In process of rescuing a dog from abroad but concerned..

[Stumpedasatree]

We are hoping to adopt a young street dog from Turkey. She is currently staying with a foster person while she has her vet checks and immunisations before coming to the UK. The foster carer has noticed that she pants for a long while and makes some odd breathing noises after she’s been playing with her other dogs. She is worried and I’m worried about this. The vet there has checked her over and hasn’t found anything yet. Just wondering if this is something potentially serious, does anyone have any experience? She’s around 1.5 years old and a small-medium mongrel type dog. We’ve been told it could be reverse snoring.

I've not heard of reverse snoring only reverse sneezing which is easily stopped by gently cupping your hand over the mouth and nose of the snout for a moment.

Personally with all the healthy dogs in U.K. rescues needing homes I wouldn't adopt a potentially sick animal from another country.

Yes sorry, it was reverse sneezing that was mentioned. I agree, but we did really fall for this dog when we saw her.

My dog reverse sneezes but very rarely and he never pants or struggles to breathe because of it.

I have to say it sounds nothing like reverse sneezing from what you describe - more likely a heart condition.

This is crazy. Adopt from the UK.

Did you actually physically see her or was it just a cute doggy picture on the Internet?

Give your head a wobble - walk away!

Just wanted to say that as someone who has rescued two dogs from southern Italy after discovering the awful conditions of municipal pounds and having personally facilitated successful UK-Italy adoptions, I can totally empathise with the feeling of falling for a dog from a photo alone. Obviously you’ll want to make sure the dog doesn’t have a heart problem, but there’s no need to ‘give your head a wobble’. There are plenty of brilliant volunteers and fosterers working for the best outcome for you and the pup, so it’s highly unlikely that they’ll actively try to fob you off with a very sick dog. What you’re trying to do is very admirable and I really hope it works out.

Oh we definitely spent some time with her as we got to know her over the 2 weeks we were there and saw her every day. Thank you for the encouragement @Princesspeach31

I would agree with @margotrose in that this sounds like it could be a potential heart condition, which a vet should have checked thoroughly. May need more testing than the charity is able to afford. A dog with a heart condition may not survive getting shipped across many countries :(

It could also be something like lungworm - I be would very, very wary of bringing this dog to the UK.

Not only may she not survive transport, you could be in for some very expensive vet bills and a lot of heartache. Please be careful.

It doesn't sound like reverse sneezing. Nothing wrong with adopting from overseas but you need to be confident they have taken them to a decent vet and have been thoroughly checked

I adopted a dog from abroad because we weren't eligible to adopt in the UK as I have young kids. Also, what's wrong with adopting from abroad?! Are those dogs less deserving of a good home?!

If the vet has checked her and found nothing so far are they planning further tests?

Would you describe the noise the dog makes as 'honking' ?
I ask as our rescue has a collapsed trachea and does exactly as you describe. This is sometimes caused (not always) by the dog being yanked on a collar with excessive force
If it is this then you will always need to walk dog on a harness, never a collar and lead.

This isn't relevant to the symptomology you describe, but she is being tested for brucellosis, isn't she (before she left home country and again after an interval here to confirm)?

UK used to be free of it (horrible disease, can be passed to humans) but it's now being seen here, linked to imported dogs who arrive with it.

So always check, and only use importers who test every dog

And no matter how much you may have fallen for this dog, unless you have very deep pockets, do not take on a dog with an unexplained symptom like this. It's bound to be excluded from insurance cover

For goodness sake! Walk away. The UK shelters are full of dogs needing a home. Get one of those. Why on earth do people do this (rescue dogs from overseas)?
It rarely ends well and, oh dear, another problem dog on the streets or in full to bursting shelters

Usually because they don't meet the standards required by UK rescue centres. Yes, there are times when the rules are applied blanket-fashion, which rules out some people who would otherwise be fine.

But often it's for very good reasons. And then when those people then import a dog, and those reasons still exist, the circumstances can become very challenging very quickly.

Is it worth getting a second opinion from another vet or veterinary hospital? If an experienced Owner/ fosterer is worried then there probably is something wrong. An international flight with an existing breathing problem probably isn’t going to help matters

Also, what's wrong with adopting from abroad?!

They often bring in disease.
They're often traumatised by the flight and length of transport.
They're often street dogs who have never lived in homes or been handled by people.
Foreign rescues often have very few criteria and will let almost anyone adopt, regardless of their set up or circumstances.

