Sadie, Cheetah, Belle and Swiffer update 8.30.09

I saw Sadie today and she is like a different dog. She is so much more confident, she has some meat on her bones and she wants to play with the other dogs. She has that doggy sparkle back in her eye. What a difference from the tail tucked entirely under her, wouldn't stand up, emaciated little thing I first met.

I have to tell you, Cheetah was pretty cute with her. There were a good 15 dogs or so in the enclosure today and if someone got too rough with Sadie, Cheetah took it upon herself to herd them right away from her. Cheetah was the enforcer generally. If someone was barking too much - she would get right in their face and bark once sharply and back away. It was as if someone whistled through their fingers (I always wished I could do that) bc that dog would be shocked right into silence. It was fun to watch.

Cheetah was unamused that I was with Belle today. She did not like that one bit. I am HER person and that is that. She has been staying the last few days with Kristina, head of the rescue, to give this household a break. She has always like Kristina and literally (I kid you not) rolled down the car window and jumped out when she saw Kristina when I was dropping her off. Luckily I was going about 1 mph and she was leashed by her harness as opposed to her collar. I was able to release her from the seatbelt quickly and Kristina grabbed the leash with Cheetah none the worse for wear. I usually keep the child locks on the windows bc while she has never jumped out, she has done the roll down the window trick before (damn smart dog), but I had rolled down the front window to talk to Kristina so the child lock was off.

Anyway, she was herding dogs away from Kristina too when she was in the pen. She is crapped out on the floor right now - busy day of protecting everyone for her!

Kristina said she did awesome at her house and wasn't even territorial! Woo hoo! I declare her cured. I think she really would do best in a household with another dog. So Cheetah will be with me for this week, and then Sat night she is going to another senior foster's house so I can take Belle, who needs me more right now.

Back to Sadie, she has had all of her bloodwork and this week has the actual heartworm treatment. This treatment is painful so please keep her in your thoughts. She will also be on pain meds for her hip - I spoke to Kristina about it today. And we are investigating specialists to work on her leg. Our goal is not to amputate, but follow Ashley's suggestion of the procedure with the big long name that will stop bone from rubbing on bone. She is already functioning with the leg. The musculature has healed around it and she has figured out how to work with it. So we just want to deal with the pain it must be causing her. My guess is that it would be cheaper to amputate, but no one really wants to do that.

So Belle. She is a tiny little thing! She's only 35 pounds and looks so little to me next to Cheetah. She is smaller than the other puppies I have seen as well. She is cute as a button and I know there will be a ton of interest in her. As a matter of fact, we already had one application! (3 kids though). I spent about 20-30 minutes with her just getting her used to me, and before we were done, she turned her back to me (I was flattered by this!) and she jumped into my lap and licked my face. So we are buds. I brought chopped up hot dog with me to offer as a high value treat, but she was slow to accept it. She did finally eat out of my hand and we started some basic targeting training. She is not super food motivated, which will make training a little more difficult. But certainly not impossible.

She is very fearful, but not as bad as Cheetah was, nor as reactive. Add to that that she is younger, and I am very confident that I can get her where she needs to be. Here is my plan:

1. Get her spayed ASAP. Her owner was advised by her vet to hold off bc she was so skittish. I don't agree with that evualtion, but regardless, I am of the opinion that now, hormones are exacerbating the situation. Plus, it needs to be done.
   
2. Once she is spayed I can take her to an off leash park - I found this helped Cheetah immensely. Fearful dogs are often more fearful on leash, bc they can't run away if they are scared. This can mean they feel they have to defend themselves, which is never good.
3. Change her food! She is currently on Puppy Chow, a corn based dog food. We have discussed before how corn can block seratonin uptake in a dog, increasing anxiety, fear and aggression. The Rescue has changed over to Blue Buffalo - to which I say BRA.VO. Cheetah has been getting Solid Gold, but I will probably switch Belle to Blue Buffalo for consistency. We'll see how I feel when I go shopping :-)
4. I will start a basic obedience regimen with her. This will cause bonding with me and increase confidence. It will also help me to control situations better and distract her more effectively when we are facing her fears.

