I wished my remembrance of the tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001 was something more
somber and adequate to the horrible tragedy that passed that day. However, I was passing a normal Sunday here
in Honduras. You know, washing some clothes in the pila, cleaning the house and running
around the corner to the pulperia
(small neighborhood market) to grab some eggs and rice for lunch.
As I came back into the yard I saw my dog, Frijoles, and
called her to come as per the usual when I get home. She ran over and immediately fell to my feet
whining and crying. Completely
bewildered as to what her problem was I noticed she was keeping her left eye
shut. The eye was very watery and was
starting to have some weird discharge gathering. Due to this event I recently learned how
strong I am in my own crisis. I’m a rock
when it comes to helping others out, but seeing Frijoles suffering and upset
was killing me and I nearly panicked.
My first call was to another Peace Corps friend whose dog
had died after eating poison. By this
point I’d put some eye drops (yes, the kind for humans) in Frijoles’ eye and
brought her inside. She’d gotten very
lethargic and was just lying there whining and had also begun drooling. When I finally got my friend on the phone I
start crying and asked her to tell me the story of what happened when her dog
got poisoned, even though I’d heard it multiple times. That helped to reassure me that Frijoles
hadn’t been poisoned. My friend was with
one of her Honduran friends and his advice was to give her milk. Frijoles simply ignored the milk I put in
front of her, which worried me even more, since she usually goes crazy for any
“human food”.
My next call was to my stepmom since she’s always had dogs
and I figured she’d know what to do.
Luckily she was at home and was able to find information on homeopathic
medicine for dogs on the Internet, something I can’t do from home here in Honduras. At first she’d thought it was possibly parvo
or distemper, but Frijoles has been vaccinated against both of those. With those ruled out and having the
information that it was an eye problem the best information was to make a
saline solution and flush Frijoles’ eye.
I set water to boil and then called my friend who had given
me Frijoles. She passed me on to her mom
who also suggested a saline solution.
Two for two with the saline solution, so I knew I was on the right
track. My friend’s mom also said I
should visit the “vet” (who, as far as I’m aware, hasn’t actually studied
veterinary medicine but has dedicated herself to the care of animals) Monday,
since naturally everything is closed on Sundays here in Pueblo-ville, Honduras. I thanked her, finished making the saline
solution and flushed Frijoles’ eye. That
was all I could do for the day.
First thing Monday when I checked Frijoles’ eye it was
completely covered by a white layer, very much resembling a cataract. “She’s gone blind in this eye,” I told
myself. Putting her on the leash and
taking her to the vet, she confirmed my thought and said, “She’s lost the
vision in that eye.” It made me sad to
think my poor Frijoles would live the rest of her life one eyed, but at least
she was alive. The vet gave Frijoles a
series of antibiotic shots (which are more common than pills here) and as I
took her home I passed by my friend’s house, the one who I’d called the day
before. They looked at the eye and said,
“You need to make a solution of urine and honey and put drops of that in her
eye. It worked for Jorge’s dog out in San
Marcos.”
Willing to give it a shot, I started running around town
trying to find natural honey and a dropper.
The urine…well, that was another story.
My friend has a two year old kid who is potty training so, I think
that’s how we got that ingredient. I take
the honey to my friends and ask if they could also happen to watch Frijoles
that night since I was heading into Tegucigalpa
to catch the Raiders on Monday Night Football (they won, so it made the trip
totally worth it). They said sure and I
took off for the capital.
Getting home on Tuesday morning I picked Frijoles up along
with the new honey/urine solution and the instructions of giving her a few
drops twice a day. In the two and a half
weeks since her incident, I think I’ve given Frijoles the drops maybe five
times. However, every time I see my
friends and they ask if I’m still giving the drops I tell them I am. Frijoles eye is also almost back to 100%. As to what happened no one will ever
know. There is one small white spot on
the bottom edge of her iris, but aside from that the white cover is nearly
gone. Maybe it was a bee or wasp sting,
maybe she actually ran into something, maybe a toad or tarantula spit some
venom at her. I’ll never now, since it
happened in the ten minutes I was gone to the store. And what’s made it better? Maybe it was time, but maybe there is
something to be said for that home remedy of a urine/honey solution. I’ll also never know since I didn’t
administer the drops according to schedule.
While the whole thing is full of mystery, I’m just glad my
‘ol dumb girl, Frijoles, is almost back to being perfectly healthy again and
her sweet natured self. Hopefully she
learned her lesson to stay away from whatever it was that got her in the first
place. Go figure, I try to take good
care of her and something like this happens.
I’m sure I’ve mentioned our saying before, “Honduras always wins.” It’s true; Honduras
has racked up a ton of points against me, but when she starts messing with my
dog that’s just not cool. Not cool at
all Honduras!
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| Frijoles on Monday, Sep. 12 - the day after her incident |
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| Close up of her bad eye looking like she'd lost her vision |
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| Normal eye also Moday, Sep. 12 |
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| Frijoles today - Friday, Sep. 30 |
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| Close up of her bad eye also today - Friday, Sep. 30. Almost all better! |
On a side note October starts the seven month countdown for
finishing my Peace Corps service. It’s a
little crazy to think I’ve got twenty months behind me, but that’s the truth of
it. To anyone who’s been a faithful
reader all these twenty months, thanks so much!
Hasta la proxima vez…
