Chihuahua People Forum banner

Munchausen By Proxy in Dogs - What Would You Do?

602 views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  Ari1405 
#1 ·
Ok, I’m still a newbie here so please forgive me for posting this in the newbie's area. (This is the only place I can post anything). - Maybe it could be moved when moderated to a more suitable location?

Now, just to clarify, I do not have Munchausen By Proxy Syndrome. My wee Chi Chico is in superb health. My problem is that I know a dog which is a victim of his owner projecting lots of illnesses onto him and it has completely broken my heart. Here’s my story:

I live on a tiny Island called Gozo in the Mediterranean and last year was my year from hell. Out of the blue, my life partner decided to break up after eight years and run off with all our money. From May to December I was, therefore, in crisis mode trying to work, save, and keep a roof over me and my dog Chico’s head. Then, walking home one day, a tiny stray Chi came running up to me and literally into my arms.

He was just skin and bone. He had barely any fur. He was infested with ticks and fleas, and I simply couldn’t walk on by. In this case, I picked him up, isolated him in my bathroom, and when my dog Chico was fed, I sat and scrubbed the new little man in the bath. De-flead and wormed, I then introduced the new little man to my dog and made him dinner.

There was only one problem. My landlord hated dogs. There was no way I could keep the new Chi and so the next day I planned to take him to the local SPCA animal shelter (which never euthanize animals). On my way there, though, I met an older lady who had just moved to the area and she said, “oh don’t take him to the SPCA, if you can keep him for a week, I’ll take him when I move into my new house.”

Stupidly, I agreed to this, even though I didn’t know this person very well. Then, 1-week turned into 2-months as the lady in question was delayed in moving out of her hotel and into her new home. What’s more, in this time, I and the new dog who I named Aries became great friends. I house trained him. I walked him 3 times a day with my existing Chi, and his health improved amazingly. But he had to go...

Finally handing him over with a supply of food and his doggy bed and a few blankets, I initially decided to stay away while Aries got accustomed to his new home. The only problem was, I had just unknowingly re-homed him with a maniac.

Susan (a completely fake name I just made up for this post) didn’t walk Aries, aside from once in the morning around the corner (about 30 yards) to where she had coffee. She then started to complain that Aries was having his number one toilet movements inside, even though she had a garden which she could easily open the door to three times a day. And.... Well, Aries just started to deteriorate.

In this case, I decided to call around once every afternoon, pick Aries up and take him on a long walk with my dog. What’s more, he loved this. Then one day, I noticed that he had fleas again and told Susan, his new owner, what she should buy to remedy this. What resulted, however, was a debate about whether or not Aries had fleas or not, followed by an accusation that if he did, he must have caught them from my dog.

I was shocked by this. You could see the fleas with your own eyes and in summer where I live, every dog needs treating for fleas at some point. What I was more shocked by, though, was the fact that Aries new owner was telling people how in the past, Aries had been horribly abused and that’s when I realized that his new owner was really not the right person to keep any animal.

If Aries was sick, the symptoms would be ignored. While he wasn’t, however, he would have different sicknesses projected onto him and be constantly fed garbage. All he has to do is move and he gets an almost meal sized treat, as well as a pile of the cheapest wet food twice a day. Moreover, literally in the space of a few months, his teeth yellowed, his poops loosened, and his coat started to get patchy.

And then all hell broke loose. I had to move to a new area at the last minute and this meant that I couldn’t walk Aries every day anymore.

That said, prior to leaving, I took him (and his new owner) with me to my vet for a thorough checkup, the result of this was a clean bill of health. What upset me about this experience, however, was that at the end of the check-up, Aries new owner burst out with a story about how Aries constantly marks his territory inside and that she was hoping that having him castrated would fix this. To my horror, the vet said yes and while this might be true, I was a bit thrown by how someone can keep a dog locked inside for 23 hours a day and be confused when they wee! This and how Aries owner managed to craft her argument in such a way which purposefully ommitted this very key piece of information.

