Straydog UPDATE posted MONDAY 5/5/03 at ~9:47 p.m. CT

Pat's Daily Dog Log

MONDAY MAY 5 2003

Blind Chocolate Lab Chubs and his sister, Black Lab Cassie, go to the clinic for their neuter and spay surgeries

     These purebred fellas will not be adding to the over-population of canines, much to the dismay, I'm sure, of many breeders. (Let us never forget that 15,000 unwanted, homeless, "surplus" dogs and cats are killed every day in our country alone just to get rid of them.)

Kimberly goes to the clinic too

     Puppy-Dog Kimberly was scheduled to get her rabies vaccination and her final dip for demodec mange (which looks totally cleared up to me now). Joel put the three pups in the van for me, and off we went.

Chubs and Cassie go right back to their clinic kennel to await their surgeries

     I took Chubs and Cassie in first, and Donna, the vet tech, and I walked them to a kennel in the back of the clinic. The pups will be together until they go for their surgeries, and then they'll be put in separate kennels until they wake up, and when they are fully awake, Donna will put them back together in the same kennel again.

     Chubs, as we said before, is not afraid of anything, and this fast-growing, beautiful Chocolate Lab (who is blind) walked right beside his sister down the hallway to their kennel.

Kimberly is next

     This little puppy dog is about four months old now and was due for her Rabies vaccination, and hopefully, her final dip for demodec mange (which is not contagious). Kimberly is a sweet, playful, affectionate puppy, but she is just a little bit shy for the first few minutes around people she doesn't know. During this vet visit Kimberly met Melissa, a new helper at the clinic.

     Doctor Morton had just arrived and peeked his head in the doorway to say he'd be with us in a minute, but when he saw Kimberly, he came in and picked Kimberly up to tell her what a "pretty little puppy" she was before handing Kim to Donna.

     Dr. Morton said that all three pups would be ready to go back home about 3:30 this afternoon, and I planned to pick them up then.

I left Kimberly at the clinic too and stopped at a grocery store on the way home

     Today was Rhonda's birthday, and Joel's birthday (which I belatedly found out about) was a few days ago, so birthday cakes were in order. We have an absolutely wonderful group of caregiver/kennel team members at our shelter, and we try to let them know (as often as we can) just how much we appreciate all that they do to take wonderful care of the dogs and puppies. After a quick stop for two birthday cakes (snacks go fast here among the employees) and some cute birthday cards, home I came.

Something is wrong with little dog, Emily

     It was almost time to leave to go pick up Chubs, Cassie and Kimberly when Bill, who happened to glance out the kitchen window toward Emily and Pokey's kennel, announced that there was something wrong with Emily. She was holding up her right back leg and was having trouble walking.

     I probably wouldn't have thought too much of this if this had been the only time it had happened, but Emy had had two previous limping episodes occurring just about two weeks apart. She would have trouble walking for a day, but then would be okay the next day. Since on the two previous occasions she had gotten over the limp so rapidly, I didn't think there was a problem, but now a third occurrence made this something we needed to have checked out.

Emily sees the doctor too

     Since I was going to pick up the three pups, I decided to take Emily too, to get to the bottom of her problem today.

     After the doctor examined Emily and took x-rays of her hips and knees (unfortunately having to sedate her because she wouldn't hold still), he showed me the film, explaining that she has severe arthritis of the right knee (just as Happy does). Emily's hips are okay, but it is the right knee that is causing the problem, and the arthritis is pretty far advanced. For now pain medication is about all we can do for her, and just as with Happy and her arthritic condition (and all the dogs with hip dysplasia) we also will give Emily the Cosequin capsules that all the other dogs are taking to help their joints.