Posts by Foster Dog

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Update, August 6, 2011

Whew! What a week for Princess Penny. :)

She's gained a pound since we picked her up Friday before last (or most of a pound; she's fluctuating a bit which is fine), and she's now had just about 7 days of antibiotics.

No nasal discharge. No eye discharge. Still a cough, but much, MUCH less than it was. It seems to happen mainly after she eats/drinks which makes us wonder if stuff isn't going through that hole in her gum and causing problems. Hard to say, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Tuesday she goes in to see Dr. Walthall. Ideally, the gum surgery can be done by her, and she can spay Penny at the same time. I also want her to look at the limp Penny has. This is really bugging me. It's her left front leg, and it's sporadic. It doesn't seem to hurt, but it's obviously screwing up her gait, and would be the biggest barrier, I think, to someone adopting her. If it's the result of an old injury, I think it would cause less of a problem, but we'll have to see.

Another thing I've noticed about Penny is her lack of muscle mass. That may change now that she's eating a goodly amount and putting on weight. It's possible that she went some time without being able to eat properly, so there's less muscle than there should be. I'd love for Randall to be able to walk her, but with the heat that's going on, there's just no way. I'll just have to settle for keeping an eye on this for now.

I will say that it's pretty obvious this girl had access to a doggie door, but she's settling into our routine, and the lack of one here doesn't seem to be an issue. The only accident she's had in the house was the first day we brought her in when she got pulled out of the crate and plopped into the sink for a bath. So I think we can check off "housebroken" on her list of attributes.

I've gotten all her toenails clipped and most of the hair around her feet and in between her toes trimmed up. It needs more work, but it tickles her and she gets impatient if I fiddle too long. She does love to be brushed, though, and she gets that once a day. She's also on fish oil which should help her skin/coat and possibly even the limp.

She has also moved over to eating her breakfast/dinner from a saucer to a stainless bowl. In the next week, I want to try transitioning her to eating in her crate. She's sleeping through the night in one, now, and we've seen her go in and out a couple of times in the last day or so. Tomorrow night, I may try moving her food dish in front of her crate and have her eat there for a day or two. Maybe on Wednesday or Thursday, I can pull out her bedding and try her in the crate with the door open. It will be so much easier if I can get her to eat in there.

My only other concern is she seems to have some allergies going on. She gets 1/2 a Benadryl two to three times a day, and that takes care of it. I wish she didn't have them, but she isn't the first of our dogs to have problems like this. There's apparently something in our yard that's causing her to itch. And with no teeth to "chew" that itch, she gets pretty frustrated.

Penny is still the happiest little dog I've ever met. Absolutely a joy to be around. Hopefully that happiness will translate into welcoming other animals since we're definitely scheduled to bring in that senior mini smooth dapple bitch in a couple of weeks. I suspect Penny will be just fine with her.

So for her first week here with us, we're very happy with how she's progressing. I'll probably not post another update until Tuesday when we get back from seeing Dr. Walthall. I doubt I'll have much luck with photos, but you never know. If I get any, I'll put them up.