Toby update…

Toby in October 2009

So, yesterday morning was rough. Toby wouldn’t eat or drink. He was really uncomfortable and in pain. Finally, I was able to coax him into eating a pill pocket with his Pepcid. It helped. Two hours later, he ate his breakfast and I was able to give him his pain medicine. He instantly perked up. The rest of the day was much better.

I spoke with the vet and his blood work was normal with the exception of his protein levels which were slightly decreased. She took out all of Toby’s x-rays, including one from two years ago, and looked at his liver. It’s significantly smaller today than it was two years ago. So, we’re going to give him a week or so on his meds and if he has no vomiting or diarrhea, we’ll test his protein levels again to see what’s going on.

If we can get the stomach discomfort under control, we’ll be able to focus on his back. The vet thinks he may have a slipped disc, but because of his abdominal pain, she can’t determine it for sure.

It’s so frustrating. The poor little guy is just not himself and he’s in pain. Although, today he has energy and an appetite, which makes it even more confusing. I have to do more research on the shrinking liver and figure out what we’re going to do long-term.

I’m trying not to get ahead of myself as we don’t have a true diagnosis yet, but I believe strongly in not allowing an animal to suffer for the sake of the fear and feelings of its human counterpart. I love this little dog with all my heart. I can’t imagine my life without him, but his quality of life is more important to me than my fear of losing him. I love him too much to watch him hurt.

When we rescued Toby, I had no idea that in reality, he would rescue me.

Related articles

• Update and waiting again… (hearts4paws.wordpress.com)
• Worry, worry, worry…. (hearts4paws.wordpress.com)

I’ve been missing…

I must apologize for my lack of posts as of late. I’ve been working quite a bit and, more than anything, my husband and I have been focused on house breaking Stevie. We took him to the vet and he has a slight bladder infection so he’s been on antibiotics. The vet also mentioned that Stevie has a very small bladder – which explains A LOT. First of all, his bladder is probably small because of his life in the shelter where he was able to eliminate whenever he felt like it (common in shelter dogs and correctable over time). His bladder should expand as training continues. That’s a good thing because right now we’re taking him outside every hour or so. Accidents in the house have been cut in half, but we’re still getting up in the night. He’s starting to give us cues like running in circles or higher pitched barking, but he still occasionally squats wherever he is and leaves us a nice surprise. We’re getting there and I’m confident it won’t be much longer before he’s fully trained. Woo Hoo!

Related Articles

• He Puts the ‘Pee’ in Potty Training (hearts4paws.wordpress.com)

He Puts the ‘Pee’ in Potty Training

Well, Stevie has been with us now for three weeks. He’s wonderful. So sweet and gentle. He’s a cuddler and loves nothing more than to be near us. He is an exceptional playmate for Toby and they have become good friends. We’ve noticed that Toby’s previous puppy-like behaviors have ceased. He hasn’t chewed up a glove, sock or any of the kids’ homework since Stevie arrived. He corrects Stevie when he is out of line and sits high on the couch overseeing his younger brother’s precocious activities.

Unfortunately, we’re still struggling with house training. Stevie seems to have an extremely small bladder with the inability to hold anything for more than an hour. While we’ve been adhering to a tight training schedule, he still manages several accidents a day. We’ll take him out and he’ll pee. We’ll bring him back in and within 20 minutes, he’ll pee again. We still can’t figure out his cues – he may be walking through the living room on the way to his bed and he’ll just squat. No circling. No sniffing. Just a quick squat and he moves on. He’s doing well through the night and he’s fine in his kennel for the most part. We are just struggling with getting him to do all of his business outside.

We’ve received several recommendations and we’re going to start with a couple of them. First, I need to scent the front door. Since Stevie can’t see where the front door is, we think he may not be able to find his way there in time. Second, a friend of mine recommended a belly band in between our outdoor potty breaks. We’re going to give those a try and I’ll keep you posted on our success.

We couldn’t have asked for a better addition to our family, so we’ll do everything we can to get him on the right track.

Issues

Things are going well with Stevie. So well, in fact, that we often forget that he’s blind. He hasn’t run into anything in quite a few days and he plays like every other puppy I know. He and Toby are buddies – even though Toby runs to higher ground when Stevie becomes relentless in play (he likes to jump up onto the couch and sit next to us, all while pawing at Stevie’s head). We do, however, have two issues:

1. House training – Stevie has grasped piddling outside, but pooping remains a mystery. He hasn’t made the connection. He doesn’t give any cues either. He poops randomly and in no one particular place. So, intensive house training continues. Any recommendations are welcome and very much appreciated!

