De-worming makes a real-life slum dog millionaire

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2009:

 

 

De-worming makes a real-life " slum dog millionaire "

Commentary by Merritt Clifton

 

" I walk through Kalhaar daily with my own

two former roadway dogs, so I know all the

street dogs here, " e-mailed Lisa Warden on

August 1, 2009 from the suburbs of Ahmedabad,

India.

" The dog pictured here just turned up

three days ago. I guess it's safe to say that

he's one of those who isn't going to make it,

don't you think? "

Perceiving emaciated street dogs, cats,

cattle, horses, and donkeys as starving and

irrecoverably suffering is the usual response of

Americans and Europeans to those whose bones

protrude as much as this dog's did--but I

recognized a different issue.

The problem in such cases is seldom that

the animal is not getting enough food,

especially in the streets of developing nations,

where refuse, rodents, and thriving populations

of street animals typically abound.

Rather, the problem is usually that the

animal is not getting adequate nutrition from the

food due to intestinal worms.

In this case, I had personally done a

dog census in the neighborhood where Warden found

the young dog, in January 2007, and had thereby

verified the abundance and accessibility of food

sources.

" He actually looks quite healthy-- no

sign of mange, tumors, or serious injury, " I

wrote back. " De-worm and fix the poor mutt and

he'll probably be just fine. "

Warden de-wormed him and had him

neutered. Three days later Warden posted video

of the rapidly recovering little dog to YouTube.

On August 8, 2009 Warden posted a second video,

showing the dog playing in a small park in front

of her home and that of her neighbor, Animal

Help founder Rahul Sehgal.

Warden had asked me for advice because

Sehgal was away sterilizing street dogs in

Bhutan, on behalf of the Humane Society

International division of the Humane Society of

the U.S.

In barely more than a week the dog's protruding ribs had receded.

" Someone in Canada saw him on Rajashree

Khalap's Indian pariah dog website and wrote me

asking if she could adopt him! So now he's going

to Canada! " Warden wrote on August 20. By

coincidence, adoptor Sarah O'Neill lives in the

same Ottawa neighborhood where Warden grew up,

but they were not previously acquainted.

Warden meanwhile had written often to

Ahmedabad newspapers in favor of restarting the

Animal Birth Control program that Animal Help

began in 2005, sterilizing 53,000 dogs in two

years before political foes cut off the funding.

Animal Help is now an Animal Birth Control

program service provider in several other cities,

including Bangalore, but no longer operates in

Ahmedabad.

Despite repeated efforts, Warden could

not get her letters published. But she had an

idea about how to remedy that, by prefacing her

message with a compelling true-life story and

before-and-after photos.

On August 21 the Times of India carried

the story of the " Slum Dog Millionaire " she had

rescued and his subsequent adoption on page one.

" Unfortunately, they didn't cover any of the

substantial points I raised with them about the

issues surrounding street dogs, " Warden

lamented. " I even gave them a media sheet I'd

put together, but no luck. I will approach

someone at a different paper soon about doing a

more serious article. "

On August 28 the Times of India followed

up. Warden's father and many longtime friends of

ANIMAL PEOPLE in the Ottawa and Montreal areas

sent the Times of India coverage to Canadian

media, knowing that the large and growing

Indo-Canadian community would forward any

coverage back home to India--and would thereby

increase appreciation of Indian street dogs.

Fourteen Canadian newspapers picked up

the " Slum Dog Millionaire " story within the next

three days. It reverberated to India, as

anticipated, and back again. On September 8 the

" Slum Dog Millionaire " made page one of the South

Asian Post, the leading news periodical serving

Indo-Canadians. The South Asian Post led from

the story of the one lucky little dog into a

discussion of Animal Birth Control programs and

dog issues in Delhi, Kolkata, Ludhiana,

Ahmedabad, Chennai, and Mumbai.

Beyond becoming the most famous dog in

both India and Canada, for a few days at least,

the dog had become an ambassador for all his

kind--before even acquiring a permanent name.

And all because Warden de-wormed him.

