September 28, 2002

Doris Knight, the operator of the Morrow County Puppy Mill, was charged yesterday with 12 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty.  If convicted, Knight, 60, could be sentenced to a maximum of 90 days in jail and $750.00 fine on each charge according to the Morrow County prosecutor's office. Knight said her failing eyesight made it difficult to care for the animals.

September 23, 2002

All seven maltese have ear infections and ear mites. We did fecal samples on 4 of the seven, and so all are now being treated for whipworm and hookworm.  One was also positive for roundworm.  Only one has a luxating patella. Two males have heart murmurs, one grade 1 and the other grade 3. One male had a serious eye infection, one female had a milder one.  All are too thin and undernourished.  Some truly nasty mouths here!  Dylan the tiny boy (weighing only 3.5 pounds!)  has a mouth you can only describe as squishy.  All his teeth are loose, and just pulling his lips back to look makes them all move around.    I know we hurt him to get the pics, but it had to be done.  My vet said she thinks the scale only goes to 4, but she rates him at a grade 5 periodontal disease.  She has never seen a  worse mouth.  He will almost assuredly lose almost all of his teeth on Wednesday when he has his dental.  Torre is one of the females, and her mouth is next worse.

Alec is the youngest dog of the group.  Very little tartar on his teeth, and we are calling him 1 yr old.  We think he is a maltese-shih tzu mix, as he has a pronounced under bite.  But the thing with his teeth are that they are so crowded and crooked in his mouth.  We will probably still have to pull some of his teeth as well when he eventually goes in for a dental

Two dogs are having their dentals done on Wednesday, and three more on Thursday.  I will keep all the teeth that they pull, that should be pretty convincing.

Peanut and Raul (2 of the chihuahuas) are doing well.  I took them to the vet Tuesday.  Peanut needs all his teeth pulled and Raul has excessive tarter.  I was finally able to cut their nails back to a correct length.  I have Peanuts dental scheduled for next Wednesday the 25th.  They started him on antobiotics right away. They said it might take up to a month on antobiotics and pulling his teeth to save his mouth.   Neither dogs knew how to drink out of a dish.  Yesterday was the first day they did. 

September 19, 2002

Most of the dachsunds are anemic from having so many worms.

One of the dachsunds has a broken leg, blown knee, definite trauma.

One of the pregnant dachsunds is too old for puppies, has no milk.

white german shepherd is heartworm positive, extremely arthritic, almost blind,  severe dental disease, and about 10 yrs old

September 18, 2002

The pugs are doing well.  They are being treated for terrible ear infections.  Cleo has an ulcer on her left eye and Tony has cataracts and he cannot see very well.  Both are in desperate need of dentals.  They are loving freedom and have a large fenced yard to play in (yes! they are actually starting to play!)

September 16, 2002

The mother dogs are not producing enough milk to feed their babies because they are so malnourished. The foster families, vets, and volunteers are feeding them with bottles.

The older puppies do not have teeth yet because they aren't getting enough calcium from the very little milk they are getting from their moms.

Two of the Chihuahuas did not know how to walk on grass when they were set down but after a couple of hours they began sniffing the grass and rolling in it to their heart's delight.

All dogs examined so far have ear infections.

All of the mother dogs are underweight and malnourished.

One of the Boston terriers finally moved, ate, and ran in the yard for a long time.