn't see it, thank the Lord, for they most certainly would have grabbed it and bitten into it if they could. The result of that would have been convulsions and paralysis and probably  a life threatening situation if no vet could be found quickly.

See  'Healthy Solutions' for update on auto-immune disease and see below for Sharav's  condition a year on from suffering AIHA.....

We have to leave this beautiful house and woodland garden in Lunigiana, Tuscany. I rented with a view to buy but the pandemic got in the way and now the owners have retired and want the house back. I am dreading moving Sharav (see posts below) as the move here nearly killed him. He survived but at 13 and a changed hound will he get through another move?

​My favourite picture of Sharav in old age.
Photo: Karen Hargedon-Feeney.com

Sharav in the sun this morning, just turned 13, one year on from being diagnosed with sudden and chronic anaemia, not expected to last the weekend. We prayed for one more precious year and here he is, thank the Lord.

This was 3 months after being so close to death (early this year) -So much better - but will he make it? We need to get through until October 18th.....

The move to Italy was very traumatic and after 2 weeks Sharav seemed very ill. A local vet took many tests and advised Sharav was so anaemic he needed a blood transfusion and the chances of survival looked very poor. We were further advised that a transfusion should not be given without specialist examinations to find the cause. The specialists could not (would not?) see us over the weekend so we returned to the house to face Sharav's almost certain demise. We tried to feed him small pieces of liver and other food and prayed hard.
​On Monday onwards we made many visits to a facility a long journey from the house. Both the journey and the horrid exhaustive tests left Sharav permanently nervous and terrified of car trips. The tests revealed no internal injuries and all organs were sound and in working order for a dog of 12 years old.  They seemed confused by the fact that his bone marrow was still producing red blood cells although he had suffered severe anaemia. Surely they should have considered an autoimmune disease? It can be triggered by emotional trauma. It was only later, when Sharav was recovering (see blog entry below), that a local vet reviewed the stats that it was diagnosed correctly - Sharav should have died. I recently read of a beautiful 8 year old Saluki who did not survive even given correct emergency treatment. Mercifully, prayers and TLC worked in our case. He is the last of the line - so utterly loved. More about this disease will be posted up soon.  Anyone who has had a case please respond.....