Bill Arnold's Daily Straydog Log

WEDNESDAY JUNE 30 2004

NOON UPDATE

Erin reports ...

I rescued a tiny kitten from the left-turn lane of a 5-lane highway

     Driving along the highway to Straydog yesterday I spotted a small fur-ball, the size of a duckling, with pointy ears in the center left-turn lane. There were two lanes of traffic whizzing by on each side of the hunkered-down fur-ball. Surely this isn't really a kitten, I thought to myself, but took the next exit and drove back to see. The buff-colored pint-size animal was a kitten.

     It was easy and safe enough to park in this middle lane, so I put on my hazard lights and stopped the car. I walked over to the baby, and luckily it wasn't feral and allowed me to pick it up.

     I noticed some blood on the kitten's mouth, but other than that it seemed all right. I put the baby under my coat and proceeded on to Straydog, very upset that there was a strong possibility that the kitten had been tossed into the median lane by some subhuman monster.

     The baby cat began to make me smile when he began crawling around under my jacket. By the time I got to Straydog the kitten had positioned himself comfortably on my shoulder.

     Oliver (as I've since named him) settled right down to sleep in a basket on the counter in the Straydog hospital kitchen. I called Dr. Reeves and he had me give Oliver via eye-dropper a concoction of honey and water that would help the tiny kitten until the afternoon vet visit.

Erin's report on the vet visit to Dr. Reeves'

Oliver goes along with the dogs to Dr. Reeves' Tuesday afternoon

   Oliver

     Oliver is about six weeks old and has a busted lip that needs a stitch or two when he's strong enough for anesthetic. He has no broken bones, no broken jaw. He weighs 12 ounces. Dr. Reeves fed him and the baby ate a lot. The doctor then wormed the kitten, dusted him with food grade DE for fleas, checking him over some more.

     Oliver needs to eat often. He's pretty bony. Later back at Straydog Blackie wanted to meet Oliver after Oliver finished eating his meal on the counter last night.

   Blackie

     Blackie may have tracheal-bronchitis from an infection from his teeth. He may have heart disease too, but the doctor pushed on his windpipe and Blackie began his hacking cough. This is why he thinks Blackie has an infection in his windpipe area.

     Blackie has antibiotics to begin to take a few days before his teeth-cleaning. We also got cardiovascular supplements and antioxidents for him from Dr. Reeves.

   Rudy and Julie

     This was the day that Dr. Reeves had set aside to check on Rudy and Julie, two of our three 'hormone patient' dogs (following Dr. Plechner's protocol to boost their immune systems by getting their hormone levels in balance). Rudy was at 51 pounds. He is a little thin again from running so much. Both dogs seem fine though. Rudy has a lot of sand in his ears, so we'll clean them often. We'll have more blood work taken for these dogs (and Toby) at the six-month point from when we started the treatment.

   Misty

     Misty, who suffers from allergies came along to have the hormone blood test done, but she needs to be off her thyroid meds for a couple of days first, so the doctor just asked questions about her and shaved one of her hot-spot areas that we're treating. Her sores don't look too bad, and that's because we're careful to doctor them every day and she is wearing an E-collar and staying in a one of the hospital kennels except for frequent potty walks to the park.

     We will get Misty, and our two dogs who have had cancer, Angel and Anthony, in for this hormone/immune system test soon.

Bobby, Nikki and Toby go to Dr. Morton's for x-rays of bad backs and bad legs

   Bobby

     Bobby needs two hip replacements (the best but most expensive option), and one of his knee surgeries done last year looks terrible now. The other one is still okay. This is very expensive surgery. Dr. Morton will send all the new x-rays to Dr. McDonald at the surgical center to get his opinion.

   Nikki

     Nikki was too frightened for an x-ray, but the doctor looked at her previous x-rays and said that she will need a femoral head removal surgery at some point. He watched Nikki walk, and noticed there was no muscle atrophy in her bad hip leg. Sometimes we need to treat the patient and not the x-ray, Dr. Morton said, when I told him that Nikki runs and plays and doesn't seem in pain, at least not often. "At some point you will want to do the surgery," he advised.

   Toby

     We wanted to take Toby for x-rays to see if he has a slipped disk or something that could be causing his paralysis--something that could be fixed. His disks look perfect, very evenly spaced, and there is no arthritis, Dr. Morton said. He went on to say, though, that he couldn't promise that there wasn't something a little narrow (abnormally) in the hip area. So, the doctor did have a small question.

     There is a test for the disease Degenerative M. (name to come)(similar to MS in humans), which costs $1,000. We were going to try to rule out all other possibilities before assuming this is what Toby has. DM is a progressive disease affecting the spine, for which there is no cure, much like Multiple Sclerosis.

     Dr. Morton's staff and I measured Toby for a cart. For right now, Toby is on the Synflex (liquid Glucosomine/Chondritin) and some other supplements (from a holistic vet in Plano, Dr. Shawn Messonier) that could possible help the slowing down of DM.

Newsletters are being stuffed, labeled and stamped as fast as we can

     We should get a big batch in the mail this afternoon.