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Bark Nation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Your extremely valued donation is tax-exempt and will be utilized to do the most good to #EndDogfighting.
Bark Nation's #Great108 Campaign!
Bark Nation's #Great108 Campaign!

$40,697

Raised

Donations

$108,000

Goal

12/17/2021
33% to Our Goal: Babesia BLOWS!
You know what else comes with a mass influx of dogfighting survivors? A mass influx of medical treatments. This group was no different from any other group of dogs we've seen come through our #pitnessprotection shelter. 
One of the diseases we treat most often in our shelter is Babesia. What is Babesia? 
 Good question! 
Babesia is a nasty infection that can lie dormant in dogs for years (or their lifetime), and can also rear it's ugly head and cause severe anemia, requiring immediate intervention. Babesia is a tick-bourne infection that can also be passed between dogs that deliver deep-tissue bites to one another (hello, dogfighting), and during birth from mom to puppies. 
Babesia is most common in southern states (tick season is year round!), so our regular service vets up here in Michigan are sometimes stumped when we call in an emergency saying we have a survivor that's crashing from Babesia. When a dog becomes clinical for Babesia (lethargic, anemic, loss of appetite, dehydration), they are high risk and could pass if we don't get them treatment ASAP. 
Another risk we see with Babesia is sending our survivors out for surgery. Putting their body through any kind of surgery, even something as routine as a spay/neuter, can cause the dormant Babesia to flare up and threaten to take their life. We also see a higher risk in Babesia positive puppies - as their little bitty immune systems are brand new, and their bodies can't build up a reserve of red blood cells. 
We test every single survivor for Babesia during their intake exam. It's as routine for us as giving vaccines and running heartworm tests. Overall, about 40% of the dogs we bring through our shelter are Babesia positive.


SO, what do we do about Babesia?


We treat it! And sometimes, we treat it again, and again, and again. Once a dog is positive for Babesia, it will be a threat to that dog for the rest of their lives. We can treat, and then get a negative test result, but Babesia can always return. This is why our team shouts from the rooftops how much #babesiablows. 


How do we prevent Babesia? GIVE FLEA/TICK PREVENTION EVERY. SINGLE. MONTH. TO EVERY. SINGLE. SURVIVOR in our care! And, we don't fight dogs. Obviously. 


Treatment for this horrendous disease is costly - we spend roughly $500 PER DOG to get that negative test result. And then, we keep that dog on watch any time we know they're going in for surgery so we can be prepared if we get a second flare up. 


Treatment is a total of 10 days, and oral doses need to be given strictly every 8 hours. This is where our badass #P2Crew comes in, yet again, to save the f'ing day! For almost two weeks, members of our team come in, on top of their regularly scheduled daily care shifts, at 6am, 2pm, and 10pm, do handle our Babesia med drops and make sure every single survivor receives and ingests every single dose of their medication. 


Along with our volunteers handling the med pass out, we also rely heavily on our in-house medical team (again, ALL volunteers), to purchase and dose out the correct medication, to create and track treatment schedules, to test, and retest, and retest survivors who are high-risk and make sure everything looks good, and to work hand-in-hand with our, equally as badass, DVM team on escalated treatment plans. 


Wow. That was a lot of info. That was a lot of Babesia talk. Please enjoy #dogfightingsurvivor, Cornbread, anxiously awaiting his beef/cheese flavored Atovaquone aka Babesia-busting-liquid-gold to be hand delivered by our team. 


Let's end dogfighting. Let's end cruelty. Let's end Babesia.

Edited 12/15/2021
12/15/2021
32% to Our Goal: Cuttin' Chains & Takin' Names!
Typically, dogs born into dogfighting are purposefully bred to be on the smaller side. The average survivor we take in at Bark Nation is somewhere in the 40lb range. This is for a variety of reasons - one of them being the ability to easily handle and manage two dogs actively engaging in a match. 
What's also common in dogfighting, is housing these 40lb dogs on thick, heavy, tow-style chains, sometimes wrapped around trees or locked to buried car axles or cement blocks in the ground. Often times, these chains are padlocked to the dog, and the collar is so tight it's rubbing the dog's neck raw. 
It's not uncommon for our team to arrive on a location to see 'bow-legged' dogs attached to these chains. These dogs weren't born bow-legged. Their front half is literally weighed down to the point that their bone structure starts to change from the weight of the chain connected to their collar. 
Can you imagine, for just a minute, what it must feel like to have a collar so tight it's starting to constrict your airways? Being attached to a chain that likely weighs the same that you do? Not being able to escape the 6' dirt circle you're confined to because of that heavy chain?
That's the reality that our survivors live, day in and day out. One of our favorite things is being able to arrive on a property and cut our dogs off their chains. There's something so freeing about hearing the clink of the bolt cutters and seeing that dirty, heavy chain fall to the ground for good. 
Our team would like to dedicate the cutting of these chains last month to the Wagginbarkrace - who selflessly provided a $10,800 matching donation on #givingtuesday2021. Because of them, and because of all of YOU, who donated to receive the match, our survivors will never have to feel the weight of this heavy chain again. 
So far, we're about 32% to our goal of $108,000. Help our team be able to continue to cut these horrifically heavy chains, and support our mission to #enddogfighting.