As the story has gotten around, and this is quite a complicated story, some questions are coming up repeatedly. This post will try to clarify as much as possible. Please send us a message via facebook if you have any questions that aren't answered here.
If you've landed here directly, please read The Story Of Peanut and The Current Complicated (dire) Situation for full details about what's been going on.
Follow Save Peanut on facebook for the latest updates.
Questions And Answers
- Who's Who?
- How Can I Help?
- Are You Planning To Keep Peanut?
- How Did Animal Control Find Out About Peanut's Wound?
- I Thought You Had Other Dogs, Are You Allergic To Them?
- Where Did You Find Peanut?
- Why Did You Take Peanut To North Carolina?
- Why Didn't You Take Peanut To A Shelter In Florida?
- How Exactly Was Peanut Injured?
- Is Her Wound Healed?
- Can You Do A Home Quarantine?
- Most Dogs Suspected Of Rabies Are Held For 10 Days. What's Up With The 6 Month Quarantine?
- Can't They Do A Titer Test?
- Wait, Aren't Stray Dogs Rescued With Wounds All The Time And Not Put Through This?
- Did Peanut Bite Anyone/Is She A Vicious Dog?
Who's Who?
Stacy - wife
Josh - husband
Peanut - dog we found
Animal Control, or OCAS - Orange County Animal Services (that's Orange County North Carolina)
How Can I Help?
Are You Planning To Keep Peanut?
Yes. Her previous owner has given us the OK to keep her once we get her out of this awful situation.
How Did Animal Control Find Out About Peanut's Wound?
Stacy reached out to Orange County Animal Control via their website. She was told by some local rescues that they were a really good resource (they have a very high placement rate at their shelter). Here's the complete email thread. The next thing Stacy knew, an animal control officer was on our doorstep.
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Stacy was trying to treat her reaction with over-the-counter drugs, as is somewhat obvious by her tone and mistyping in her e-mail to animal control.
We are planning to get Stacy's allergies tested and treated by a doctor; when this initially happened we didn't have health insurance, hence the self-medication - this will be changing very soon, and we'll get this sorted ASAP.
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| Lucy |
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| Flash |
I Thought You Had Other Dogs, Are You Allergic To Them?
We have two other dogs, Lucy and Flash, both miniature Dachshunds.
Lucy is 14, Flash is 12. We've had them both since they were puppies. Lucy is a smooth, short hair. Stacy is not allergic to her at all.Flash, however, is half long-hair, half sort, and as such, has a fine undercoat that makes him kind of fuzzy.
Stacy is mildly allergic to Flash, but has coped with this, quite well, over the years.
The severity of an allergic reactions to an animal has little to do with the breed or type of hair, and can vary from animal to animal.
From WebMD:
" You may have heard that some dog breeds trigger allergy symptoms while others don't, or that short-haired dogs are safe while long-haired dogs prone to shedding are not. But on the whole, experts say that isn't the case. In fact, two dogs of the same breed can each give off very different levels of allergen.
It's not the dog's hair or fur that's the real problem. Instead, people are usually allergic to the dander -- flakes of dead skin -- as well as the saliva and urine. So, no matter how long or short the hair, any dog can potentially cause an allergic reaction. "
Where Did You Find Peanut?
My parents live in Palm Bay, FL. It's in Brevard County. Just south of town, near the border of Indian River and Brevard County, there is a state park on one side of Babcock St (Brevard County Road 507), called St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park. It's beautiful, and a great fishing spot.
On the other side of Babcock, there's the The St. Johns Water Management Area , more commonly known as The Stick Marsh/Farm 13. This is another broad use area, where people fish and hunt. We specifically found Peanut in the parking lot by the boat ramps.
We were in the area taking pictures and enjoying the scenery. We were on a mission: Stacy wanted to see some unique Florida wildlife (she's originally from New England) - we wanted to take pictures of manatees and alligators. We saw both, but didn't get very good pictures of either.
Instead, we found a sweet dog that barely moved, with a noticeable sunburn on her nose. We asked the fishermen that were around if she belonged to them or if they knew who she belonged to. Nobody had any idea. We ran into a group of people who had come in before dawn - it was around noon when we found her, so she had been sitting there for at least 5 hours.
Why Did You Take Peanut To North Carolina?
We live in North Carolina. We found Peanut on October 11th while we were on vacation, visiting my family in Palm Bay, FL. We had to get back home by October 20th, since I was starting a new job.
We weren't sure what to do with her after we got her treated by the emergency vet. This was our first rescue, we were in completely uncharted waters.
