Let’s talk about something unpleasant. Not because we like to harass you, but because GDV is one of the most common causes of death in dogs and the quick reaction of the owner may save lives.

What is GDV?

Sometimes, the dog’s stomach swells and rotates. This rotation closes in the stomach food, liquids and gas, presses the blood vessels and the organs, blood support decreases and the dog may die very fast.

With fast and adequate reaction, usually by a surgical help, the stomach may return to its normal position.

Causes:

The factors causing GDV aren’t completely known by the vets. Most often (but not always and not only) these may be:

Stress:

In fearful dogs or at stressful situations like during fireworks, change of routine, loss of owner etc.

Bad eating habits:
Fast eating; eating or drinking immediately after or before physical activities, eating too much amounts etc.

Heredity:

• Anatomical features in some breeds (large dogs, especially those with a narrow chest);
• In dogs whose parents had GDV;

Age:
Most common in old dogs;

Precautions:

• Feeding in small portions;
• Eating at least an hour prior or after physical activities;
• Avoiding stress

Symptoms:

Anxious behavior, salivation;

Attends for vomiting, vomiting foam;

Darkening of the gums – at first it may be dark red, then violet-blue;

Belly swelling;
Increased pulse rate

GDV is an extremely urgent condition! If you notice one or more of the symptoms, do not hesitate and hurry to your vet. It is much better to raise false alarm, than to wait too long and loose the chance for survival of the dog.

Eva

Eva is about 10 years old and 9 of them she has spent with us. She is a fearful and shy dog and gets stressed easily by changes and new people.

One late evening, after the vets and most staff have already left the shelter, Indre, one of our dog carers noticed that Eva is roaming in her kennel.  Indre enters to check on her and sees that Eva is trying to vomit. All our dog carers are trained to inform the vets every time they see unusual behavior in a dog, so Indre immediately called Dr Polly Ilieva.

Of course, Dr Polly recognized the symptoms and Eva was quickly brought at Central Vet Clinic for surgery.
We are extremely grateful to Dr Ranko Georgiev and his team, who saved Eva’s life!

As GDV often recurs again, after a while Dr Polly made a preventive surgery – it is stitching the gut into one of the ribs and that way stopping it from further rotation.

Eva is now feeling well and back in her kennel in “The Farm”.

Photo credit: Ivanka Patterson Photography

Very often we have to fight dirofilariasis. Very often we tell you about it, because if we don’t speak about it, owners do not make what is necessary to ensure the prevention of dirofilariasis for their dogs, and the disease will become more and more common …

Astrid came to us from “Ekoravnovesie” – the municipality shelter. The young dog had a fair chance for a good and long life, but not if untreated for the dirofilariasis that she had. So, here she is with us, for treatment.

Last week when we told you about another dog with dirofilaria – Morella – the donations that were raised were enough to treat Astrid as well.

Today we introduce you to Astrid and we thank you deeply for standing by us in the thousands of fights for lives that we lead every year!

Photo credit: Ivanka Patterson for Stardust Pictures

We aren’t scared easily, but when we saw the enormous size of Rantzy’s testicles, one word came into our minds and frightened us a lot – brucellosis.

The measures we took to stop the spread of the “brucellosis” now look funny, since we know he came with a testicle tumor.

As the shelter is extremely overcrowded, our plan for Rantzy was to operate him and when he recovers – release him back at his area.

We guess he didn’t like our plan. The evening before his planned release, he made pancreatitis.

Rantzy recovers well from it and there are no spreads of the tumor. But after we fought for his life twice, we decided to keep him in “The Farm”, when he is ready.

Very soon he will be as good as new!

Do you know who’s that cat? No?
Ok, not a problem – we don’t know either. Our photographer – the wonderful volunteer from Stardust Pictures – Ivanka, has found these photos in her archive from December.

And at that period we had not one, not two, but three white cats, patients in the clinic.

We couldn’t agree on the quiestion which one of the three cats is this one, but the reason to tell you a little bit about some cats’ diseases stayed.

