Mindy 2

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Updated 11/15/06: After so much time and effort, we were devastated to lose Mindy to her second round of bloat. She was a sweet, lovely girl and we were happy to be here to help her and live out her final days comfortably in a loving home.

Updated 10/15/06: Mindy is up to 45 pounds now which is great for her She is feeling so much better than when she came into rescue and so she eats much better too. Her diabetes is under control, and she takes her insulin injections without any problem. With the help of her incontinence medication, she is only occasionally wet in her crate in the morning. She has developed some growths which don’t seem to be giving her any trouble. They are being watched at this time rather than removed so as to minimize the risk of an upset to her overall health.

Mindy remains a sweetheart with a few quirks that make her unique. She has grown used to the household routine in her foster home and will now whine and pace if her foster parents try to stay up later than usual. She continues to guard her meals from people, and occasionally her crate, but gives fair warning with a clear grumble when she feels threatened. She loves being able to go out the dog door whenever she wants and will often lay out on the deck in the sun, but she prefers to have someone go out with her on that first trip in the morning. Of course, her foster mom steps right up to this need.

There are other dogs in Mindy’s foster home. She gets along great with them but doesn’t really engage in play. What gets her excited the most is when people come to visit. Then, she will bark until she is petted. Likewise, she loves to be brushed and groomed and soaks up any and all attention that her foster parents give her.

Mindy is ready to make one more move in her life. Given her love of human affection, she would most like a family in which the people are home much of the time. She would enjoy spending minimal time in a crate at this point in her life and sees having the companionship of compassionate people as most important to her for the rest of her days. If you have a heart to open to a special gal, Mindy will be thrilled to share your days and will also remind you when it’s time to call it a night.

Updated 8/22/06: Mindy has been through a lot and is now feeling better and doing well. The pneumonia is behind her, although some worrisome spots do show in x-rays of her lungs. She pants a bit after running, or playing, but has started to play with a rope toy and will bring it to her foster mom for a short tug-of-war. Her diabetes has been stabilized with two insulin shots a day. Home monitoring of her sugar levels is a simple task and doses can be adjusted with a phone call to her vet. She is eating dry kibble and occasionally green beans now and has gained the weight she lost during the peak of her illness. An incontinence problem is being treated with medication which she sits and waits for twice a day, you see, it comes from her foster mom’s hand in cream cheese!! A daily vitamin goes down the same way.

With improved health, Mindy’s able to shine. She gets along with the resident dogs and doesn’t seem to have any problems with other dogs she meets. She loves to be petted and is very good whenever she is being brushed or groomed. Her house manners are exemplary. She is comfortable in a crate and spends time there whenever her family is away. When she does need to go out, she likes someone to go with her most of the time and will wait for her foster mom to leave the porch before attending to her business. One sensitive time for her is while she is actually eating, she will grumble and snarl if someone comes too close, but she has never been aggressive in any other way.

Besides the rope toy, there is another “toy” that Mindy really likes and will practically beg for. She seems obsessed with a flashlight. Perhaps because she is somewhat deaf, she focuses on lights and shadows. She will sit and cry in front of the flashlight until her foster mom turns it on for her to chase. What a hoot for all!!

Mindy is a very sweet and special dog who is a joy to have at home. She is really no problem to care for but does need a family who will be with her as much as possible. This will enable her diabetes to be better controlled. She also needs to go out frequently because the diabetes makes her very thirsty. If her crate time is minimal and she is given the opportunity to go outside frequently, she is able to keep dry and much more comfortable. If you are a stay-at-home mom or dad, a retiree perhaps, or simply have a tender spot for helping a dog like Mindy to make the most of her recovery, please welcome her into your home and heart.

Updated 7/2/06: After extended care in the emergency veterinary hospital, there is, thankfully, real improvement in Mindy’s condition and she has been allowed to return to her foster home. She will be returning to the hospital for the necessary follow-up to be sure that her lungs are totally clear of the pneumonia. And she will continue to need periodic, and specialized glucose testing, until her health is totally restored, and her diabetes is fully controlled. Some of these visits will be all day affairs for Mindy but hopefully overnight stays are in the past.

