Just got back from hanging with the crew. It was as hot as Hades, but there are heaps of trees over at this place, so we were able to find some shade to sit under and love on the dogs. It was just Angie and I today. We talked about the vet visit last night. It was a long night - the vet was so thorough with each of the dogs. We got weights on them all, they all had a thorough exam of their body, eyes, ears and teeth. We drew blood for heartworm tests and we got fecal samples for everyone. On the whole, I guess you could say that the results of the vet exam were good. Everyone is heartworm negative - INCREDIBLE!!!! We had found some ivermectin in the kennel and it appeared that the owner had been treating them all pretty regularly. However, there was no indication of when the last doses were given, and the kennels back up to a pretty marshy-looking area and there are mosquitoes everywhere out there (my arms and legs are proof of this!!). The fact that they are all heartworm negative is just wonderful - I commend the owner for taking care of the dogs this way. The vet recommended we re-test in 9 months as it is possible, with the owner's declining health, that he may have stopped treatment within the last year sometime. Due to the life-cycle of the heartworms, the dogs may have been infected recently but won't show as positive until much later. But for now, we are doing the happy dance!
 |
| Buster Opens Wide |
 |
| Georgia gets ready to have her blood drawn for her heartworm exam. |
The physical exams were less pleasing. All the dogs show signs of muscle wasting and emaciation. The only exercise they have had in recent times (at least) is running up and down the runs in their kennel area. This has definitely taken a toll on the older dogs, but the young ones also. Then there are the ear infections - Queenie and Gunner have the worst cases. We tried to clean Gunner's ears but he was having none of it. He never got mean, but he made it very, very clear that he wasn't happy with being held or with having his ears touched. The last thing we want to do is give him a negative impression of people, so we backed off. Angie is able to get drops in the ears twice daily, so for now we will stick with that. The vet says that Gunner's body condition is close to being classified as emaciated. Thank goodness that is an easy fix with food and some regular exercise! Georgia has mild conjunctivitis and ear tip dermatitis. In fact, most of the dogs have the ear tip damage from the biting flies. The tips of their ears are covered in bloody scabs. The vet instructed Angie to pick the scabs off each day so that medicated ointment can be applied to the tips to help them heal. Poor Georgia also has severe gingivitis and tartar. She is going to need to be sedated for a deep dental cleaning. She also has bald spots on each hip bone area. Due to the fact she is also severely underweight, its possible that these are the beginnings of pressure sores. There is no bedding in the dog runs - just wood floors. Without any meat on their bones this is an awfully hard surface to lay on. I think of all the orthopedic beds laying all over the floors at my place and it makes me sad that these dogs - especially the older ones - haven't had any comfort like this. Sadly, at the end of Georgia's exam, the vet found a marble-sized tumor on one of her nipples. My heart sank. Being an older, intact female, the chances of mammary cancer are very high. The mass is oozing some blood but doesn't appear infected. It's small - which is a good thing - and it is limited to only 1 nipple. We'll need to think about how we want to handle this - biopsy? excise it? leave it and take chances? Clearly more Board discussions are needed!
 |
| Buster waits patiently for his exam |
Queenie got a good report other than being emaciated. She is the thinnest of them all. She also has a cracked incisor that will most likely need to come out. We can do that when she is spayed. Tina also got a good report save for ear tip dermatitis and also a fractured tooth. The big boy Buster is a bit of a mess. He has severe wasting in the back end and his rear feet turn outward. He is extremely low in the back end - but the vet can't tell if it is due to lack of muscle mass or if he has a neurological issue. He responds fine when you turn his feet over (a test for neurological deficits), but he just doesn't look right at the back. He also has very low exercise tolerance. Today while I was out there I took him for a couple of laps around the back yard to get him moving. He did a lot better than when I was there last Monday, but he still has a long way to go. His eyes are very goopy and the vet thinks he has conjunctivitis. It could be from allergies as he has a thick, yellow discharge coming from them - it makes him look like he is crying all the time :(
Finally the vet got to Susann and Diesel - the 2 we have all been worried about. Susann's mass is large - easily a fistful. It involves quite a few of the nipples. It is hard and irregular - everything you DON"T want a tumor to be. It is clear to the vet what we are dealing with here. We were all kind of quiet when she explained what she was feeling. I can't help feeling that it is a cruel twist of fate that the dog who seems to have endure the neglect the best - in terms of retaining her personality and willingness to interact with people - is also the one who probably won't get a chance to experience the freedom we are hoping to give the other dogs. A couple of us REALLY love Susann - her fire-cracker personality is really funny. While Gunner was being examined, she was out roaming free in the kennel and she had her nose in everything the vet was doing. At one point, Gunner was struggling and growling as he didn't want his ears touched. Susann walked over to him and barked sharply right in his face as if to say, "stop it! You're embarrassing me! I brought you up better than this so sit still and let them look in your ears!!". Surprisingly, Gunner relaxed after this reprimand! Clearly, Momma knows best!
 |
| Peaceful Diesel waits for his turn to be examined |
The last dog that the vet examined was Diesel. She agreed that he had all the signs of DM. He is occasionally able to get up on his back legs, but for the most part he is scooting himself around on his butt. We talked about the possibility of getting him fitted for a wheel chair. He has such a zeal for life - despite his broken body - that if there is a chance to give him some more time, we really wanted to try. Sadly, the vet does not think he has the upper body strength to be able to use a wheelchair. You can feel his shoulder blades and he has no muscle mass anywhere. Complicating things further is that when the vet looked in his mouth she discovered that all of his teeth are completely rotted. I have never seen anything as bad as this before! I have seen one or 2 rotted teeth before, but every, single tooth in his mouth was either brown or black. His gums were swollen and the color of bright, red tomatoes. When the vet gently pressed on his gums, blood and pus oozed from the gum lines around the teeth. How in the hell was this dog still able to eat? Maybe that's why he is so thin? The pain has got to be excruciating. Or maybe, the nerves are long dead - and so all he has left are these infected stumps? This was not a quick process of tooth decay. This had been going on for years. So somehow, with a paralyzed back end, rotted teeth, fly-bitten ear tips and some sort of corneal infiltrate in his right eye, Diesel just keeps trucking along. Happy as a clam with his new-found friend Angie. Bolstered enough by her love and attention that he has the gumption to try to fence fight with Buster :) Talk about the power of love!!
No comments:
Post a Comment