Duke 4

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Update 2/27/04:  

Duke has been adopted and is settling in nicely in his new home!

Update 2/8/04:

Duke is now a healthy, happy boy!  He was neutered on Jan 20th and staying true to form, healed amazingly well.  He has had his sutures removed, is UTD on shots and is now at his perfect weight of 46 pounds.  He is ready to find his forever home!  Duke has not had any accidents in the house or in his crate in a week.  He will run to the door and bark and dance when his foster mom says, “do you have to go outside” and once outside knows the “go potty” command and does so. Duke loves to romp and play in the yard with bones and tennis balls.  He will go chase the ball and run back to you if you throw it.  He doesn’t release the ball but has no problem if you reach into his mouth to take it and will gladly go chase it again.  He acts like he struck gold when he finds a bone in the yard and dances and prances and tosses it in the air very proud of himself. He gets along great with other dogs, both the alphas and omegas, but does not do as well with cats.  Duke only licks on rare occasions, but does like to snuggle close and give “eskimo” kisses with his nose. 

Duke knows that he is not supposed to counter surf and will get down when told to do so, but if there is food and no one watching he can’t resist the temptation. He will need training in this area.  He does not chew on anything except dog bones and does not trash pick, however, if there were food in the trash he would definitely go for it.

Duke has not been around toddlers and we don’t believe that a home with toddlers would be a good option for him because of his obsession with food.  He’s not aggressive in any way and you can take anything from him, but a highchair would likely look like a giant food bowl to him.  He also does occasionally jump on people, but he is learning off and this is improving.  He usually does this when his foster mom first lets him out of his crate after work.  Duke will bark and carry on a bit when his foster mom is preparing his dinner but knows that he has to sit and be quiet before she will give it to him.  He does very well with this.  Duke tends to eat very quickly so his foster mom puts water in his bowl to slow down his eating and to prevent him from swallowing so much air.  As an only dog this would likely not be a problem, but if placed in a home with other dogs it should be continued until he feels comfortable that his bowl is his.  He does not try to steal food from the resident dogs in his foster home, but will guard them and their bowls from others as if to say, “I’m next if he leaves any!”

Duke needs optimune ointment in his good eye 1-2 times a day.  The eye specialist said that each dog with dry eye needs different amounts of medicine to regulate the tear production and over time it could be every couple days.  This should be monitored and you will know when he is not getting enough if mucus develops.  Now he gets the medicine at least once a day and is doing just great!  This ointment will cost no more than $25 a month.  His right should need no further treatment.

Duke is looking for a home that will be able to leash walk him or stay in a fenced in area with him to watch him as he can climb like a monkey.  As we last reported he found a high spot that allowed him to jump the fence and since then has jumped the 4 foot fence with no problem to go check out the neighbors’ fenced in yard when their dogs were not outside.  His foster mom was again right there and called him back to the fence.  He put his front legs up and she lifted him right back over.  He makes no attempts to do this when the neighbor dogs are outside and tends to stay away from the fence because they bark at him as “the new dog” and he doesn’t care for it.  He loves to cuddle and if given the chance would love to climb on a nice warm lap and will sleep like a baby.  He will get on the furniture, but does get down when told.Duke is a happy, well adapted boy who would love an understanding, kind and loving family to ensure him that he will never sleep another night subject to the elements and that food shouldn’t be a rare commodity.

Could you be the family to show him life shouldn’t be so hard?

Update 1/8/04:

Duke has now been in foster care for almost a month.  He is an absolute delight and everyone who meets him thinks he is a dollbaby.  Duke has his re-check again for his eye last night.  Everyone at the vet’s office could not believe what a different dog he is. He has gained 8 pounds and is now at a healthy 44 pounds.  His coat is getting glossier by the day and is a rich liver color now.  He is still shedding some of the dead hair and loves to be brushed to help it along.  The swelling, infection and glaucoma are now gone.  The glaucoma is gone because the eye is no longer a functioning eye.  The original diagnosis of dry eye in his good eye still remains and, therefore, he will have to have optimune ointment in this eye twice a day for the rest of his life.  Duke is not a fan of getting the ointment in his eye, but his foster mom has figured out that if she lifts up his front legs and puts the ointment he tolerates it without wiggling and squirming as he does if she tries to put it in with him in a sit. Duke is perfectly crate trained, however he is not yet perfectly housetrained.  He will go to the door when he has to go outside and knows the go potty command once he is outside, but does not yet tell his foster mom he has to go out.  His foster mom is working with him on this and he is a smart boy so she thinks this will be learned quickly.