We knew we didn't want her to end up in a kill shelter, so we started trying to connect with rescue organizations, and put some ads out to try to find her owner - the initial goal, if we couldn't find her owner right away, was to find her a foster so we could get back to NC and pick the search back up from there.
We didn't have the right connections, and we just ran out of time. We had no place to take her, and my parent's already were at their limit for dogs, so we did the only thing we could: took her home with us.
Why Didn't You Take Peanut To A Shelter In Florida?
The people we talked to (the emergency vet, the park ranger at the Stick Marsh) told us that the shelters in the area were high-kill shelters. We would not put her at risk of being put down. In the event we couldn't find the person who lost her, we wanted to see that she was given a fair chance to get healthy and get adopted, or worst-case, get into a temporary foster home.
We were then, and are now, willing to do whatever it takes to keep her safe and happy - when we found her in that parking lot, she became our responsibility. That's something we take very seriously.
Note all of the brush in the patches of land. This is extremely common in swampy areas in Central Florida. I'm fairly certain this is where the term "Stick Marsh" came from. If she hadn't been injured by a pig, a stick is the most likely cause - this is especially obvious to anyone, like me, who grew up spending time outdoors down there.
Again, pigs rarely contract rabies, and I have not found a case yet in my research of a pig transmitting it - and it seems when pigs are discussed, they mean domesticated pigs, not wild, feral hogs and boars.
I know for sure that sticks most certainly do not contract or transmit rabies.
We were then, and are now, willing to do whatever it takes to keep her safe and happy - when we found her in that parking lot, she became our responsibility. That's something we take very seriously.
How Exactly Was Peanut Injured?
We really don't know for absolute certain, since neither of us were present when it happened, but her wound was consistent with a dog hunting a wild pig, or being impaled by a stick running through brush.
We feel confident saying this, even though we are not vets, because Stacy has had EMT training and has studied different kinds of wounds.
When we found her initially, we thought she may have broken her leg - she was holding one paw closer to her chest, and didn't want to move.
It was approximately 3/8 of an inch in diameter, and not very deep. It wasn't accompanied by any additional marks. It was located under her forearm - in a human it would have been deep in her armpit. It's hardly an easy area to bite someone in.
I never got a good look at her wound. Stacy got a good look at it when the emergency vet was examining Peanut the day we found her. It was not easy to see from where I was sitting.
In fact, I had trouble getting the gauze in there when I was cleaning it the following week. It's important to note, she never once scratched at it, or even acted like it was bothering her at all. She didn't struggle when I'd clean it.
During our brief correspondence, Peanut's owner gave me some details about what they were up to the night she was lost. He used an airboat. He said for sure she was stuck by a pig.
Here's some up-close video of some wounds on a couple of dogs that were injured during a hog run. Note the wound at 0:24 - this is exactly what happened to Peanut, but by the time we found her, the blood had gone and it was just oozing pus.
Here's a video that was taken in the same general part of Florida where we found Peanut, that gives a fairly accurate (and not terribly violent, compared to other videos out there) account of what it's like to do the kind of hunting that Peanut was used for, the night she got injured.
We feel confident saying this, even though we are not vets, because Stacy has had EMT training and has studied different kinds of wounds.
When we found her initially, we thought she may have broken her leg - she was holding one paw closer to her chest, and didn't want to move.
It was approximately 3/8 of an inch in diameter, and not very deep. It wasn't accompanied by any additional marks. It was located under her forearm - in a human it would have been deep in her armpit. It's hardly an easy area to bite someone in.
I never got a good look at her wound. Stacy got a good look at it when the emergency vet was examining Peanut the day we found her. It was not easy to see from where I was sitting.
In fact, I had trouble getting the gauze in there when I was cleaning it the following week. It's important to note, she never once scratched at it, or even acted like it was bothering her at all. She didn't struggle when I'd clean it.
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| It takes the full weight of a mighty Dachshund to expose the "armpit" area on this Sheppard mix. |
Here's some up-close video of some wounds on a couple of dogs that were injured during a hog run. Note the wound at 0:24 - this is exactly what happened to Peanut, but by the time we found her, the blood had gone and it was just oozing pus.
Here's a video that was taken in the same general part of Florida where we found Peanut, that gives a fairly accurate (and not terribly violent, compared to other videos out there) account of what it's like to do the kind of hunting that Peanut was used for, the night she got injured.
It's intense, and chaotic, and wet. It's easy to see how a dog could get lost in all that, especially as the sun starts to set.
