Straydog UPDATE posted THURSDAY 8/7/03 at ~10:00 p.m. CT

Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

THURSDAY AUGUST 7 2003

Report from Shannon ...

Busy, busy day today with temperatures reaching 105+ degrees! Yesterday it reached 109!

     It's been absolutely incredibly hot for both the dogs and the kennel crew. We're all waiting for October.

Julie goes to Arlington for eyelid surgery; Fuzzy goes along to have another vet check on why she won't eat

     This morning Julie had a seven o'clock appointment with her eye specialist in Arlington, Dr. Paulsen, for eyelid surgery to remove a benign tumor. Since Dr. Paulsen's office is inside another animal medical clinic, I decided to bring Fuzzy along (who didn't eat at all yesterday) to get some fluids and vitamin injections as advised by Dr. Aiken.

     At 5:15 a.m. we loaded up my car (so Erin would have the Straydog van in case of emergency at the shelter), and when got to the clinic in Arlington, I dropped off Julie at Dr. Paulsen's office where she was prepared for surgery. Meanwhile Fuzzy and I saw a really nice vet named Dr. Shrack, who looked fuzzy over and agreed that she needed fluids and vitamins. We also weighed Fuzzy, and she's lost 2 pounds in the past week. The doctor really wanted to keep Fuzzy to do an endoscopy (the little camera that goes down the throat into the stomach to check things out), but she felt that Fuzzy should go to a specialist. She referred us to the Dallas Veterinary Diagnostic Center (in the same building as the Dallas Veterinary Surgical Center where Anthony is going tomorrow). Unfortunately, they didn't have any appointments available when Anthony will be there. They wanted us to wait until the end of next week, but I explained the severity of poor Fuzzy's condition, and they will see us Monday.

     Because they saw Fuzzy so quickly and Julie's surgery would take a few hours, Fuzzy and I made the 15-minute trip to my mom's house in Grand Prairie, where my grandparents from Michigan are visiting. Everyone loved Fuzzy, and they put their dogs in the bedroom so Fuzzy could be in the main rooms with us. When I updated them on Fuzzy's condition, the cooking frenzy began. We all had ideas of what Fuzzy might like. First, I tried some bologna. She took a whole piece from my hand before I could break it apart and ate about half of it. My grandmother then made chicken broth and tried feeding Fuzzy boiled chicken. No go. Scrambled eggs and oatmeal were next. Nothing worked. It was the same sad scenario. She was excited and seemed hungry, but she couldn't eat.

     At least Fuzzy ate enough to give her the energy to take a swim upon returning home.

Julie's surgery went well

     She's wearing a clear E-collar that has to stay on for two weeks, and is, of course, remaining in the house. We thank Dr. Paulsen for his nice donation to Straydog!

Fretz gets a haircut

     As we've stated before, we would much prefer a longer groom, but poor Fritz was so terribly matted he had to get a bit of a shave. But doesn't he look handsome!