Anyway, fast forward 3 months and I decided to call in on my old ‘friend’ and I was horrified. Aries was a pup and is now a bloated old man who whimpers rather than barks or makes his usual dog noises. Apparently, after I left, his new owner started going backward and forwards to a new vet to have problems such as, ‘Aries doesn’t know when he is pooping’ investigated. - i.e. I didn’t let this dog outside for two days and he just pooped in the kitchen.

The result of this is that he is on daily steroids for a broken back (which was diagnosed without X-rays). Worse, his middle feels like a blown up ball, he wheezes, and I’m completely devastated. In this case, I asked if I could take him for the weekend every week to take him on walks etc. His new owner, however, said no. She doesn’t trust ME to attend to all of his complex medical needs and apparently, she needs to call the vet every 3 days to update him on how his latest medication is working.

I then asked if I could at least take him for a walk. His owner said yes but as soon as she started to suspect that I didn’t agree with how she was looking after Aries, told me that no, I couldn’t even take him for a walk.

Now, to put this in some more perspective, this person seems to have a need for contact with authority figures. She has no money but often approaches real estate agents to get driven round and shown houses which she presumably plans on purchasing. In like regard, she schedules meetings with lawyers to discuss setting up a business, even though she has no real means or plans to. This being the case, I feel that she is now trying to get the attention she needs from a vet who she can see each week and list a host of imaginary medical problems. In fact, I think this is precisely why she has chosen to take Aries to a new vet rather than the one who I originally registered him at. My vet, after all, certainly wouldn’t mediate a dog for a spinal injury without an X-ray.

Sadly, as well as already feeling responsible for this, I have likely just made things worse by making my thoughts on the matter known to Aries owner. On my last visit, there was a distinct impression from the moment I walked in the door that I was being made to sit and be told how dire Aries health problems were and at the very first suggestion from me that these might not be real, I was told that I would be asked to leave if I continued questioning the matter.

Then it just got weird as I was told that I was to blame for these problems, namely because I never realized things like Aries didn’t know when he was pooping and I made him walk too much when I used to take him. So, I lost it. I told Aries owner that she clearly needed Aries to be sick and that not letting me even take him for a walk simply didn’t make any logical sense. In fact, I then got thrown out for saying this.

The thing is, I need a way to fix this.

I can’t take Aries on as it is incredibly difficult to find a landlord where I live who will allow you to have one dog, never mind two. In an ideal world, I’d therefore like Aries to simply be put in the care of a shelter which will find him a new, more responsible owner. The only question is, how do I fight someone who has a vet who (presumably because they like the regular income) is actually enabling this situation?

I’m sorry for the long post. This really is just breaking my heart and I need to both get the matter off my chest and reach out for a solution.
 
See less See more
#2 ·
Oh, my! What a difficult position to be in! I am sure we would all be as angry and frustrated as you are in this situation.

I don't know how your SPCA or animal control works there, but I wonder if they have their own vet that would look at the dog if you reported the owner to them. Maybe if there was an authority figure that would guide her in the right direction, she would possibly listen. Of course, then you are making her their problem, which I would be loathe to do to an organization that already has so much good work to do without making any money from it. I don't really see you being able to resolve this without bringing someone else in, though, not with you being persona non grata right now.

I was once in a somewhat similar situation, but by the time I heard the dog was not being taken care of, the person who had her didn't want her anymore, so I was able to get her back and place her with my veterinarian. It hurts so much to know I contributed to her being used and made ill by a person I thought would love her.
 
#3 ·
That sounds like a lot to handle. I'm not too sure if I understood but basically the lady is not treating Aries right and the vet is basically "going along" with it prescribing medications. And the dogs isn't looking healthy at all..?
That's tough. I honestly have no clue what to say especially with the fact that she has "vet proof"
Have you tried telling her you'll take the "problem" dog off of her hands. If you really want to and can maybe offer money.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top