Swiffer is still limping :-( We are still on pain meds and I have scheduled an appointment with a different vet in the practice for Saturday. My biggest fear is that she has an injury which is healing improperly. We will likely need to do some x-rays next. She and Lexy had a very nice break while Cheetah was visiting. Lexy followed me from room to room like a dog and Swiffer did too, come to think of it :-)

Sadie Update 8.28.09

I just checked in with her foster and she is currently in treatment for heart worm. She has not had surgery on her leg yet - we are addressing the heart worm first. But she has more energy and is initiating play with other dogs!

Rescue Angels Adopter Reunion BBQ

Hope everyone had a nice weekend. Yesterday was the Adopter Reunion and it went well! Cheetah was pretty good about all of the chaos. She got a little nippy when people she didn't know kept coming in and messing around in the kitchen - particularly the fridge. But she only outright nipped I think once. I caught her at it and she did not do it again.

Sadie was there and she hid under the big bush for most of the party, but after most of the people left she came out and explored all around the yard. Foster said she never does that, so I feel like it was a good experience for her. She looked really good. She wasn't shaking at all and she was really curious.

Schroeder and his sister Marci came with thier family. He was joyous as usual :-) Right at the end Poppy's owner came as well. She came sans Poppy because I guess Poppy was feeling a little off. But we had a nice visit and Poppy may come for a play date sometime soon! I am getting reports from her and some of the other puppy owners that they are going through a shy phase. I am hoping it is adolescence and will pass. Cheetah was shy when she first came to us but she got over it. I am pretty convinced if Cheetah can get past it, the puppies will too. This is a tough phase in many dogs' lives.

As many of you know, Poppy's owner is a vet and she had some alternative ideas to amputating Sadie's leg. We had Sadie's xrays at the event and so she was able to look at them and make some suggestions. We can minimize her pain without losing her leg. That would be great. In the mean time, she showed us exactly what she thinks would be causing Sadie to be in pain (there is bone rubbing up against bone) and we realized that the vet Sadie went to last weekend did not prescribe pain meds. This is an issue that makes me absolutely insane. I am a big believer in pain relief to animals. Just becuase they can not say "it hurts" does not mean it doesn't. So we will be revisiting that vet to get a Rx.

Overall the party was a success. I think we had around 30-40 dogs. It hit 100 degrees though!! We had three doggy pools and a sprinkler going for the dogs, as well as lots of water bowls and a couple of tents for shade. Kristina made doggy cupcakes, which were a big hit with the dogs I saw eating them :-) Cheetah was not interested in dinner last night and completely turned her nose up at breakfast, but I think it could be because she had at least 2 hamburgers, a piece of hotdog, and many cupcakes yesterday. She was completely pooped. Between the heat, the excitement, the anxiety of strangers messing with the den, and all of the crazy food, she is a bit sedate this morning as well. I won't worry about it unless she isn't drinking or is still not eating tomorrow.

Swiffer made an appearance for a little while, but was pretty intimidated with all of those other dogs, and I didn't make her stay out that long in the heat. Her foot is still bothering her a little too, although it seems better.

I, myself, never felt such an extreme need for a shower in my entire life after running around in that heat! Too bad you can't really have air conditioning outside. I wish we had a pool. We have enough room for it but 40k for installation plus 3k a month during the season is a bit much to contemplate right now :-/

Sadie 8.15.09

I have some new news on Sadie. We waited for her to get a little more comfortable before taking her to the vet. As it turns out she doesn't have arthritis. Foster brought her to the adoption event and had a visit with the vet today. On his first inspection the vet felt her leg and says its a mangled mess of bone there and he didn't know if it was an old fracture that healed wrong or if it was osteosarcoma. Well upon x-ray it was clear it was neither. This tough little girl was shot and still has bullet remains in her. The leg obviously was never addressed and healed completely wrong. It looks mangled on the x-ray. There is also bird shot/bullet all around the leg and in her body but the little pieces in her body don''t seem to be bothering her nor are they causing any damage. On top of that her back leg is dislocated. It has been dislocated for so long that the joint has healed over and cannot be reset - the vet recommends amputation. Foster reports that she's still happy and chipper.

