Elsie is living the life!

Elsie continues to improve by leaps and bounds. She finished the last of her antibiotics today. She is still coughing like she has a hairball, but it is less frequent. We will see what her doctor has to say and find out if he recommends surgery. If she does, we will see if it's okay to have her spayed at the same time. No need to put her through multiple surgeries, if we can do it in one.

Elsie is walking better every day. She probably will always have a distorted walk, but at least she is able to walk and trot a little with the other dogs. 

Jiggy and Elsie

Elsie and Squirty

We are still working on getting her housebroken. She does very well while in a crate. We only put her in one if we are away. She actually likes it to sleep in it, and will wander in one during the day. (Lots of pillows and carpet to lay on). She does well with using pads, but she still has an accident or two a day. 

Elsie still gets along with all the other dogs. They all like her, and she likes them, but Ace is still her buddy. They spend a lot of time with each other. When they are outside, they just stick with one another.

Ace and Elsie together

All in all, a pretty uneventful week, which is good. She continues to get better, and will soon be ready to find her "Fur-Ever" home.  At night, Elsie gets some loving and loves "Treat Time", and then curls up in her favorite bed for the night.

Elise's pretty new pink collar and tag!

As always, please visit Pets Come First and Happy Valley Animals In Need at their Facebook pages, or their websites www.petscomefirst.org and www.happyvalleyanimalsinneed.com

See you in a week!!!

Elsie's day on the town

Elsie started today off as usual, lying on a quilt in my room. She kind of wanders from room to room every few hours. Since we have lots of doggies, we have beds placed throughout the house. Elsie thinks she's Goldilocks... She never stays in one place too long. Today was going to be a long day for everyone. We had 2 doctors appointments, a trip to the DMV, and a vet appointment for Ace. Since the doctor who saw Ace, also saw Elsie, we thought it would be a good idea to get her a mini-checkup.

Elsie loves her breakfast!

So throughout the day, we took every chance to walk around, and get her used to being on a leash in public.

Elsie is getting so strong! She is managing big steps!

Elsie and her boyfriend Ace.

Elsie and Ace both did very well walking together. They only tangled me up once or twice!

One of the vets that Pets Come First uses is All Pets Veterinary Wellness & Spay/Neuter Clinic located at 2052 E. College Ave. State College, PA 16801. Let me just say, this whole clinic is amazing. From the second you walk in, you can feel the love and caring they have 

for all animals. 

They of course remembered Ace. EVERYONE remembers Ace, but they also remembered Elsie. Their first reaction was "She doesn't stink anymore!!!" Also, they noticed that Elsie wasn't as scared and snapping like she was. When we got Elsie on July 27th, she only weighed 4.2 pounds. Today, she weighed in at a nice 7.8 pounds! She still has some weight to put on, but its great to see she's on the right path! The reason why we brought her in, was to have Dr. Cruden listen to her heart and lungs. She had been coughing a lot. it sounds like a cat coughing up a hairball. We had lost 2 dogs over the past year to heart issues, and we wanted to be a proactive as possible! Well, Dr. Cruden says Elsie's heart is perfect! No murmur, no irregular heartbeat, just a good, strong heart! What he figured out is that there is a possible collapsing trachea, but that is entirely fixable, and is SO much better than Congestive Heart Failure! Elsie is now on antibiotics to see if that will help, and try to clear up any of her other issues. Next up, we will see next month when we can get her fixed!

After the vet, we went to Petco. This was something we weren't sure how either dog would handle. Well, lets just say those fears were unfounded. Ace was the little king of the store, but Elsie.... Sweet Elsie who could barely walk three weeks ago, strutted around the store like a princess!!! She was curious, and energetic. She liked looking around, and seeing things. There wasn't any fear in her at all! Even when she saw a large German Shepherd, she didn't bark, or act scared. She just looked at him and was her normal sweet self.

Afterwards we got home, and she seemed a little tuckered out, but managed to look pretty for one last picture.

From L-R: Dixie, Elsie, Squirty, and Jiggy

Thank you again for reading, and as always, please like and share this with everyone. I would like to thank the usual suspects, Pets Come First, and Happy Valley Animals In Need. Visit their Facebook pages, and their websites www.petscomefirst.org, and www.happyvalleyanimalsinneed.com

I would also like thank Dr. Cruden at All Pets Vetinary Wellness Clinic. The care that they give to their patients is second to none. Please visit their website at www.allpets-vetclinic.com




 

Back to Normal

I apologize about the lack of posts this week. I have been extremely busy with one thing or the other.  By the time I get the time to write, I am ready for bed.