Duke sleeps in his crate all night without complaint and goes in easily both when his foster mom leaves for work and when it is time for bed and is quiet as a mouse.  If his foster mom leaves the house for a second when he is not crated he will yell at her not to leave him behind, but like we said, when crated he is a content boy.  Duke likes to play ball in the yard, but struggles with that in his foster home because the resident dogs tend to beat him to the ball when it is thrown.  He doesn’t seem to mind though and just chases after them.  His personality is really opening up now and he enjoys the company of the other dogs and will always curl up next to one of them in the evening at nap time. 

Duke was obviously never groomed in his life.  When his foster mom tried to groom him, he clearly thought the clippers were a monster trying to get him.  She has worked with him slowly to get him used to the clippers and he allowed her to groom him recently without much complaint.  He still needs cleaning up around his neck and head, but he is more nervous about the clippers being there than anywhere else so this will take a bit more time.  He is a very good boy though and never showed any aggression toward his foster mom or the clippers!  Duke also has shown his agility by jumping the 4 foot fence at his foster home.  He did this when his foster mom was on the other side of the fence and he wanted to get to her.  He came right to her and she brought him right back inside. Duke found a spot near the house that had been mulched and was raised a little higher than the rest of the yard and that is how he was able to jump the fence.  His foster mom goes out with him to make sure he doesn’t jump the fence and he has not done it again.  If he goes near that spot she calls him and he comes running.  Now that his eye is stabilized, Duke is scheduled to be neutered on January 20th.  He will be available for adoption after his sutures are removed. 

Update 12/18/03:
Duke has been in foster care for a week now and is really thriving.  We are certain now that his right eye will not ever be a functioning eye again.  His veterinarian and eye specialist believe this problem is the result of some trauma to his eye.  At this time, we are trying to treat the eye with the least invasive process as long as he is not in long-term pain.  Both doctors feel that the size of his eye will shrink naturally as the inflammation decreases and the muscles begin to atrophy. If we begin to treat him for the glaucoma now they are afraid that it will force his eye to shrink to an unnaturally small size, thus causing surgery to be necessary to correct his eye lids and or remove his eye.  If the eye does not shrink to a natural size or it gets too small we will have to remove it.  We will wait to neuter him until we know how his eye us healing and what are next steps will be. We know that Duke is still in some pain, but feeling better.  He was relatively lethargic when we picked him up and rushed him right to the vet. After being on a very high concentration cyclosporine drops given in each eye twice a day and a round of antibiotics given three times a day for a week and the pain seems to be subsiding and the infection in his left eye is completely gone. He feels well enough to on occasion attempt to rub his injured eye.  Because of this we started him on triple antibiotic ointment yesterday to help provide additional relief.  He does cry when he rubs it so we know it still hurts him and we are watching him diligently to ensure that if he is not rubbing it too much. If he does we will put an e-collar on him to keep him from further injuring himself.

Duke has been treated for fleas and bathed a couple times to make sure they are all gone.  He is happily no longer itching and has a very soft coat. He has patches of faded hair, but we believe this is from malnutrition and the fleas who even in December in New Jersey were still a live and harboring in his mats. Duke’s foster mom was able to cut all of the mats off him and trim a lot of the hair that was nearly matted (almost like dreads).  He does need to be groomed, but he does not like the clippers and at this time the vet recommends leaving it until he is feeling better.  As skinny as he is, his foster mom thinks the clippers might tickle a little too much too.  Duke has gained over a half a pound in one week which is great news considering he was also treated for intestinal parasites during that time.  We expect him to be at a much more healthy weight in just a few weeks now that he is parasite free. He is being fed three meals a day supplemented with rice and is a very hearty eater.  He usually starts out standing and while staying in the same position lowers to the ground and eats every last morsel.  It was reported that Duke was food aggressive with other dogs after years of fighting them off to eat.  In his foster home, he has growled once while eating when another dog walked by, but never lifted his head from the bowl, kept eating and stopped growling immediately upon correction.  This was only once and when it is not his bowl and he goes into someone else’s for a little nibble he has not complained at all when directed to his own bowl.  Duke tested HW- and though he did show some exposure to lymes, the level was very low and he demonstrates no symptoms, therefore, no treatment is necessary. 