This could be the cat Galka, treated in our clinic for mycoplasma felis. This disease can cause mucopurulent conjunctivitis and a mild upper respiratory infection, with clinical signs and lesions overlapping those seen with chlamydiosis, FVR, and FCR infections.

If this is Galka, she was completely healed, castrated and returned in her colony.

The second white cat, which is a possible photomodel here, is Krastan. Krastan came in extremely bad condition – he had feline immunodeficiency virus, giardia and teeth infections. Like AIDS in people, FIV is also transmitted through blood (mainly through deep bite wounds) and sexual contacts. FIV is widespread throughout the stray cats colonies in Sofia. FIV is only transmitted from cat to cat and is not any danger for humans.
Unfortunately, it was too late to help Krastan and he passed away.

The third possibility is Belcho. He came with heavy anemia, caused by the many parasites. After proper deworming and few days of infusions, Belcho recovered fast and was returned in his colony. Like all cats we treat and release back, Belcho was also neutered.

“The Farm” is a dog shelter and we rarely have the possibility to keep the cats we treated and look for adopters. If you want us to help us more cats, you may become a foster – write us at office@arsofia.com to give you more information.

The adventures of the small cat in the big world.

One of the sweetest and purring kittens came to us with a pelvis fracture.

It is not an injury by a car. Most likely – it is by an injury by someone’s foot. We are not sure, so better not discuss it.

Sony had an emergency operation – young animals heal so fast, that there isn’t any time for doubts.

He doesn’t see the cars coming, because he is blind.
He doesn’t hear the horns of the angry drivers, because he is deaf.

He is not at home. He is on a main road, minutes away from being hit and killed.

There is a chain around his neck. A memory from the time when he wasn’t blind and deaf and had a home.

It hurts to imagine the fear and the terror, when he realized he is no longer at home, but at a place unknown and scary. A place he couldn’t even see or hear.

It hurts to imagine, how confused he was, wondering why isn’t he at home and what did he do wrong…

We don’t know the reason Pancho lost his sight and hearing. To find it out, we need to make a lot of test and examinations – most of them, really expensive (for example – the nuclear magnetic resonance alone, costs 350 BGN and it is not at all the only thing we must do).

We won’t lie to you. Most probably, even when we have a diagnosis, we won’t be able to reverse his condition.

But there is a spark of hope. A tiny chance for disease we can heal.

Pancho’s world is scary, without his senses.

Our world is empty, without hope.

Dear friends,

We would be extremely grateful, if you make a donation for Pancho.
Without promises, without expectations of miracle.

With only hope.

Via bank transfer:

IBAN BGN: BG07FINV91501215999954;

IBAN EUR: BG50FINV91501215999956

BENEFICIARY: A R Sofia Foundation; 23 James Bourchier blvd, Sofia, Bulgaria

Lorena. Homeless. Hopeless. But power and courage? She has plenty of them!

She was hit by a car and lost all chances of ever walking again. But yet, Lorena continued forward.

She kept on fighting, crawling, keeping her life at all costs.

Lorena is a mother. And a mother cannot give up.

She cannot give up, when four newborns rely on her – to feed them, to warm them.
She cannot give up, when four hearts beat only, because she is still fighting!
Taking Lorena was a hard decision – a hopeless case!
Not taking Lorena was impossible! She may be homeless. But she is not hopeless!

Stay by us, dear friends! For Lorena and for the hope!

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IBAN BGN: BG07FINV91501215999954; IBAN EUR: BG50FINV91501215999956

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SMS DMS DOG НА 17 777

1 лев дарение за абонати на vivacom, telenor и m-tel (няма ДДС)

Photo credit: Ivanka Patterson for Stardust Pictures

Hannes is wonderful! Hannes is young and cuddly, playful and smiling!

Hannes is also abandoned and sick…

More and more dogs in Bulgaria suffer from heartworm. The owners of dogs like Hannes haven’t even heart of this disease and do not take any precautions for their dogs.

And when the hunting dog gets sick, when it starts coughing and becomes too skinny – it is time not to treat it, but to abandon it…

Hannes got lucky. He is with us at “The Farm” and step by step we are leading him to the healthy and happy life.

