Hallmark Cocker Spaniels

Welcome to the Hallmark Nicu ❤️‍🩹

My new foster intake for the Spca of East Texas. 🥰

Mom was found deceased leaving her litter of tiny newborns orphaned. Only some of the puppies were found immediately...unfortunately this baby girl was not found for 4 days after mom died. 😢

It's astonishing she's still alive! She was quickly rushed to my Nicu for the critical care she will need to hopefully survive. She's currently extremely dehydrated, but kidneys appear to be functioning still, thankfully. ❤️‍🩹

She's very weak, very cold and is currently getting my best critical care skills. IV fluids in, emergency hydration fluids and emergency puppy support tube feeding completed. She's now in full incubator support. Praying she rebounds from her near death experience. Poor baby. 😞

Send some prayers and good thoughts 🙏 ✨️

For Sale:

I know several breeders and animal rescues follow my page. I've got some goodies!

Make me a fair offer on what you'd like. Will ship at buyer expense. All in great condition.

Puppy Culture workbooks and DVDs are 2 complete sets.

Message me. 🥰

Ready for her special someone! 😍

Cosette is a 3 month old, brown tricolor puppy. Loves all, children too. Crate trained. Working on housetraining and leash training and doing great! Typical adorable sweet puppy! 😘

Video of her is posted on our page, so scroll back to see it. 😀

Reduced adoption fee.

Submit our puppy application to be considered for COSETTE: www.hallmarkcockers.com

This is SO very important! Heartworms are terrible! I have been in animal rescue for 35 years now- and I have helped care for many heartworm positive dogs. It is horrible for them to go through and many die. PLEASE keep your pets on monthly heartworm prevention!! 🙏

🦟 HEARTWORM IN DOGS 👀

⚠️Heartworm isn’t something dogs catch from other dogs. It is transmitted by mosquitoes, and an infected mosquito bite can be enough to begin an infection.

😱Heartworm disease is caused by the parasitic worm Dirofilaria immitis. When a mosquito feeds on an infected dog, it can pick up microscopic immature heartworms called microfilariae. These develop inside the mosquito into infective larvae. When that mosquito later bites another dog, those larvae can enter through the bite wound.

And then the process happens largely out of sight.

Over the following months, the larvae develop and migrate through the dog’s tissues. Eventually, immature adults reach the pulmonary arteries, the blood vessels carrying blood from the heart to the lungs, where they mature into adult heartworms.

😱It takes approximately 6-7 months after infection for the worms to become sexually mature. 😨Adult heartworms can then survive for 5-7 years in a dog.

And this is one of the things that makes heartworm particularly concerning:

😳Your dog can look completely healthy while significant disease is developing internally.

As adult worms establish themselves, they can cause inflammation and damage to the pulmonary arteries and lungs. As disease progresses, dogs may develop coughing, reduced stamina, exercise intolerance, fatigue, breathing difficulties and weight loss.

With heavier worm cases, the consequences can become much more serious. Worms may extend into the right side of the heart and vena cava, and severe disease can lead to pulmonary hypertension, right-sided heart failure, fluid accumulation, caval syndrome, organ damage, collapse and death.

The photograph in the infographic shows a severe heartworm burden. Not every heartworm-positive dog will have anything approaching this number of worms, but even smaller numbers can cause clinically significant disease.

🤔I am posting this because one of my own rescue dogs, who originally came from Hungary, tested positive for HW when we arrived in the US, and let me tell you - there were NO signs of this. My dog was tested for HW before travelling to the UK, but as it turns out it can show a negative result in the early stages. And because the tests were negative, and it’s not really a problem in the UK (although speaking to some vets it’s slowly on the rise), I’d never know if it wasn’t for tests last year.

Good things - even if a dog has HW - it can be treated. Success depends on how advanced it is, the age, health and overall fitness of the dog, but it can be eliminated.

⚠️BUT - it is INCREDIBLY EXPENSIVE. And can be quite brutal on a dog.

🛡️ This is why prevention matters.

⭐️Heartworm preventatives work by killing susceptible immature stages before they have the opportunity to develop into adult heartworms.

Once adult worms are established, the situation is very different. Treatment is considerably more complicated, expensive and carries risks of its own. Dogs undergoing treatment also require significant exercise restriction, because dying worms and fragments can obstruct and inflame pulmonary vessels.

😣And even when treatment successfully eliminates the worms, some damage to the lungs, pulmonary arteries and heart may be permanent.

🙌Heartworm prevention isn’t simply about avoiding worms.

It’s about preventing the damage those worms can cause before you ever know they’re there.

Year-round prevention and regular heartworm testing are therefore recommended for dogs in the US - including dogs who spend most of their time indoors. Mosquitoes don’t need an invitation to come inside.

🦟 Mosquito → dog → developing larvae → pulmonary arteries → adult heartworms → microfilariae → mosquito.

💯Break that cycle with prevention.

Speak with your veterinarian about the most appropriate heartworm preventative and testing schedule for your individual dog.

Say it louder for the folks in the back. Crates are fantastic and I believe ALL dogs should be crate trained, but make sure you use crates appropriately! 🥰

The crate “solved” it.
The chewing stopped.
The jumping too.
That relentless pacing?
Gone.

They're not following you around.
Stopped getting into everything they shouldn't.
It's a very tempting “solution”.

But hang on a minute.
Behaviour stopping because a door is closed?
It's not the same thing as stopping the behaviour.
Similar.
But certainly not the same.

And I think we've gone beyond the old “how long is too long?” conversation around crates.
Because for some dogs, we're drifting into something else entirely.

Containment being mistaken for training.

Many times, that's just management.
Not training.

But the two shouldn't be confused here.

Management has a place.
A very important one.
Sometimes we absolutely need to prevent a dog rehearsing something while we work on what's driving this.
And we need a puppy somewhere safe because our eyes simply cannot be on them every second of the day.
Best of all?
A dog genuinely loves their crate and happily disappears in there for a snooze.

Great.

But none of that means shutting the door has taught the behaviour we wanted outside of it.
The puppy who can't chew the furniture from inside a crate hasn't necessarily learned what they can chew.
A dog who can't pace around the house hasn't learned how to settle.
And a dog who isn't jumping at visitors because they're confined hasn't necessarily learned what to do when visitors arrive.

That's completely different.

Crate training?
That's another aspect of this altogether.
A dog being gradually conditioned to feel safe and comfortable in a crate is a valuable skill.
Being able to shut the door isn't the goal.
Having a dog who can genuinely relax in their own little area? Brilliant.

But yes.
Crates can be misused.
They are misused.

Particularly when we're looking for a quick solution to behaviour that actually needs teaching, investigation or change somewhere else.

Because if the only thing preventing the behaviour is a closed crate door?
The crate didn't solve it.
The crate contained it.

God's got you! 🫂