w w w . S t r a y d o g*. o r g U p d a t e
POSTED EVERY DAY AT NOON CENTRAL TIME U.S.A.
Straydog Inc., The Arnolds' Happy Home for Strays, a No-Kill Dog Shelter
P.O. Box 1465, Gun Barrel City, Texas 75147 * (903) 479-3497 * EMAIL: straydog@straydog.org

* When Straydog is in red, we're running out of funds to sustain our mission.

Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

FRIDAY APRIL 16 2004

Rocky was very unsteady on his feet last evening and will go to the vet ASAP today

     Rocky slept well most of the night, but at about 3:30 a.m. I heard him try to get up and fall back to the floor. I jumped up and turned on the light and picked the old fellow up and carried him outside. I stood him up on his feet, and he urinated standing on stiff legs, and then he tried to take a few steps but was very wobbly. He was looking back toward the door, so I picked him up again and carried him back inside and laid him on the couch. I put his water bowl close to his face, and he drank a little and then laid his head down and went back to sleep.

     I got up for the day at five o'clock, and Rocky was still lying on the couch looking at me. Ginger went out right away, and Rocky looked like he wanted to go out too, so I picked him up and carried him outside again and stood him up on his feet. This time he began walking and seemed to have a little more strength. After several steps he stopped and urinated and then slowly collapsed to the ground. I moved him away from the wet area and let him lie there while I called Randy (our overnight man) on the walkie-talkie and asked him to call Tina (whose day off it is) to get her set up to take Rocky to Dr. Reeves in Tyler if she could. (Dr. Reeves has been working on Rocky's case since Rocky first became sick several weeks ago. You may recall that Dr. Reeves was trying to rule out intestinal parasites before starting to look for cancer, and after two previous episodes with this intestinal illness Rocky has bounced back to normal after being treated with Panacur, so we thought maybe he was going to be all right.)

     By a little after eight this morning we had scheduled the earliest possible appointment with Dr. Reeves--this afternoon at 2:30. In the meantime Dr. Reeves said we should do what he would do if Rocky were at his clinic: (1) immediately give Rocky honey (which we have) or preferably pure (real) maple syrup (which we don't have), and (2) start Rocky on a subcutaneous fluids.

     We gave Rocky the honey, and he almost immediately gained enough strength to stand and walk a bit before lying back down.

     Next we moved Prince (who's recovering nicely from his surgery) out of our hospital and back into his regular kennel with Bailey. Then Juana changed out Prince's hospital kennel bedding and we carried Rocky inside and started him on the subcutaneous fluids.

     Tina will be here in a little while to take Rocky to Tyler to see Dr. Reeves.

Juana inserts the IV needle in the loose skin of the back of Rocky's neck.

Juana looks up at the IV bottle.

Juana reaches up to adjust the flow of the fluids.

Email update from Claudia on Willow and Abby, forwarded to Straydog by Billy Lawson

     [To Come in the Sunday Update]

Adoption Day tomorrow (Saturday)

Don't forget the BIG GARAGE SALE at Sue Knudsen's

     Sue may be opening up the sale today. Call her at 972-208-7841. Officially the garage sale starts tomorrow morning at 8:00 and runs till 2:00 p.m.