I will see her tomorrow at the adopter reunion. Poor little girl. As you may recall, she is also heartworm positive and is blind in one eye from cataracts. The vet estimates her at only 5 years old. Whoever did this to her should be shot and tortured themselves. I hope karma does it's job.

We are going to do a massive fund raising push for her. If you would like to donate even $5, every little bit will help. Please forward to whoever you know who may be interested in donation or adoption of this special case. Rescue Angels will start by treating the heart worm and go from there once she gets stronger. She has a long road ahead of her, but she has already survived so much and she is now surrounded by people who love her. She is such a sweet natured little thing. She will be an amazing dog for someone and the hard cases always seem to know when they are rescued.

Sadie 8.4.09

Wanted to let you know that Sadie did finally relieve herself under Foster's dining room table. He said he never thought a dog pooping and peeing in the house would make him so happy! LOL She has since even gone outside! She started moving around slowly and cautiously, making her first big foray onto the couch - haha. No problem hopping up there. She has been slowly emerging from her shell and even took a little unexpected tour of the neighborhood, which about gave Foster a heart attack. She still has a very extreme fear response, and even peed when Foster approached her to retrieve her from her little adventure. She clearly exhibits a higher comfort level with women than men, but Foster is very gentle with her and he is fantastic at drawing her out and gaining her trust even though he is male. He is doing a great job with her. He says she seems much less sad and depressed than when he initially got her.

Sadie update

Sadie is not standing or walking, and has not relieved herself in any way since Foster took her. The lack of urinating is what had me freaked. The vet was unable to determine what was wrong with her without further diagnostics, which we declined for the time being ($$). She is still eating and drinking, which is a very positive sign, so Foster will watch her for the next day or two to see if her situation improves. They prescribed Rimadyl, a pain reliever, and are hoping that will allow her to get up and move around a little more. If she does not improve in the next couple of days, diagnostic testing such as xray and bloodwork are indicated. She is an older dog (arthritis?), recently had spay surgery, and has had a ton of transition, so we are hoping that is all it is. Her temp and other stats were mostly normal. She is heartworm positive, is blind in her right eye (we think cataract) and has a boney mass on her left foreleg. She is clearly terrified, so that is amplifying whatever problems she is having. She is a sweet, sweet girl.

When I approached her at Foster's house, no one else was in the room, so I walked up to her slowly on the side I knew she could see me. I averted my eyes and walked up to her kind of sideways so I wouldn't intimidate her. I crouched down next her her with the side of my body facing her and put my hand near her (I didn't reach for her) palm up so she could sniff. She did and gave me big kisses hello. She is SO sweet - she would be dangerous for me to foster. This is a new foster to Rescue Angels and he is fantastic. He's really committed and obviously very compassionate. She clearly trusts him. I really hope she improves.

Emergent Foster Case

I don't know if I have ever mentioned that I am the Foster Coordinator for my rescue. I had sort of stepped back from it while I was dealing with Cheetah and the puppies, but I am dipping my toes back in.



Earlier today I got an email from one of our brand new fosters telling me that he was a little worried about Sadie. After going back and forth a bit I have learned that she can't stand up because her back legs are too shaky, and while she has been eating and drinking, she has not eliminated one time since he got her last night. She is also utterly terrified, and flinches like she has been abused. Although now I find out she is also blind in one eye, which can make a dog flinchy.



Foster doesn't have a car so I am picking him up at 5 to go to the vet. I am worried that she is in kidney failure. He also sent me some detailed pictures and I can see she has had puppies and it looks like she was spayed within the last month or so. This could be a complication from surgery. I will have a better sense of it once I see her in person. I'll keep you posted.