Monday, October 4, 2010

Pupdates - Red and Blue

Been preoccupied lately with some of the goings-on around here. Thought I'd share a bit of what has been keeping me from my blogging ...




Red Dog is still with us, looking for a home. I'm now looking into some less conventional ways to find her a home since she is a non-conventional kind of dog. I am trying to pull some heart-strings ... We are going away in November and after a lengthy discussion with someone off the record, I am concerned about sending Red Dog back to BAS when we go. I worry about whether or not she will be waiting for us when we get back and I doubt they would adopt her to someone in that short period of time (though stranger things have happened!). So I have people putting up posters, I am contacting newspapers and I am emailing lists like crazy hoping to spread the word. I have contacted a breeder in Ontario who will list rescue dogs on their website (though I haven't heard anything back yet) and I am waiting to hear back from a call to ACD rescue in Ontario that I was hoping might have some ideas.





Blue Dog is still having problems, though the problems have changed! Of course it's changed - heaven forbid that she have "normal" problems! Bloodwork came back relatively normal but protein levels in her blood are low and her albumin levels are off. Apparently this suggests a GI problem, so we had fecal samples run. They have come back negative. Now we're on to the next test. I don't know what it is yet - I'll be talking to the vet this evening. Last time I was talking to her we were considering which specialist to go to. I plan to ask if X-Rays would show anything unusual.




Instead of seizure-like-activity, or hypoglycemic-like-activity, her episodes have changed to stroke-like-activity (according to my vet). Awesome, eh? Last weekend she got all cuddly, then lost her balance, fell over and spent over an hour trembling, shaking and falling. It seemed like she had vertigo. She would panic if I left her side and she would panic if she was moved at all. This may sound sad but it was the first time I was able to actually hold her (normally she's a little firecracker who doesn't stop unless to sleep - I've never met a dog with more energy) and it was quite scary.  It took her more than 24 hours to recover ... she was so weak that for the first 12 hours after her "episode" she couldn't stand up without assistance and her reactions were very slow so she was not able to catch herself if one of the other dogs bumped into her. Since then she has been subdued and cuddly, neither of which are normal behaviours for her.




Cross your fingers and paws for us folks, I have a feeling this is going to be a bumpy ride!

8 comments:

bichonpawz said...

Fingers and Paws crossed...I SO hope that these beautiful souls find a furever home and SOON.

GoLightly said...

You know I would if I could.
Have several soft spots for ACD's.
But two is all I can handle.

Good luck, Red!

Blue sounds like a real strange case.
How old is she again?

Cyndi and Stumpy said...

aw...poor Blue!Sending good mojo and healing vibes...

I Know you are in CA, but there's an awesome ACD rescue in Michigan... http://acdrescuemi.tripod.com/ maybe they'll have contacts in Canada

When I was looking for a home for Alf I registered and posted on breed specific forums everywhere I could find. AuCaDo has one...
http://www.aucado.us/forums/index.php

I also posted on different dog forums...dogs.com, the dog forum...some will let you and some won't. Hell I even posted on horse forums.

It's horrible having a deadline! I was in tears, petrified that I would have to have Alf euthanizied. There was no way I was going to subject him to a shelter. A miracle did happen and it couldn't have been more perfect! You and Red Dog are in my thoughts and prayers!

mytwh said...

DDF- I belong to an awesome nutrition group on Yahoo - K9Nutrition. The owner of the lists is extremely knowledgeable. There are a lot of people on there with a lot of experience with different diseases/conditions. Maybe try posting about Blue Dog on there? You know who has had similar symptoms. Paws crossed for you guys.
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/K9Nutrition/messages

mytwh said...

I meant to say "You never know who..." Sorry.

DogsDeserveFreedom said...

bichonpawz ... thank you.

GoLightly ... she's going to be 2 around late December.

GSC ... I've not tried forums yet - good idea! I'll give that a go. I have been emailing Yahoo Groups mailing lists and am waiting to hear back from a newspaper.

mytwh ... That sounds like an interesting group. I'll pop over there and take a peek!

mytwh said...

I love K9Nutrition. I've learned so much from them about nutrition, allergies in dogs, tick disease, cancer in dogs, anything you can think of. You can search the archives with certain words too, like allergies or itchy skin and find a lot of historical posts. You're my training site and they're my everything else site :) I really hope you find out what's going on!

GoLightly said...

Sounds kinda neuro to me.

I sure hope not, but that's what it sounds like.

ACD's are the most toughest of creatures, and they HATE feeling sick.
When Red Dog got her idiopathic autoimmune poly-arthritis, she screamed in pain. I mean, screamed. (I shiver just remembering it..)
The only thing that stopped the pain was steroids. and after she'd recovered/withdrawn from the 'roids, a strict diet.

Keep her lean.
And good luck.

I think we are all pretty distracted away from blogging right now.
My nightmare just keeps getting worse. OOOps, she forgot to water him again! Oooops, he is completely out of hay! Mucking out? whooops. I guess neighbour forgot.
aGain.

gawd.

Blue is lucky she has you on her side.
Red, too.