Duke is happy to be in the house and goes in his crate for a treat without complaint.  He had just one accident in the house during a terrible storm.  His foster mom thinks he did not want to go out because it was difficult for him to squint his eyelid to protect his eye from the hard rains so he went in the house while she was getting ready for work.  She didn’t see him do it and didn’t scold him and he has not had any accidents since.  He has not tried to mark anywhere in the house.  He is starting to open up and is becoming a little protective of his foster mom.  He actually growled at the resident alpha male the other day who was jumping up on his foster mom.  She corrected them both with a stern No and both immediately stopped.  He barked at the dogs next door once but when they approached the fence and barked back, he scurried away.  Since they are pretty large rotties, we think he is a smart boy! Duke will jump on the furniture and the bed in the house and has attempted to countersurf.  He listens to “Down” when countersurfing, but has to really be told seriously to get off the furniture.  He sometimes will not listen and needs a little prodding to get down off the furniture and usually lies down on a dog bed without complaint in the evenings, but most often he goes into one of the crates to nap with the resident female.  It is not his crate or hers, but the two really seem to enjoy it when they find it vacant.  Duke knows his name, “sit”, “No”, “down”, and comes when called. He also seems to know “Go Potty”, though it could just be that he goes when he has to do the schedule that his foster mom has him on.  He does not go to the door when he has to go, but has not needed to as the other dogs do it for him. He is good with other dogs, cats are unknown at this time.  We will cat test him over the holidays and toddler test him too. He has found his voice now that he is feeling better and has begun to bark a warning bark when he hears someone at the door or if one of the other dogs are outside and “knock” to come in. 

Duke does not appear to know how to play, but we think this is because he is very cautious of hurting his eye. His foster mom thinks with time and healing his true, playful nature will come out.  He is starting to open up with the resident dogs and his foster brother who is just dying to play with him, but he needs a little more time healing and, therefore spends more time with his foster mom while they are out playing.  Duke is a very loving and affectionate boy.  He adapted very well to his foster home, is a very good houseguest and will make a wonderful companion.

We will post more information on Duke as we continue to assess his progress.

Original:
Duke, his mother Charity and housemate Tubby came into rescue from an owner relinquish situation in Woodbury, NJ.  These three dogs (and 4 others which are being rescued by other groups) have been living in a home without utilities or running water.  The owner has been going back a couple times a day to give them food and water and to the let them inside at night. All of the dogs are extremely thin.  All were covered in fleas and mats, but are now safe, in foster care with MAESSR and loving every minute of it.

When MAESSR volunteers got to the scene to evaluate the dogs, they immediately fell in love with this gentle soul and whisked him off to the vet.  From the vet, he was sent to the ophthalmologist and then returned to the regular vet for a consultation. The diagnosis is that he has a condition called dry eye as well as glaucoma in his right eye.  He also has a severe infection in his right eye and a mild one in the left.  The infection was probably caused by the dry eye going untreated for so long.  It has caused the glands to produce a mucus and inflamed the tissue surrounding his eye.  At this time his right eye is totally blind.  The ophthalmologist immediately started him on drops for the dry eye which seemed to make him feel better immediately.  He gets these twice a day now. He will also be getting saline drops a couple times a day as a supplement to the prescription which should make him more comfortable too.  He is also on an antibiotic which he gets three times a day. 

The ophthalmologist would like to see Duke in about 7 days to see if the inflammation has gone down and that he is pain free so that he can see into the eye to appropriately diagnose his condition and to determine if his eye needs to be removed.  He does not recommend we do anything more at this time than the meds until the infection and swelling have decreased. 

Duke was also covered in large, dirty mats and fleas, live ones, even in December!  His foster mom game him a bath and wrapped him an blanket and clipped the mats from his ears, belly and rear feathering while he quietly napped after his big day.  Duke has been an excellent patient, very trusting and knowing that we are here to help.  He is a velcro dog with his foster mom, but when she carried him to his crate last night to let him rest, he feel sound asleep in it and didn’t make a peep the rest of the night. He takes his pills very easily and is a good boy for the drops in his eyes even though we know it is very painful for him yet. Duke and his mother and housemate all have bad diarrhea and all are getting rice to help slow it down.  We ran a tick profile, blood panel, HW test, fecal and will be doing a urine test.  We will have the results of all of these this week and will be moving forward with treatments based on the finding. We will update his page as soon as we know more.  Right now, Duke needs our thoughts and encouragement and a lot of TLC.  He’s getting those and is a grateful recipient of the attention occasionally giving a springer nub wag to let us know. 

Duke is the EASIEST dog to handle even though he has all of the issues.  He lets you do ANYTHING to who him without a peep out of him.  I dip his pill in peanut butter and he actually chews it.  He lets me put his drops in while leaning into me.  The resident dogs barked at him when he got here and he just hid behind his foster mom and there have been no issues since.  They all seem to know that he needs their mommy’s attention. 

Duke will make an excellent companion when he is feeling better and we are looking forward to seeing his personality blossom as he does.