2. Bad breath. Stevie’s breath is horrible! We’ve switched his food to the same organic dog food that Toby eats and he’s loving it. He gets his daily DentaStix. Yet, he’s stinky. No sweet puppy breath here. The vet has checked him out, said his teeth look great, and believes that it will correct itself now that his diet has changed and we’re providing dental care. I sure hope so because his breath can wrinkle your nose.

So, that’s about all in terms of issues. We’re fortunate and, like I keep saying, blessed. We’ve been rescued by two dogs now. Two dogs that have wonderful lessons to teach us.

Related Articles

• The Wonder of Stevie (hearts4paws.wordpress.com)
• What the eyes can’t see… (hearts4paws.wordpress.com)
• Amazed! (hearts4paws.wordpress.com)

Poop Happens (So Please Clean It Up!)

I have a poop problem – not me personally, and definitely not my dog. My problem is this – I live in a subdivision where some people don’t feel the need to clean up after their dogs. I consider myself a responsible dog owner. We bring clean up bags with us on walks and scoop up any mess our dog makes. But I’m starting to think we may be one of the few families that actually does this.

Here’s the deal. We have a lot of kids and a lot of dogs in this neighborhood. Together, it makes for a fun and family focused place to live. But when you are playing outside with your kids and they step into a pile of some dog’s poop and it ends up in your yard and, eventually, on your carpet, the warm, fuzzy feeling is gone.

Something else to consider, besides the mess, dog feces transmits disease, contaminates drinking water and makes our neighborhood look unkempt to visitors or potential homebuyers. It’s not healthy for our kids and our pets to be exposed to the waste of other animals.

As a fun fact, in Toulouse, France, where they have similar problems with poop clean up, the city council has equipped local police, street cleaners and animal control officers with internet-enabled PDAs so that when they come across a dog mess, they can take a geo-tagged photo and send it to the appropriate city agency that then sends out a clean up crew. It’s estimated that there are approximately 455,000 scoopfuls of abandoned poop piles on the streets of Toulouse at any given time. I think it’s safe to say that we don’t want that kind of problem.

I’m hoping, as our subdivision develops and a Homeowner’s Association is established, that guidelines are put in place that mandate the clean up of pets. I love our neighborhood, but I don’t love cleaning up, or stepping in, the messes of other dogs. I’ve got my hands full cleaning up after my own.

Cleaning up after our pets is just proper petiquette!

The Little Shelters That Could

There are several large, well-funded animal welfare, shelter and rescue organizations across the United States. They do amazing work and are very successful in the adoption of pets, spay/neuter initiatives, public education, and advocacy in general. They bring much needed attention to the plight of animals in need and it’s through their efforts that many millions of animals find forever homes every year. They are masters at generating awareness for a cause and their work benefits everyone.

However, this post is dedicated to all of the small, privately funded rescues and shelters across the country that do their very best every day of every year to save and protect animals from neglect and abuse. They work hard to place these animals with the right owners so that they can live the rest of their lives in loving homes. They implement successful foster programs, training initiatives and adoption programs with little to no funds and a slew of volunteers. They use their own paychecks or organize grass-roots efforts to raise the money to provide much needed medical care, supplies and facility maintenance. They are intensely passionate, committed and know each of their animals by name. They open their doors to animals other shelters don’t want. They push their capacity limitations so that every animal can be given a chance at a better life. They cry when they’ve made a perfect match and their hearts hurt when an abused or neglected animal is turned over to them. They are every day people who have used their own money and means to make a difference.

So, here’s to all the little shelters who have shown us that when the passion is strong enough the impossible is possible.

Thinking of Stella Today

Yesterday, I met a Silky Terrier named Stella. She was separated from the other dogs in the shelter because she had just had eye surgery. Stella was surrendered by her owners and came to the shelter with bad eyes. One was hazy and showed signs infection. The other was so infected that it eventually ruptured and had to be removed. She was wearing an Elizabethan collar and had a long line of stitches where her left eye had been. Her other eye was cloudy and goopy. When I went into the room, she looked up at my from the cozy bed in her crate and pricked up her ears. I slowly opened the crate door and coaxed her out. She stumbled out onto the floor, clumsy with her collar and moving slowly from her pain. She came right to me and leaned against my knees. She was making quiet grunting and whining noises. She was in obvious pain. After petting her for a few minutes, I went and told the caretaker about Stella and we gave her some of her pain medication and an antibiotic.

Afterward, I sat with her for a while. She was eager for attention and never left my side. I’d get up and moved across the room and she followed. She had a slight limp and we noticed that the muscles in her hind legs were different. One was normally shaped while the other was concave. The shelter owner said that her original owners had mentioned something about her hind legs when they surrendered her, so it’s probably a condition she’s had for a while.