So hear it goes.

Lets start with a shot of her tush...

This was taken on August 13th 2014

This was the day we brought Elsie home July 27th 2014

If you notice, her haunches are filling in pretty decently. Her walking while still awkward, had become pretty normal. She once in a while stumbles a little, but she has definitely gotten a lot stronger over the past month.  Its great to see her become like a normal dog, opposed to a scared sad little girl. She still has a lot of healing to do yet, but she is becoming a happier dog.

I took this pic because of how cute the three of them are, and how she could easily pass for their Sister... It's like we have Small, Medium, and Large Chihuahua's. If you notice, she still hunkers down most of the time. I'm not sure why, but that is getting slightly better too.

Elsie and her boyfriend Ace. (I'm sure a lot of you remember him...)

Right now, Elsie is eating twice a day about half a can each meal. She will eat until she gets sick, so we try to avoid that. She also is getting better using the pee pads. Lets just say the first few weeks were a tad wet here. (SO glad we have sealed hardwood floors opposed to carpet... ) Elsie will always do her business when she goes outside, but there are always accidents... What happens is when she eats or drinks, there is so little room in her body, that when something goes in, something has to come out... She is doing well becoming pad trained, and as long as her future Fur-ever owner takes her out right after she eats, she will be just fine.

Right now, Elsie is doing well, and has recovered from her adventure last week. She is looking and feeling so much better then when we brought her home. She is pushing up with her back paws when you pick her up. She isn't panicky when you hold her, and loves to be rubbed. Most of her sore spots seemed to have healed, her mats all gone. 

The best thing, is that she is wagging her tail. That makes us so happy to see that she is enjoying life enough to be excited about something enough to wag her little tail.

As always, please check out www.petscomefirst.net and www.happyvalleyanimalsinneed.com Both organizations can also be reach on Facebook, and Happy Valley on @HVAIN on Twitter.

What a difference 3-5 minutes make

This is how I started off this post last night.


We got Elsie on July 25th 2014. When we got her, we didn't know how, when, or even IF she was going to get better. Elsie was so frail and beaten, it was a wonder she was still alive.  However, the more we thought about how she was found, this little tiny dog, tromping through the woods, her back legs so atrophied from giving birth so many times, we knew that she was a fighter.


Little did I know that I would be reliving this again. This morning, Elsie slipped outside when I was bringing our pet pig in. We keep her on a leash while outside because pigs are FAST. Its a safety precaution we use. We also have a tether we use for our Fox Terrier Maddy. We are a safety first household when it comes to our pets. Now, knowing Elsie, I had no doubt in my head that I could go, put Piggers (Yes that's her name) in her house, take off her leash, and go back outside to watch Elsie.

I was wrong.

In the time it took for me to walk 25 feet, undo a leash, and close the pig door, Elsie disappeared.

Between three and five minutes MAX, that little angel, who could barely walk 2 weeks ago vanished.

The fault is 100% mine. No one else's. I SHOULD have stopped right there and had her come back in. I never have our dogs outside without constant supervision. My tenants, friends, and neighbors can attest to that. All day long, I have been calling, texting, emailing people to see if they have heard anything, and there has been nothing. We have walked for hours today, and drove around looking for her. We had an appointment this afternoon in State College that couldn't be missed, so we left. Even then, we kept in touch with Pets Come First, and other people who could help.

My thoughts were with this sweet little girl who can hardly see, gets disoriented, but has the heart of a fighter. We were driving around, putting flyers up, when we got word that there was a little girl walking around with a little dog, knocking on doors, trying to find the dogs owner. After another 20 minutes we finally found Elsie, and when she saw me, she yipped, and started wagging her tail, something she rarely did. This little girl found Elsie, and took wonderful care of her, and I will always be grateful for her. 

I guess what I am wanting to say, is that, please don't make the mistake I did. If you know your pet is going to be outside, please, be out with them and watch them. I know people will let their dogs out, and just let them go. Please, just be outside with them. They will thank you for it and they really enjoy our company. 

As always, please visit and support www.petscomefirst.org and www.happyvalleyanimalsinneed.com

Also, thank you for everyone who spread the word, and helped keep an eye out for Elsie. That's one great reason I'm proud of our community. When something happens, we look out for each other. 

