Upon arrival at our vet's office both girls were evaluated. Shirley (the older of the two) had pneumonia, was severely dehydrated and was nothing but a rack of bones. Laverne was also extremely skinny and was very wobbly on her feet. Both girls were scared to death of people, cowering in the corner whenever someone approached. Laverne started to come around after a day or so, but care was needed to approach poor Shirley for many days after her arrival. Foster homes were being lined up as the girls were being treated medically.
SHIRLEY (Reva)
This first photo was taken of Shirley on December 13, 2004 at the vet hospital where she's was being treated.
The following two photos are after 2 months of TLC from the vets and her Foster Mom, Jeannie.
Shirley's condition was very dicey for over a week as the vets battled
to get the pneumonia under control. Fluids and antibiotics did there work
though, and eventually the IV fluids were removed….. but a couple days
later Shirley was once again severely dehydrated and we realized that
she would absolutely not drink water from any type of bowl, nor with any
type of additive…. The staff tried everything they could think of, but
Shirley simply refused to drink water. Her appetite was good though, so
we were able to get water into her by feeding her what was basically a
dog food soup and she'd happily lap that up….
DAR&E decided that maybe it would help to get Shirley out into a foster home as soon as we could so she came to my house. What a sad picture Shirley made when I went to pick her up. She was lying on a nice soft dog bed with blankets, surrounded by bowls of food and water, obviously well-loved by the folks at the animal hospital, but her eyes were so sad and scared, her body so thin and weak, and her demeanor so scared as she walked crouched low to the ground as we left the building. She was quiet on the long ride home and slunk low at the end of the leash when I got her out of the car at home. I put her in an x-pen with her crate/dog bed to give her a chance to re-group a bit. It took many, many days for her to start relaxing and seeing that her new home would be a loving one, not an abusive one. She got along fine with the other dogs, even trying to get several of them to play with her after a while Slowly the sadness has begun to leave her eyes and she's gained weight and some confidence has begun to appear.
She's learned to love the daily walks that helped build up her wasted muscles and she's
worked gradually from a slow, painful walk to sometimes even an occasional
burst of running. She loves to chase after the other dogs when they are
playing fetch and pokes them with her nose trying to get them to play
with her. She's an old girl and still pretty rickety, but she's out there
doing her best! She's a stubborn old girl though and still won't drink
water out of a bowl. She will drink from water puddles and laps up her
dog food soup 2x a day so she's getting her fluids, but that's as far
as she will go…. She does watch the other dogs drinking from their buckets
and licks her lips, so I'm hopeful that one day she'll get up the courage
to try it… In the meantime the light is now back in her eyes, her little
tail wags a lot and she seems very content with her current lot in life.
June 6, 2005 Update: Reva is also doing well, although at her age the heat is going to be very hard on her.... She will drink water now out of the big horse bucket I keep out in the front yard for the dogs when we're out there, but so far I haven't seen her drink from the indoor buckets. She's staying hydrated with the water added to her meals, but I'll have to keep a close eye on her this summer because she'll need more water and I can't count on that stubborn old girl getting it on her own! She's all filled out now and continues to love to chase Beau when we play fetch in the yard. She can't do more than little bursts of rickety speed, but she seems to get a kick out of it..... she's good about timing her spurts so she does manage to catch Beau now and again as he races by her. Then she has to go lie down and catch her breath! Miss Reva is a class act and I'm so grateful DAR&E was able to give her and her buddy Nova (waiting at the Bridge) a taste of the good life in their senior years.