For now, Mindy is one happy girl!! She is so excited to be able to go in and out of the house again through the doggy door. She is eating everything her foster mom can “throw” at her. This includes a dry prescription food without any chicken or “doctoring” of any kind. A healthy appetite will help her regain strength from the pneumonia as well as the 8-10 pounds she lost while critically ill. She is very good at taking her medicines and lets her foster mom put drops in her eyes with no problems.

With improving health, the vet was comfortable with beginning treatment for a less critical issue for Mindy. She has started a medication for incontinence. Her foster mom will be checking her urine to be sure this med doesn’t cause any problems with her sugar. Mindy also seems to be slightly irritated in her right ear and is asking to have it scratched quite often. Her foster mom has looked at it and while it is slightly red, it doesn’t appear to be infected. She’ll keep a close watch and is ready to treat if necessary.

Mindy’s progress has been possible through the extraordinary caring and support of her MAESSR family. She now has the expectation of a full recovery and an opportunity for placement with a loving family who will care for her every bit as much as those who have brought her this far. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers as she continues to improve.

Update June 7, 2006: We had hoped that by this point we would have good news for Mindy. Sadly, that is not the case. Mindy is still running very high for her blood sugars, and they will be upping her dosage of insulin to 14 units.

Even worse news is that her pneumoniae is only marginally better. While one lung is clearing slowly, the other one is not improving at all, and the vet is concerned that she may not be on the proper antibiotics. The only way to know is to do a tracheal washing and check with a culture and cytology. They are doing that test, June 7, 2006. It will involve sedating her lightly, inserting a tube into her lung and washing it with sterile saline. They will then aspirate the saline and culture it and do cytology testing.

Her vet is 95% sure that the whole problem is pneumonia but will do the cytology since the specimen is so hard to get. Cytology will tell us if there is an underlying problem such as cancer. Mindy will be able to go home tomorrow after the procedure. They will not change her antibiotics until they get the results of the cultures.

If the current antibiotics, or new antibiotics, if warranted, do not clear up the pneumonia, a lung resection where they take out the diseased lung, is really the only other treatment available. No one wants to go down this course. There is serious doubt that Mindy would survive this type of surgery.

Mindy has lost another pound (41 pounds now) and the vet is concerned that she is not eating as she should being a diabetic with high sugars. She should be starving and should eat anything put in front of her. We are going to continue to try to get her to eat dry or canned dog food with better nutrition.

We still wonder if her teeth are bothering her as she doesn’t seem to chew the food as much as lick it and swallow it whole. We need to take care of the pneumonia first before we try to solve all the other issues.

She still has urinary incontinence. Our vet doesn’t want to treat that at this time because of all the other issues being more important and she is concerned that her blood pressure should be checked if she is put on incontinence medication. So we will hold off on that for now.

Currently, we have paid out about $5000 for Mindy and her costs continue to mount. Please help us with this fight for her life. We want to do whatever we can to help this sweet, friendly girl heal.

Original: Mindy is a sweet girl who was dumped at a shelter by her owners. The note attached said that she was not good with other dogs or young children because she does not like having her collar grabbed. We don’t know what the situation was, but she has let us poke, prod, and grab her.

We started working on stabilizing her diabetes. After a week, her mother realized that there was some thing more wrong with Mindy. A quick trip to the vet and we had the bad news, she had pneumonia. Pneumonia is tough on a healthy dog. A dog with diabetes has a much tougher time fighting infections while maintaining a stable glucose level.

For Mindy’s benefit, we checked her in to a 24-emergency care facility. She was put on IV fluids, IV antibiotics, and short acting insulin and glucose. Under their great care, Mindy quickly took a turn for the better and is on the road to recovery.

After 5 days in the hospital, Mindy was finally doing well enough to come home. She is better but not well. She still has a tough road to recovery ahead of her. If all goes well, her next visit will be in a week for follow up chest X-rays and testing related to her diabetes.

Whatever issues she had with small children, we have not seen anything. She has been poked, prodded, tested, examined, and all the veterinarian could say was what a sweet, lovely girl she was.

Mindy will remain on hold as we get her well and get her diabetes under control. We’ll post regular updates on her.

We have spent thousands of dollars on Mindy’s care. If you’ve ever had a dog in an emergency care hospital, you know who quickly the costs add up. We also are looking at multiple vet visits as we get her diabetes stabilized. Once she is stable, her medical care costs will drop considerably. In the meantime, would you consider helping us cover Mindy’s costs?