Lost Sheltie

What a week it has been. My dad bought me a 4 years old Sheltie from a breeder for me to have a playmate. Dad has so much on his mind that he forgot to take an extra leash. He took me to find out if I would get along with the breeders Sheltie, so he only had one leash. Mom & Dad decided to get Kasey after seeing he was a real sweet dog (what Sheltie isn't?). The breeder didn't want to give us a leash so Dad carried Kasey to the car. When we got home, Dad took my leash and opened the door. He saw that Kasey got car sick and with that little distraction, Kasey jumped past Dad before he could grab him and he took off. He's been on the run since Feb 1. He's still in the area, we get sightings almost every day. Today Dad took me along to see if I could help. We saw Kasey walking through a field. Dad hid behind the car and let Kasey see me. As soon as he saw me, he turned back the other way. Dad let me off the leash and told me to go get him. As soon as Kasey saw me running toward him, he took off running. I stopped and Dad yelled for me to come back. We are now going to change tactics. We've told people not to chase him, but some people don't know Shelties in flight mode won't come to you. Dad is not going to try to track him down anymore, just find out where he's spending most of his time and then set up feeding stations. Once we get him to eat at one of these stations, we'll set the live trap. Here is one ad Dad made. http://york.craigslist.org/laf/1025073153.html

Finally

This entry is a little late.

Shadow finally got his staples out. All of us are glad he's now out of the e-collar. So far, everything is going good, the incision has healed fine. He doesn't seem to be bothered by the surgery anymore, but he sure won't let us get a closer look. I guess with all that poking and proding up his butt, he doesn't want us fooling around down there anymore. Now he has to deal with the indignity of his haircut. The fur was shaved off his entire butt, part of the tail, and part of his leg where he got the I.V. When I had the septic tank guy come out, he asked me if we were trying to give him a Poodle cut. Oh the indignity of it all. Can't wait for the fur to grow back.

I've been hearing a lot of good things about a raw diet. Most go with the Barf type diet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_feeding I'm not completely ready to go through that trouble and expense, but I did try Shadow & Bows with raw venison I had in the freezer. Bows ate it up quick the first meal or two, but then stopped eating it. Shadow loved it. I'll have to try to get a larger supply of venison to keep down the expense. Once I get enough, I'll try him on a complete raw diet.

Surgery

The surgery went well and Shadow is back home. It seems like it isn't bothering him too much. He did try to get at that area a couple times soon after getting home, but doesn't seem to mind it much now. He sure doesn't like the Eliz. collar though. He still tries to get it off and he'll be wearing it until Nov 20. No playing around or steps for him until then too. He certainly looks weird with his entire butt and part of his tail shaved. I bet when he came home and hit the cold outside air he was probably thinking "I feel a draft".

Test results

It's been confirmed by the vet Sheltie rescue uses, Shadow has a perineal hernia. We have an appointment with a surgeon on Thurs.

Problems, problems

As soon as I started fostering Shadow we were made aware that he had a constipation problem. Even though we followed the vets instructions as best we could, he continued to have problems. I took him back to the rescue vet once and he cleaned him out. I wanted to make sure the problem was fixed before I adopted him and for a few weeks, we had it under control. But soon after he was ours, he was constipated yet again and throwing up and not eating. All the nearby vets had closed for the day so I tried to do what the one vet did. He stuck his finger in there and broke up the poop and pulled out what he could. I tried it, but was hurting him, so off to the ER we went. They did an enema on him which got some of it out. The next day he went to our regular vet. After examining him he determined he has a Perineal hernia. It made more sense then what the ER and rescue vets were telling us. I could actually feel what he was talking about when I tried to unclog him. Now my vet is going to confer with the rescue vet. Hopefully, even though he's mine now, the rescue helps with the bills since a Perineal hernia is usually fixed by surgery.

1st entry

A couple weeks ago, our Sheltie Rescue asked us to foster a Sheltie that another shelter had. Without Beamer and with the step-daughter and grandson moving out, it was rather empty around here. We accepted. Me and the wife (Dar) picked him up from the home of a Sheltie rescue in the next county. This is the same home that I picked up another foster about a month ago. Sadly from owner neglect, he died a week later even with the best vet care. This home already had five or so Shelties, some of them were so sweet. But with being in a strange place and with all the commotion of the other Shelties, Shadow was a bit nervous. We were soon told he had one problem. He was having trouble taking a poop.

Once home, he calmed down pretty fast with the quiet around our house. Like Beamer, Bows didn't pay him much attention, just the mandatory sniff test. It didn't take long to see he was a play machine. Even at nine years old, that's all he thinks of. Being as thin as he is must really help keep him active. I hope we can keep him that way.

We tried to fix his poop problem with pumpkin, but it wasn't doing the job. When he went to the vet to get checked out and fixed, the vet found a large hairball in his colon. Hopefully his problem is solved, because we decided to adopt him. We took him to the Sheltie rescue picnic last week. It was so hot and humid, we didn't stay long. Last year many of the Shelties ran loose, not this year. I tried to let Shadow off leash, but he was too excited with all the other dogs around. At least one other Sheltie let him know that he was bothering her.

At first it was looking like Shadow was a ladies dog. He layed down by Dar every night and slept with her in her room (we have separate rooms because of snoring). And one day my sister-in-law was here and he used her foot as a pillow. But last night (at least for one night) that changed when he insisted on sleeping in my room. He would not go into Dar's room. I will say, he's a bed hog.