" I stress the importance of de-worming to

our vets, staff and volunteers, etcetra, "

Kathmandu Animal Treatment Centre founder Jan

Salter e-mailed from Nepal, " but have been cried

down on the premise that the dogs go back on the

streets and again pick up worms. I am not a vet,

so sometimes what I consider is just common sense

is not heeded. "

Every street dog is ex-posed to worms,

like every other scavenger and every animal who

eats from the ground. Street dogs often expose

themselves to worms by eating the feces of other

animals. Yet not every scavenging or grazing

animal is debilitated by worms. Dogs are known

to be especially resistant to debilitating worm

infestations.

" Although nearly all dogs are infested

with parasites at one time or another, most

develop an immunity that keeps worms in check, "

explain James M. Griffin, M.D., and Liisa D.

Carlson, DVM, in the Dog Owner's Home

Veterinary Handbook. " This immunity can break

down under conditions of stress or ill health.

When that happens, the worms increase in number

and eventually produce signs of intestinal

infection, including diarrhea, weight loss,

anemia, and blood in the feces. "

Among the most intensely stressed and

therefore vulnerable street dogs are juvenile

pups who have just been weaned.

Parasitologists have recently recognized

that healthy street dogs, like other wild

carnviores and non-human primates, keep worms

under control to some extent by eating grass.

Explained Cindy Engel in Wild Health: How

Animals Keep Themselves Well & What We Can Learn

From Them (2002):

" Grass seems to have two effects. One is

emetic, stimulating regurgitation or vomiting.

The other is a purgative scour, ridding the body

of worms farther down the intestine. Thus grass

could work at either end of the intestine,

depending on which orifice is nearest to the

problem. "

Noted Engel, " Herbalist Maurice

Mességue, " author of numerous books on the

healing properties of plants, " claims that some

dog species discriminate between different

grasses for different medicinal functions, using

hairy grasses for emetics and couch grass as a

purgative. "

Benjamin L. Hart, DVM and colleagues at

the University of California at Davis School of

Veterinary Medicine presented further findings at

the 2008 Central Veterinary Conference in San

Diego.

" Although the prevalence of plant eating

in domestic dogs and cats has not been

documented, " Hart opened, " wild canids and

felids in nature are known to eat grass and

plants-plant material has been found in 2% to 74%

of scats and stomach content samples of wolves

and cougars...One explanation, " Hart et al

finished, after reviewing and rejecting other

theories, " is that plant eating played a role in

the ongoing purging of intestinal parasites

(nematodes) in wild canid and felid ancestors who

were always exposed to intestinal parasites. As

observed in wild chimpanzees, who eat whole

leaves from a variety of plants, the plant

material passes through the intestinal tract,

increasing intestinal motility and wrapping

around worms and thereby purging the tract of

intestinal nematodes. "

Many animals, including street dogs,

also control external parasites to some extent by

such activities as dust-bathing, swimming, and

wading.

But whatever help these behaviors provide

to otherwise healthy animals, a stressed animal

may be attacked simultaneously by multiple

parasites, including worms, mange, ticks,

fleas, and fungal, bacterial, and viral

infections. The effects of each parasite

increase the animal's vulnerability to others.

Thus worm control is an essential part of any

sort of effective animal health care.

This is no new observation. It is part

of Ayurvedic medical teaching, which includes

recommendations of herbal oils that have been

given to dogs and other animals since ancient

times, to deworm them, fight mange, and keep

their coats healthy.

Giving dogs and cats an occasional dose

of an edible oil to keep their fur shiny is also

part of the western pet-keeping tradition.

Recalled Salter, " Our in-house dog Lucy,

whom we often mention in our blurbs, had

extremely bad mange. For years every volunteer

vet we had tried to treat it. Lucy would improve

for a while, but continued to have outbreaks,

and always had a nasty mousey smell, until a

volunteer vet from the Ukraine came a year ago

and treated her with mustard oil. It not only

did the trick at the time; she has not had an

outbreak since. And the smell is gone. "

Mustard oil is a natural fungicide. In

Lucy's case, the mustard oil may have killed a

persistent fungus that infected her after the

severe mange made her vulnerable.

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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