Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Mystery Revealed and Lesson Learned

In my last post I asked for your prayers for Jenny, my Wiry Fox friend who had inexplicably become paralysed. Thank G-d Jenny girl is on the road to recovery thanks to the wonderful vets who diagnosed her bizarre and crippling affliction.

It seems poor Jenny has what is called Coonhound Paralysis. It seems Jenny developed an immune reaction to an antigen in raccoon saliva - so we think she was bitten by a raccoon! The result of the bite is paralysis, loss of bladder control and respiratory paralysis. There is no real cure, just supportive care - so Jenny should be back to herself in 4-6 weeks as she is getting excellent care from the vets and her family. Interestingly, Coonhound Paralysis is exactly like the Guillain Barre (aka John Barry) syndrome in humans.

So my wiry friends. Let's learn an important lesson from Jenny's unfortunate episode:

Stay away from raccoons!
I know it's tempting to chase and catch any creature that moves, but leave these coons alone, they are evil creatures who are lethal to our well-being. Unless you can operate a shotgun, I wouldn't go after them!

AGC