Straydog UPDATE posted MONDAY 1/13/03 at ~10 p.m. CT
Pat Arnold's Daily Dog Log
MONDAY JANUARY 13 2003
Frightened Shepherd mix dog discovered at foot of Straydog driveway, huddled in a bed of crusty snow and tall standing grass (hay) which she had made for herself
It was 5:15 this dark, icy-cold morning and Randy was due to be at work any minute when I heard his voice over the walkie-talkie calling to me. He said he had just pulled in the driveway at the bottom of our hill and discovered a young German Shepherd curled up in the tall snowy hay. It was so dark outside that at first he thought the dog was a coyote, probably sick or wounded as she was lying so still, but when he got out of his car to get a closer look, the animal turned her head toward Randy, and he saw that it was a young German Shepherd dog.
Randy continued to say over the radio that he was at the frightened dog's side at that very moment, petting her, and that he saw what he thought was a large laceration on her neck--what should he do?
Of course we needed to help the dog immediately, so Randy picked her up and put her in his truck beside him and he drove up the hill, around the outside of our shelter fence to where our "dog van" was parked. While he was on his way, I went outside and started the engine of the ice covered van to warm it up, and then I put several big blankets in the large traveling crate. The dog would have to stay in the van until it was light enough for us to prepare a temporary kennel for her to stay in here until I could take her to our vet at 7:00 a.m.
When Randy lifted the thin, frightened dog out of his truck, we looked closely at her neck by the light of a flashlight to see if we needed to treat the wound, but we discovered that it wasn't a cut that Randy had seen; it was just a deep indention in the fur that encircled her entire neck, which had been made by a collar that had been much too tight for her for a very long time. How she got the collar off we'll never know, unless she had been tied to something and struggled to get away which had broken the collar loose. Or had her "owner" finally removed the collar when he decided to abandon her? These things we will never know.
"Heather" curled up in the blankets in the crate and I took her a bowl of food which she gobbled up immediately. The van was warm by then so I shut the motor off, planning to turn it on again a little later.
By 9:30 Guy and I were at the vet clinic. Guy (on his day off) and his wife Kim wanted to go along to see new arrival Davey also.
Heather appears to be in fairly good health, the doctor said after the initial checkup. She is less than two years old, a black and brown Shepherd mix and weighs 56 pounds. Right now she is very timid, but that's to be expected after what she must have just gone through. I left her to be spayed, receive her vaccinations and continue with the more thorough examination when the doctor can schedule her in today.
While the vet tech took Heather to a kennel, Guy, Kim and I went to see Davey, and we spotted this big white Shepherd right away. We knelt down and talked to him from the outside of his kennel while he looked at us, now showing interest, so we opened his kennel and leashed him to take him outside for a walk around the clinic grounds.
What a difference in Davey!
Davey has been at the clinic for almost three days now. He's on antibiotics and eating good, nutritious food, and already he's showing much improvement in his personality.
He seemed much happier and even gave us friendly nudges with his head. We petted him and hugged him (the upper half of his body), and I could see that he enjoyed the attention. His big brown eyes that had looked so dull and lifeless last Friday when he arrived, have a happy sparkle to them now.
He still has the terrible skin problem, and we were very careful to not touch his back or hind quarters, and we will continue to be very careful about where we pet Davey, until the skin problem is all cleared up. We must have stayed with him for half an hour or longer. Davey looks so much better and turns out to be a sweet dog after all.
Monday evening update on Davey
The doctor called me this afternoon to tell me what he thought of Davey's health problems and we made some decisions about how we would progress:
We decided against castrating Davey (at this time) because once the dog was sedated, the doctor was able to examine the fellow thoroughly and found that his scrotum is so raw, practically bloody raw, that to neuter him would just add to this problem. At his age there is really no need for it, especially at our shelter because all the females are spayed (males are neutered) so he will have no desire to go wandering since he is confined to our shelter grounds. Once his sores are healed we can go through with the neutering, but for now we will not.
It's because Davey's scrotum is so raw that he is experiencing such pain, the doctor said, and hopefully the continued antibiotics will heal all his skin problems, including the scrotum area. The doctor thinks the antibiotics have already begun to work, because the raw areas on his elbows (with pus) look better to the doctor today.
Dr. Morton also thinks it is best to not treat Davey for heartworms, at least not right at this time. Maybe when we get him back to really great health, we will consider having him treated, and I'll talk more about this with the doctor tomorrow. But for now, no.
His hip and back x-rays show his hips to be "okay," and then Dr. Morton went on to explain that the stiffness when Davey walks is caused by bone proliferation [I think the doctor said] of the bones at the front of his hips.
While Davey was still sedated, the vet techs gave him a good bath so he should look really beautiful tomorrow when we bring him home. His kennel (Helen's former kennel beside our house) is all ready for him, and this special fellow will be happy here and will be very well taken care of at Straydog until he is adopted, just like all the other dogs and puppies.