Pray for Essie.

My parents went on vacation in Scotland last week. They had a great time and enjoyed the cooler weather there.

While they were gone, I was responsible for looking after their dog, Essie and taking care of their flowers.

I have watched their animals in the past and never had any problems. They took vacations when their elderly dog, Maggie was very old and nearing death and she always managed to do well under my care.

Essie is a young Australian Shepard dog. She is so sweet!

Essie was her normal self the first 6 days but on Wednesday she didn't seem herself. She seemed depressed. Joshua even commented that she wasn't acting right and that she must be missing Papa and Nana.

Was it the extreme heat?? Was it that she was lonely? I wasn't sure. After petting her, I found that she had a lot of ticks on her. I spent about 20 minutes pulling off about 30-40 ticks off of her. Maybe, she was hurting as there were quite a few and her skin was pretty irritated when I pulled them off. She also seemed to bleed quite a bit when I pulled them off.

My parents made it home safely last night. They called me once they were home and said that Essie wasn't acting well at all.

Evidentally, she had declined a great deal since I had seen her the day before. They said that she was barely even able to walk.

They took her to the emergency vet clinic. She seems to have Rocky Mtn. Spotted Fever. She stayed overnight and is currently at another vet receiving plasma at this time. She was already going into Liver and Renal failure. Her bleeding times are off so she needs the plasma. She is dehydrated, has a fever and elevated WBCs. My parents said that she is looking better this morning.

Thank you God that my parents came home last night as I would only have went to take care of her again this afternoon. Most likely by then, she would have passed away.

Please hold this precious "sister" of mine in your prayers.