Poodle found in ditch had live cockroaches in fur

Its hair was so matted and overgrown, the poodle had to be sedated just to be groomed. Veterinarians found live and dead cockroaches snared in the kilogram of fur they cut from the dog. The two-year-old poodle was found on Oct. 19 in a ditch in LaPlace, Louisiana, with no identification.

He was taken to Tracy Lapeyrouse, who runs My Heart's Desire animal shelter in Houma, La., about 100 kilometres from New Orleans. Lapeyrouse named him Ripley. "He didn't know he had ears. When his ears would touch his skin, he would shake his head," Lapeyrouse said.



"It took a week before he could walk normally." The dog was skinny but not malnourished, and no one could figure out how he ate because his mouth was blocked by overgrown hair. He has packed on some weight since his rescue and now weighs 2.5 kilograms.

Sores hidden beneath the fur healed once they were exposed to the air. "Now he's a social butterfly," Lapeyrouse said. "We have to go slow, but he wags his nub of a tail and is seeking interaction with people."