Miss-Delectable
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Chron.commons | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
In April of this year, a little white puppy was surrendered to the Houston city shelter, a scenario that repeats itself many times a day across our state.
No plea came out requesting assistance for the puppy, she just happened to be spotted by some volunteers late one evening after a volunteer meeting.
It was the saddest, loneliest looking little thing that had ever been seen in quite some time. One of the volunteers could not erase the mental image of that little bit of puppy out of their mind, went back the next day, and got her out.
The ears were just something else, they expressed every feeling about her, and earned her the nickname Bunny-Puppy.
She was about eight weeks old and looked like a little white bunny with a very feisty nature. The first day the volunteer noticed that the puppy did not appear to respond to loud noises and after some good old-fashioned pot clanging realized the puppy was most likely deaf. In addition to the deafness, she was severely malnourished and appeared to have a possible case of rickets in the rear legs.
Rickets results in bowing of the legs in young growing animals as a result of a poor diet. It is treated by putting the animal on a proper nutritious diet that is high in phosphorous and Vitamin D2. She also had severely broken down carpals in the front legs, they appeared stretched.
Trying to guess her breed was another thing, some said mini-Australian shepherd, others American Eskimo mix.
Bunny-Puppy went to a private veterinarian for a check-up due to an upper respiratory infection and they confirmed the deafness. The upper respiratory soon turned into pneumonia and Bunny-Puppy ended up being hospitalized for a long while. Quite honestly, no one knew what was going on with her, other then the pneumonia there were no other real symptoms, she was tested for various things, all came back either negative or inconclusive. She hung in there and eventually was allowed to leave the clinic.
What followed was about six weeks of supportive care, complete with supplements for the Rickets and her overall health. Throughout it all, she had a wonderful disposition, a great appetite, and discovered she could bark. During this time, she developed what looked like the hiccups and the pneumonia cleared up. It was then realized that she actually had come through distemper, this puppy never exhibited any of the "classic" symptoms, no seizures, no "chewing gum" fits, no green nose discharge, none of what anyone would expect, what did happen was just the pneumonia. The "hiccups" were actually a residual leg twitching due to muscle contracture in the front left leg, the chest muscle would twitch and it appeared that she had the hiccups.
Having seen many cases of distemper, this is the first time I have ever witnessed anything like this in a young puppy. I have seen adult dogs weather distemper like this, but never a puppy.
Here is Bunny-Puppy now, a/k/a Arwyn, she is approximately 5 months old and has doubled her size at ten pounds. She is a very happy, ornery, loving soul who needs some help.
Her bout with the distemper left her with some damage in the front left leg, in addition she has that severely broken down carpal in the front right leg. Her back legs have done quite well, are much stronger, and recovering from the rickets. She can walk and run, but she does stumble.
The crazy background chatter is a crazy husky, that's another story to be shared at another time, but life sure is never boring.
As for Arwyn, she needs to see a specialist for help with her front legs and to obtain an evaluation to see what can or should be done for them. If anything should be done. Braces? supportive devices?
She is deaf and has some issues with her front legs, it is a struggle to contemplate where to go to obtain help for her. If anyone has any suggestions or resources that can help her, please share them.
Some people say she should be euthanized, what would you do? The kid needs some help and it is gonna take a village.
Help.
PS: there's a video in the article.
In April of this year, a little white puppy was surrendered to the Houston city shelter, a scenario that repeats itself many times a day across our state.
No plea came out requesting assistance for the puppy, she just happened to be spotted by some volunteers late one evening after a volunteer meeting.
It was the saddest, loneliest looking little thing that had ever been seen in quite some time. One of the volunteers could not erase the mental image of that little bit of puppy out of their mind, went back the next day, and got her out.
The ears were just something else, they expressed every feeling about her, and earned her the nickname Bunny-Puppy.
She was about eight weeks old and looked like a little white bunny with a very feisty nature. The first day the volunteer noticed that the puppy did not appear to respond to loud noises and after some good old-fashioned pot clanging realized the puppy was most likely deaf. In addition to the deafness, she was severely malnourished and appeared to have a possible case of rickets in the rear legs.
Rickets results in bowing of the legs in young growing animals as a result of a poor diet. It is treated by putting the animal on a proper nutritious diet that is high in phosphorous and Vitamin D2. She also had severely broken down carpals in the front legs, they appeared stretched.
Trying to guess her breed was another thing, some said mini-Australian shepherd, others American Eskimo mix.
Bunny-Puppy went to a private veterinarian for a check-up due to an upper respiratory infection and they confirmed the deafness. The upper respiratory soon turned into pneumonia and Bunny-Puppy ended up being hospitalized for a long while. Quite honestly, no one knew what was going on with her, other then the pneumonia there were no other real symptoms, she was tested for various things, all came back either negative or inconclusive. She hung in there and eventually was allowed to leave the clinic.
What followed was about six weeks of supportive care, complete with supplements for the Rickets and her overall health. Throughout it all, she had a wonderful disposition, a great appetite, and discovered she could bark. During this time, she developed what looked like the hiccups and the pneumonia cleared up. It was then realized that she actually had come through distemper, this puppy never exhibited any of the "classic" symptoms, no seizures, no "chewing gum" fits, no green nose discharge, none of what anyone would expect, what did happen was just the pneumonia. The "hiccups" were actually a residual leg twitching due to muscle contracture in the front left leg, the chest muscle would twitch and it appeared that she had the hiccups.
Having seen many cases of distemper, this is the first time I have ever witnessed anything like this in a young puppy. I have seen adult dogs weather distemper like this, but never a puppy.
Here is Bunny-Puppy now, a/k/a Arwyn, she is approximately 5 months old and has doubled her size at ten pounds. She is a very happy, ornery, loving soul who needs some help.
Her bout with the distemper left her with some damage in the front left leg, in addition she has that severely broken down carpal in the front right leg. Her back legs have done quite well, are much stronger, and recovering from the rickets. She can walk and run, but she does stumble.
The crazy background chatter is a crazy husky, that's another story to be shared at another time, but life sure is never boring.
As for Arwyn, she needs to see a specialist for help with her front legs and to obtain an evaluation to see what can or should be done for them. If anything should be done. Braces? supportive devices?
She is deaf and has some issues with her front legs, it is a struggle to contemplate where to go to obtain help for her. If anyone has any suggestions or resources that can help her, please share them.
Some people say she should be euthanized, what would you do? The kid needs some help and it is gonna take a village.
Help.
PS: there's a video in the article.