Update 9/12/05 : Reva had a really tough weekend. Friday night she was fine one minute, went outside for a short time and when she came back in she was trying to vomit and her stomach was big as a basketball and hard as a rock. Our Reva was bloating! I got her in the car and we took off for the emergency clinic, which was about 1 hour away... Poor Reva was groaning in pain and obviously so miserable it just broke my heart! About half way there though she started to pass some gas and I got hopeful that her stomach had not twisted. I had called ahead to the emergency vet clinic so they were ready for Reva when I walked through the door with her in my arms. We did blood tests and xrays and everything came back normal. By that time Reva's stomach had significantly decreased in size and she was much more comfortable (although scared out of her mind with all the people working on her!) We stayed at the clinic for a couple hours to make sure Reva was OK and then headed home. The vet would have liked to have kept Reva overnight for observation, but Reva is still very frightenend of things she doesn' know so he agreed that it would be best to send her home where she is comfortable and not stressed. Reva was tired and slept even more than usual over the weekend, but is back to normal now. We have no clue what caused her bloat....... but as a precaution I am now feeding her 3 times a day to reduce the amount of food she consumes in any one meal.
Reva is very lucky. Many times bloat does not resolve as Reva's did. Hopefully this is an isolated incident for our old girl.
On a really great note though!! I walked into the kitchen the other night and there was Reva drinking out of the dogs water bowl in there. Doesn't seem like a big deal, but our stubborn old girl had NEVER drunk from any water bucket/bowl in the house since I got her last December. This is a MAJOR step for her and I just about fell over when I walked in and saw her. It's the little things in life! :o)
Update 11/26/05 - Sad news from Reva's Foster Mom, Jeannie
Very early this morning I woke up to hear Reva pacing. Not unusual
for her as breakfast time approached, but she didn't settle this time so I
turned on the light and poor Reva's stomach was extremely distended.
We took off for the emergency clinic. Xrays showed a lot of gas, but
not much food or anything else that might have brought on the bloat.
The vet who worked on Reva this time was the same one who saw her last time
she bloated and he was concerned that there was something else that was
causing the problem...... tumor/cancer?
Reva was not in good shape, she was shocky, her temperature was
quite a bit below normal and her gums were very pale. The vet said we
could put her on warm blankets, give her warmed-up IV fluids, pain meds and
try and tap into the abdomen to release the pressure, but I made the
decision to let her go. Reva was easily 13-14 years old. She'd now
bloated twice in as many months and would have bloated again at some point
assuming we could have gotten this one under control. She was happy
and felt safe at home, but was very frightened away from home and she would
have had to stay in ICU for at least a day or two. I just couldn't do
it to her.
Reva and Nova came into DAR&E just under a year ago the result of a
cruelty case. If not for DAR&E their last days would have been spent
sick and emaciated at an animal shelter. Instead both old girls spent
their remaining time with us, warm and safe and knowing they were loved
and special. I will miss my creaky little girl a lot, but she's now at
the Bridge, once again together with her friend Nova.
LAVERNE (NOVA)
Sad News: Nova (previously known as Laverne) passed in her sleep on March 16, 2005, in the comfort of her
foster Mom & Dad's bed. After a life of hardship, she enjoyed her last months inside sheltered from
the cold, on a soft bed for her old bones, with plenty of food and all the love her foster family could give!
Laverne was also very thin and weak when she came in. She was a couple years younger and didn't seem to have the same deep-seated fear of the world that her older friend did. She did have something wrong with her hind legs, though. They were very weak and wobbly and she moved funny. Tests were done and nothing specific was found. At one point we wondered if maybe she had been confined in too small an area for too long and simply hadn't developed properly.
Whatever the reason it didn't affect her good nature and she is now also in Hospice Care. Her Hospice Mom is currently taking her for acupuncture treatments to see if that will help her regain some of her balance. Laverne has blossomed into a new Dobe with all the TLC and love she has received! It is so rewarding to see the light of life and happiness that has returned to her eyes.
Laverne and Shirley (renamed Nova and Reva, respectively), two older, unadoptable Dobes. But these girls had obviously led a miserable life and DAR&E felt they deserved to be shown all the love and TLC in their golden years that they should have had all their lives. When they leave this world, they will leave it knowing they were special! That is the promise we have made to them.