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19 Jul 2007
Greetings from Marbella,
Spain.
This is in short the story
of a Saluki-girl named Natascha:
In July 2005 friends of
mine rescued a starving Saluki from an Egyptian
Compound and brought her
to their home in Marbella.
But, already having
several other dogs their capacity for providing a permanent home for this
one was not given.
So, all potential contacts
for a new home were informed of the situation.
When I first saw her all
bones with bleeding sores, she instantly became my new baby. At the time my
vet estimated her age at 1 to 1.5 and
X-ray images confirmed
that her hips had been broken in several places.
But she was mobile and
seemingly had no pain. She gained weight, her sores began to disappear
- and she got her
first period. She was immediately sterilized mainly because my vet had
told me that giving birth would be a disaster for her.
Around March 2006 I
noticed her breathing being crampy.
She was diagnosed with
Chylothorax. During the worst period 1 liter was accumulating per day. The
cause was thought to be a thrombi in her heart.
A chest tube was inserted
into her thorax and thrombi dissolving drugs were
Administered. A race
against time began: The chest tube was meant to stay
Inside for a maximum of 4
to 5 days(infection risk), but after those 5 days, she was still producing
masses of chyle. Her weight had gone from 15 to 9 kg...
Not being able to afford a
recommended new chest tube placement and also
Not seeing the merit of
it, I decided to leave the original tube in place.
Natascha was never
hospitalized because I felt that the possible benefits
Would not outweigh the
negative effects of stress she would have been exposed to.
After 5 weeks she ripped
the tube out after I had made the mistake of
Reducing her bandage to a
minimum.(1647, 1454, 1513, 1535 show her
With the chest tube and
varying bandaging).
At this point, the thrombi
Had almost dissolved
completely and chyle production was down to 70+
Ml.per day.
Her condition began to
improve again, even though her lungs never inflated to
An acceptable size. Also, fibrosing
pleuritis seemed to be another factor
For her exercise
intolerance.
Early this year 2007 her
breathing seemed to get worse, small amounts of chyle
were found again in
her chest but no cause. She was put on bioflavonoids
(hesperidin and rutin) and
up to now she seems relatively fine.
Picture 1888 was taken
recently during an evening stroll through the
Back country with my
3 dogs. Pic 2153 was an emotion directed towards
My Malinois in regards to
food matters. 
The other pics show one of
my cats cuddling with her (- all my dogs and cats
Get along better than most
humans do).
Being a dedicated Saluki
site, could you possibly get me a list of U.S.
Vets who are experienced
with this breed? I am looking for blood analysis
Values specific to
this breed (that is sight hounds in general) and also for
Side chest x-ray images of
Salukis in order to have a comparison.
More Pictures:
Please address your comments to natascha@saluki.org