Note all of the brush in the patches of land. This is extremely common in swampy areas in Central Florida. I'm fairly certain this is where the term "Stick Marsh" came from. If she hadn't been injured by a pig, a stick is the most likely cause - this is especially obvious to anyone, like me, who grew up spending time outdoors down there.
Again, pigs rarely contract rabies, and I have not found a case yet in my research of a pig transmitting it - and it seems when pigs are discussed, they mean domesticated pigs, not wild, feral hogs and boars.
I know for sure that sticks most certainly do not contract or transmit rabies.
Is Her Wound Healed?
As for the current status of her injury: it was fully healed before we left Florida. I cleaned it every day while she was on antibiotics (7 days total), with a gauze pad and saline. After maybe 3 or 4 days, it stopped producing any marks on the pad - by the time Animal Control got a hold of her, she was fully recovered.Can You Do A Home Quarantine?
A lot of people have asked this. We asked Animal Control. They discussed it with the North Carolina Public Health Vet, and they've denied our request.
The reason why the request was denied wasn't explained to us. We guessed it was because we live in a small condo (about 1100 sq ft) in a community with many other people and dogs. When we asked initially, we were told that a basement is a minimum requirement. That may have been enough to disqualify us, but it's unclear if it was our situation or the idea of home quarantine at all.
The reason why the request was denied wasn't explained to us. We guessed it was because we live in a small condo (about 1100 sq ft) in a community with many other people and dogs. When we asked initially, we were told that a basement is a minimum requirement. That may have been enough to disqualify us, but it's unclear if it was our situation or the idea of home quarantine at all.
Most Dogs Suspected Of Rabies Are Held For 10 Days. What's Up With The 6 Month Quarantine?
When we first surrendered Peanut they assured us it would be a short 10-day quarantine. The following day Animal Control called Stacy and told her that Peanut would need to be quarantined for 6 months.
People offering to help us are not the only ones who are confused about this - we had no clue there was a requirement like this at all, and it seems Animal Control staff were also caught up by this misconception.
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| Note how they changed their mind. We only saw this because they forgot to give Stacy our carbon copy when she initially surrendered Peanut. |
When we pressed the Animal Control Manager about the change, she repeatedly said "we're just going by the CDC".
She didn't cite anything in particular, but we did find this information on the CDC website:
Any animal bitten or scratched by either a wild, carnivorous mammal or a bat that is not available for testing should be regarded as having been exposed to rabies.
Unvaccinated dogs, cats, and ferrets exposed to a rabid animal should be euthanized immediately. If the owner is unwilling to have this done, the animal should be placed in strict isolation for 6 months and vaccinated 1 month before being released.From reading about other people fighting quarantine, it's seems the 10-day holding period is typically only in cases when a healthy dog has bitten someone - if a dog has contracted rabies, the bite is assumed to be due to infection, and if it's sick, it will show acute signs of infection or die within that time period (source).
There is a summary of the NC law is available here.
Can't They Do A Titer Test?
A rabies titer test shows levels of rabies antibodies in an animal's blood. It can stand as proof that an animal has sufficient vaccination to resist infection by the virus.
I'm not entirely certain, but since we got Peanut vaccinated for rabies before we brought her to North Carolina, a titer test would be positive, but not relevant since they can't determine which antibodies came from the vaccination we got her, and which came from previous vaccinations.
Wait, Aren't Stray Dogs Rescued With Wounds All The Time And Not Put Through This?
They are indeed. We've heard from rescuers all over who have made this point. It's unclear what makes this case different.
Did Peanut Bite Anyone/Is She A Vicious Dog?
PEANUT HAS NOT BITTEN ANYONE.
Peanut has shown absolutely no signs of aggression. She's gotten along with a diverse set of people, including my parents, the vets, a groomer at PetsMart, some random folks at PetCo, and my sister who has Cerebral Palsy and walks with a noisy walker. She's been around 4 other dogs, mostly small ones, and has shown no signs of anything but curiosity and playfulness.
Peanut has shown absolutely no signs of aggression. She's gotten along with a diverse set of people, including my parents, the vets, a groomer at PetsMart, some random folks at PetCo, and my sister who has Cerebral Palsy and walks with a noisy walker. She's been around 4 other dogs, mostly small ones, and has shown no signs of anything but curiosity and playfulness.
When we took her to the vet, even though she was in pain, she didn't growl or struggle. She took her shots like a champ.
Peanut doesn't even bark - it's a feature of a good bay dog, and part of her breeding. Once in a while we've heard her howl a bit, similar to the vocalizations of a beagle, but only a couple of times while we had her - and never when we were in the room with her. She's a phantom howler :).
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