www.Straydog.org Update - POSTED EVERY DAY AT NOON

Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 5 2004

5:30 a.m. - EARLY MORNING UPDATE - Still raining

Ojay's going along with Rudy on our trip to Dallas

     Gayle called last evening. She's ready to take Ojay back, and Ojay's ready to go back to Gayle and Jim's house, so Gayle will meet us at the Diagnostic Center at a quarter of eight, the time of our appointment for Rudy to see Dr. Bronstad.

     As I'm not sure when I'll get back to Straydog to finish today's update, I wanted to get something posted now in case we miss the noon deadline.

     More later today ...

NOON UPDATE - Rain has stopped

Rudy is spending the day at the Animal Diagnostic Clinic

     I arrived at the Animal Diagnostic Clinic (same location as the Dallas Veterinary Surgical Center) at 7:40 a.m., filled out the paper work and waited for 30 minutes before Rudy was called in for his examination. Gayle arrived a short time after I got there, and I told her I had left Ojay in his travel crate in the car with the windows open an inch for fresh air. (The temperature was around 40 degrees outside.) Gayle sat with me and Rudy, helping me keep Rudy calm and happy and separate from the other dogs who were coming in for their appointments.

     When we were finally called into an examining room, Gayle went down to the car to pick up Ojay to take him home with her, and Rudy, Erin and I went into Room #5 to wait for the doctor.

     Soon Dr. Bronstad came in and began looking at all the paper work faxed from both Drs. Morton and Reeves while asking me and Erin questions about Rudy. We could tell he was puzzled because Rudy has no symptoms other than his extreme weight loss.

     The doctor wanted us to leave Rudy so they could take x-rays and do a sonogram among other tests, all of which should take till about 2:30 or 3:00 this afternoon. Erin, whose plans for the day were to stay in Dallas to give her scheduled classical guitar lessons, said she would come pick up Rudy and then drive him back to Straydog this evening when she's done teaching.

     I just got back home after stopping at the post office, where there were just a few letters waiting in the Straydog mail box. As it's almost noon now, I'm going to post this update and then continue working on the rest of today's update, which I'll post later today.

Other than being almost blind, Jack and Jill's eyes are okay

     Yesterday (Wednesday) Erin and I took Jack and Jill to Dr. Paulsen's clinic in Arlington because of Jack's sore eye (or eye socket). The problem with Jack's sore eye is that it never developed and there's an opening that lets dust and dirt get into his eye socket, which is what was causing the irritation. The only thing we can do is keep cleaning it out with a saline solution.

     In addition to taking care of Jack's immediate problem, Dr. Paulsen examined Jack's somewhat functioning eye. The doctor tossed some cotton balls toward Jack, and he never saw them. Jack did blink, however, when Dr. Paulsen moved his hand directly toward and close to Jack's functioning eye, so we know Jack can see something.

     Jill has a much better functioning eye than Jack's. After a thorough examination the doctor explained how her "good" eye had developed, with parts of it in the wrong place and parts of its anatomy missing altogether. The doctor also said that Jill's one good eye was a lot better than Helen's good eye, which we could tell from the way Jill gets around as if nothing's wrong with her vision. (Helen is the white Great Dane adopted by the Neal Fort family in December of 2002.)

     Dr. Paulsen also confirmed that there is nothing that can be done to improve Jack or Jill's vision, but as you can see from the photos we took during this visit, these are two of the happiest, fun-loving dogs in the world.

Happy, Sunny and Puppies Holly and Grace went to our local vet clinic yesterday

     Happy and Sunny went for blood tests to see if their thyroids are abnormal, as they are as big as blimps tho on an extremely restricted diet. Nothing seems to slim them down. We're waiting for the results of these blood tests.

     Holly and Grace had their second set of puppy shots (which cover parvo and distemper), tested negative for hook worms (which they had when we first rescued them), and their mange is getting better, Holly's being almost totally cleared up.