Every pet owner can tell when something is going wrong with their animals, generally because more often than not the effects are visible, but what’s wrong won’t always make sense. That’s one of the exact reasons why we end up taking our animal friends to the veterinarian, those guys and gals can figure out what’s going on better than we ever could. With that being said there are still times when even a vet would be surprised at some of the things they’ve found, but I’ll bet none were more surprised than the vet who helped treat Frances Jirik’s dog, Bailey. Bailey is a dog with many years left ahead of him, but something was wrong.
Jirik first began noticing some problems when Bailey didn’t want to eat one day and was being more lethargic than usual; initially she chalked it up to him having an upset stomach or something minor like that, but when Bailey began foaming at the mouth she knew this was serious. The moment she brought her dog into the vet they ended up checking inside his mouth, and what they discovered is nothing less than terrifying. The inside of Bailey’s mouth was absolutely covered in ladybugs! Dr. Lindsay Mitchell was the vet who treated Bailey, but even she could barely believe what she was seeing – 30-40 little Asian ladybugs were just attached to the roof of that poor pup’s mouth.
After snapping the image and removing the mass of arthropods Mitchell got permission to post the story to Facebook, which she did with a warning attached:
“This is the second pup I have seen like this today. If your pet is drooling or foaming at the mouth, look for these ladybugs. They cause ulcers on the tongue and mouth and have a very painful bite.”
It didn’t take long before the photo and the story of Bailey went viral, after all, who would guess that our lovable garden protectors would be capable of something like this?
If you start to notice your pets are acting a little strange then you may want to give them a once over to ensure it’s nothing too serious, but if it is at least you’ll be more prepared for a vet trip than not. Bailey’s story wasn’t meant to shock anyone, it’s meant to help people realise they HAVE to start checking their pets mouths.