Regardless of her pain, she was as sweet as can be. While I was feeding her, she gently took the food from my fingers. She ate daintily even though she was very hungry. She drank some water, relieved herself and came back to me for more affection. As the pain medicine kicked in, she became drowsy so I put her back in her crate. She curled up, closed her eyes and whimpered quietly when I closed the door. 

I heard from the shelter today and Stella seems to be doing better. While she still needs to be hand fed, she is eating and drinking. I hope she recovers quickly so she can readied for adoption.

Stella touched my heart. I’ll be thinking of her and praying for her recovery. See you soon, Stella.

CAPS vs. Bauck (Video)

This video tells the story of how CAPS, the Companion Animal Protection Society, brought down a large-scale puppy mill in Minnesota. While graphic at times, it tells the story of the all too common practices taking place all over the country. When looking for a pet, please consider adoption from a local animal shelter, animal rescue or Humane Society.

A Whole New World

To me, there’s nothing quite as heartbreaking as a dog rescued from a puppy mill. Some are paralyzed by fear, others are eager to socialize but completely unaware of how to go about it. Many are sickly, undernourished, dirty and scared. Their exposure to humans is so limited that their first few days after rescue find them frozen with fear, reclusive and running at the sight of a human being.

Right now at the rescue, there is a Yorkshire Terrier and two Bichon Frise pups that were given up by a commercial breeding facility. When I went into their room, they immediately fled to the corner and eyed me up. The Yorkie seemed fearful and the Bichons were curious but unsure. I turned my back to them and waited. Slowly, the two Bichons came forward and sniffed at me. They even licked my hands. As soon as I moved or made eye contact, they ran. They barked, but not fearfully, and bounced playfully, but they wouldn’t approach unless I had my back turned. I could tell that they were friendly and eager to interact, they were just uncertain.

The little Yorkie kept his distance, circling me and sniffing the air. With each circle he came a little closer, but never close enough to touch me. He seemed a little more fearful than the others, but not aggressive in any way.

They had come from a stark, loveless environment and were now in a place where they will experience human interaction, a kind touch, good food and clean place to eat and sleep. They are in a new world and their rehabilitation will be a challenge. The rewards, however, will be extraordinary. Their caretakers at the rescue and their future forever family will need plenty of patience and understanding in helping these amazing animals transition to a life that, at first, can be very overwhelming.

In the beginning, reassurance is necessary. Things like using the outdoors to go to the bathroom, walking on a leash, meeting new people, as well as experiencing a world outside of a cage, filled with new sights, smells and sounds, can be terrifying to a dog who spent its formative years in a puppy mill. It will take time and it will be critical to go at the dog’s pace in order to build its confidence so that it can begin to overcome its fear.

Meeting these dogs for the first time brought a rush of feeling about my dog, Toby. He, too, was rescued from a puppy mill. Fortunately, he was rescued very early on and was adopted by us at about 12 weeks of age. While he was standoffish in the beginning, he quickly grew to trust us and easily accepted the love we had to give.  I can’t imagine him having to live in a mill environment, petrified, dirty and unloved.

I hope I can participate in the rehabilitation of the cute little pups at the rescue. They deserve a second chance at a new life where they can experience all the love that a forever family has to offer.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) has a great article on their website about adopting a puppy mill dog. Click here to check it out.

The Wonder of Stevie

There’s a special little pup at Bichon and Little Buddies Rescue named Stevie. What makes Stevie so special is more than just his even temperament and outgoing personality. Stevie is special because he’s wonderfully friendly and social despite that fact that he’s blind and deaf in one ear. This West Highland White Terrier Poodle mix was surrendered by a breeder when it was discovered that he was blind. After seeing an eye specialist, it was determined that Stevie’s optic nerve didn’t develop properly which leaves him sightless with the exception of maybe being able to see some light. After getting his hearing tested, it was also determined that Stevie is deaf in one ear. So while he can hear, he can’t always determine the source or direction of the sound.

Bichon and Little Buddies Rescue staff is looking for an exceptional home for this extraordinary little pup. And because he is so social, he would do well in a home with another dog to play and hang out with. Despite his handicaps, Stevie is a wonderful little guy who will make the right individual very happy.

I’ve spent some time with Stevie and I’m so impressed with his playfulness and ability to get along with other dogs. I’m also amazed at his adaptability and how he is able to get around despite his handicap. Stevie is a lesson is overcoming what seems to be an insurmountable challenge with grace and a smile. Regardless of his physical limitations, he is eager to make new friends, excited to play with others, and determined to do things on his own.

And that is the wonder of Stevie!