Thank you.

Public Service Announcement

Going to take a break from Elsie today to talk about something very important and life threatening in most of the United States, and I'm talking about Lyme Disease.

Gratuitous Elsie Picture

We woke up yesterday morning to something pretty scary. Our Fox Terrier Maddy wasn't right.  Now every pet owner knows what I mean by "Wasn't right". We KNOW our pets behaviors and attitudes like we would our children's, because they ARE our children. 

Probably my favorite picture of her.... she looks so smug.

A little background on Maddy. She is a four year old Fox Terrier that was part of an alleged puppy mill. She was rescued by Happy Valley Animals in Need (HVAIN) and we were asked to foster her. She was underweight. It looked like she had just had a litter, and her skin was red from laying in her own urine.

This is what she looked like when we got her

We were told by the Vet that treated her, that she did test positive for Lyme Disease, but didn't need treatment for it because she was asymptomatic. That was a slight warning sign to us, but we just figured they were right. After about 2 months, it was time for her to be adopted out. After how broken mentally she was when we got her, and how wonderful she was 2 months later, we didn't want her to experience anymore trauma by us abandoning her to someone else. (Yes, I know that isn't quite how it works, but for her... It was different.) All we had were Chihuahua's, so Maddy is considerably larger in frame (but not in weight) to most of our dogs. They all get along... Sometimes Dixie (More on Dixie and Jiggy in a future post) and Maddy bark and growl at each other.... mostly for territory... Dixie has issues with ANYONE who tries to sit on the couch without her express approval. By and large, Maddy has fit in to our family perfectly

We discussed Lyme Disease again early this summer while watching, of all things, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. One of the stars, Yolanda Foster has been dealing with Lyme Disease, and it showed what she was going through.

"My husband is a creative genius"

While we talked about it, we decided to bring it up to Doctor Herring on her September checkup we had scheduled. We wanted to see if he felt there was something we should/could be doing for her.

GET ME CHECKED OUT DARNIT!!!

Well, yesterday morning, Maddy's legs started to lock up, and her lower torso seemed to be paralyzed. We went into "Crazy Panic Mode" We called Herring's Veterinary Services in Clearfield, PA, and they said they would see her as soon as we got her in there. No showers, just throw on clothes, and go! 

Now Maddy is always perky, peppy, and energetic... I don't think she had much of a puppy life, so we let her act like one. It's endearing and fun to have a pup that loves to roughhouse a bit. So when we saw her acting like she was almost dead it was horrible!

When we pulled into Herring's everyone was wonderful, they got her in, and within a minute, had her weighed and drew blood for the Lyme Disease test.

•                         195 Flegal Road
•                            Clearfield, PA 16830-9725

The P.A who saw us said that she does indeed have Lyme Disease, and it was easily treatable in dogs. Its rare in cats, and very complicated in humans, but with dogs, its an easy fix. They, being professionals didnt say anything negative about Maddy not getting care for this by the prior vet, but did say that Dr. Herring says that "Lyme Disease is like being pregnant. You either are, or you're aren't. You can't be a little of either."

So, Maddy is now on antibiotics, and a mild pain reliever. She is close to being like her old self, but still is slower, and sleepy, which is a good thing. 

What I want people to take from this, is the importance of getting your pets checked out, and treated. Had we known that this would have happened, we would have had her on an antibiotic months ago. So even though your pet maybe perfectly normal, if they have Lyme Disease, its just a matter of time before they start hurting.

As always, thanks to 

www.petscomefirst.org

www.happyvalleyanimalsinneed.com and at @HVAIN on twitter

and 

http://www.herringveterinaryservice.com

See you soon!!!

Elsie Gets A Bath!!!!!

Let me say, from the get-go that Elsie was a perfect lady during her bath.

Almost.

She was a total lady when I placed her in the bathtub...

She didn't even mind getting wet.

Or Shampooed and conditioned...

She was even great while I cleaned her rear and was cutting mats off, until...

The one on her neck is still there. When I tried to remove it, she started getting upset and aggressive. I think she still has a lot of pain in that area, so I left it be. The last thing I want is for her to become distressed and upset.

So here she is, all bathed, shampooed, and conditioned, and swaddled like a baby...

Remember, please like and share this, leave comments, and please visit and support these two agencies.

www.petscomefirst.org

www.happyvalleyanimalsinneed.com

And their respective Facebook pages as well.