The treatment for heartworm is very expensive and risky for the dog. It is way cheaper to prevent it – many brands now have medications against it.

Being a responsible pet owner is a question of life and death! Inform yourself and include the prevention for heartworm in your monthly activities.

During the next couple of months, Hannes will be treated for the disease. We will sure stay by him.
Please, stay by us, because only together we help!

Our clinic works for the homeless animals in distress every day of the year and we continue to introduce our patients to you! Because your donations are the only reason we manage to help them!

This young chap is Pero – a small sized dog, who came to us after a meeting with a vehicle.

Pero comes from a small village near Pazardzik – he got really lucky to be found and brought to “The Farm”.

Pero has neurological problem with one of his paws and more examinations and checks will follow. A specialist must let us know, if there is something we can do to make his life better.

For now he just enjoys his warm bed and doesn’t regrets his life choices.

Thousands of dogs like Pero come to our clinic sick or injured and leave next to their new owners healthy and happy!

You may also become a regular rescuer, by donating:

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Лева

Плащането се осъществява чрез ePay.bg

FIBank; 37 Dragan Tzankov blvd, Sofia, BG; SWIFT: FINV BG SF

IBAN BGN: BG07FINV91501215999954; IBAN EUR: BG50FINV91501215999956

BENEFICIARY: A R Sofia Foundation; 23 James Bourchier blvd, Sofia, BG

SMS DMS DOG НА 17 777

1 лев дарение за абонати на vivacom, telenor и m-tel (няма ДДС)

Thank you!

This small homeless leopard caught our eye, because her painful weakness. We thought that a cat so skinny, is probably sick.

This is how, instead of roaming the streets of Rousse, she ended in “The Farm”.

Unfortunately, we were right – she has kidney failure. She is now under treatment and only eats special food.

It is a pleasure to see, that she already improves.

The girl from Rousse is sweet and cuddly cat. The fact we helped her survive, makes us extremely happy!
Thank you, for being with us! Together we help!

Photo credit: Ivanka Patterson for Stardust Pictures

Few days ago, four puppies arrived. They were found outside a village, in the reed. They were severely wounded – bitten by something, bleeding and sick. The blood loss and the parvovirus make their survival very unlikely.

One of the pups died the same evening.

The others are still fighting, along with our vet team.

Side by side by our donors, who make helping dogs like the reed puppies possible.

If you want to help us continue our work, you may donate:

Euro

Euro

One Time Donation: Monthly Donation:

Please wait...

Лева

Плащането се осъществява чрез ePay.bg

FIBank; 37 Dragan Tzankov blvd, Sofia, BG; SWIFT: FINV BG SF

IBAN BGN: BG07FINV91501215999954; IBAN EUR: BG50FINV91501215999956

BENEFICIARY: A R Sofia Foundation; 23 James Bourchier blvd, Sofia, BG

SMS DMS DOG НА 17 777

1 лев дарение за абонати на vivacom, telenor и m-tel (няма ДДС)

Photo credit: Ivanka Patterson

Sad, but true – despite all our efforts, sometimes the reason for a doggie to end up in the ER, are his roommates in the kennel.

Gunter is with us since he was a tiny little puppy. He was found by German tourists in… wait for it… Macedonia and as they weren’t aware he cannot cross borders just like that, at the end he came to us.

And because he was so tiny and young, he spent long time in the clinic, before he was fully vaccinated and ready to go with the others.

Though, his 4 roommates, although they are his size, attacked him yesterday.

Gunter is fine, just a bit scared, but we will keep him in the clinic for a bit more, because we don’t have other possibilities to place such a peanut.

“The Farm” is overcrowded for months. Dumping puppies in front of our door at night, became a threat for our existence – the lack of space and the overcrowding is not only dangerous in the way Gunter suffered. It also may cause spread of diseases, exhaustion of the staff and lack of funds to cover the expenses of all those animals.

Gunter and many like him need us. To help them, we need your help! You may help us continue, by donating:

First Investment bank,

SWIFT: FINVBGSF,