Are those dogs less deserving of a good home?!

Of course not, but it's not always safe or sensible to bring in unknown dogs with unknown health conditions into the UK, especially when those conditions don't exist in this country and can spread and kill.

Our own rescue centres are full of dogs needing living homes.

I had a colleague who's daughter fell in love with a cat in Greece and they spent months and a lot of money to get the cat over to the U.K. and then the cat died of an infection within a few days. Then all the high drama of they'll never have another cat again as it broke their hearts.

Meanwhile thousands of healthy cats sit in cages and pens in the U.K. in need of a living home.

Plus, in some countries, it has created a puppy-farming market, to produce the 'strays'

And some of the diseases can be passed to humans and other dogs - brucellosis was very rare in the UK but is now on the rise, and vets think it's in part due to the import of foreign dogs .

There absolutely are genuine, responsible people involved in foreign adoptions, like @Princesspeach31 . But there are also lots of unscrupulous people, preying off the naive.

That's so sad and it's a risk so many people are completely unaware of. It's not the only risk either - these rescues lie and many don't "test" the animals at all bringing them over to the UK and to their "forever families".

I know of a family who adopted a foreign "cat tested" rescue who is anything but. They have a cat and it's been so stressful. They have to be completely separated when home alone and the cat now spends 95% of its time outside. Out on walks, the dog will lunge into traffic to get to cats - it's so, so dangerous.

Has she been tested for heartworm ? That can cause shortness of breath after exertion or a mild cough. It's pretty endemic in some parts of Eurpoe and the treatment can be difficult for the dog

@margotrose I've come across a lot of Romanian rescue dogs that were living on the streets and they were sweet and subdued at first but then the trauma of living on the streets started to emerge and behavioural issues such as fear aggression, food aggression and aggressiveness towards other dogs and men in particular.

The rescues and fosters can only give so much information on the dog as usually the dog is in in physical recovery whilst with them and it's mental and emotional state will change when brought to the U.K. and in a completely different environment.

I would consider adopting a Galgo as we have the correct set up for Sighthounds as we already own them but I would never get a foreign street dog.

@Jewelspun yep - dogs (even UK dogs) often behave very differently in rescue/foster compared to how they behave in their "forever homes". It's very sad all round, really.

Not saying don't do it (although "give them a donation and walk away" is an option) but DON'T go into this with anything but your eyes WIDE open.

Ideally you'd go out there with a list of things to test for (see suggestions in previous posts) and take the dog to a vet of your choice yourselves.

Sounds expensive, but dogs are expensive. Pre-existing conditions aren't covered by insurance. You can easily rack up five figure bills over a year or two if you're unlucky. (Ask me how I know!). Better to lose a couple of thousand now than end up mired in stress, canine illness, and huge bills for the next decade or so.

I adopted a dog from Turkey at the beginning of the year from a small rescue that’s very strict about not bringing over sick dogs. My boy always appeared healthy but was still tested for everything possible, given all vaccinations and then quarantined for 4 months before being brought over to the UK. If he’d shown any signs of illness during this time they either would have kept him until he was 100% better or cancelled the adoption and refunded our money. We knew this going into it. Thankfully everything worked out and he is with us and perfectly healthy. It’s a bit worrying that this rescue seem to be moving forward with the adoption when they’re not sure if she is ill or not. I’d be concerned about that, but if they’re sure she’s ok to travel then I guess you’ll have to decide if you’re willing to take the risk.

As for people saying to adopt from the UK, that isn’t possible for everyone. Adopting from the UK would have been my preference but we didn’t for a couple of reasons. Firstly my DH was desperate for a golden retriever (I didn’t mind too much about breed) and there really aren’t many up for adoption in the UK, but in Turkey there is quite a lot as it’s quite common for people to just dump them out on the streets. Secondly we have a baby so even if we’d found a golden in the UK to adopt, most rescues would have ruled us out because of this. I wouldn’t usually recommend adopting from overseas if you have young children, as many are street dogs who have never lived in a family. But in our case our dog was a family pet who had lived with children all his life. He had no behavioural issues and just wasn’t wanted anymore because he’d been allowed to breed with their female dog and they now had way too many dogs. It worked out for us and he is a great dog who is great with our son.