Day 1:
Hello all!
This is Shawn of Carolina Animal Rescue Experts. I just got back from a quick vet trip with Cody and Annie, the two dobies. Cody is in horrible shape, as Marcie mentioned in her email. The vet thinks that he is about 3 years old and has about an 80 LBS frame, but he only weighs 45 LBS. He is dehydrated and we gave him some sub q fluids and got him started on antibiotics. He is most likely heartworm positive, but we are waiting a bit to do the testing on him. At the moment he is in foster care, and we are doing everything we can for him!
He is starved. You can see every bone in his body, I can fit my fists in his hip joints. His eyes are sunken in and he is anemic. He has open sores on all four legs similar to the one picture.
However he is a sweetheart, he tries to jump into the car (but can not as he is too weak) and went through the exam and everything else as a perfect gentleman. He even wagged his tail a bit when he took a cookie, and he takes cookies and food very gently from your hands.
He is not neutered and will need some long term care, probably several weeks of feeding and antibotics and subq fluids before he is ready to have anything medical done... but when that time comes it will probably be quite expensive...! We are going to try to set up a donation account at the vets for him.
Day 1: 10:30 PM
Hello all,
Well, Cody crashed tonight. he went down and couldn't get back up and began to seize. I attempted to stabilize him here first before I tried to move him, and we were very lucky. I forced a shot of Karo down his throat to stimulate him and gave him IV fluids. Then we wrapped his whole body in heated blankets and kept him still. He slowly settled and began to lift his head and move around a bit. He is on high alert tonight and sleeping in my bedroom so that I can keep an eye on him and rush him back to the vet if he starts to go downward again. I'm trying not to move him too much, I don't want him to get over stressed and let his systems all go down- I think that's what happened tonight.
At this time he isn't eating on his own, even chicken and rice, so we are smearing his gums with Karo/nutrical and using IV. He has unbelievably horrible diarrhea; very rancid smelling. Lord knows what he has been eating. He's also on clavamox and strongid.
Will keep you all posted- if you are the praying sort, I'm sure he would appreciate prayers that he makes it through the weekend!
Day 2: 7 am
Hello all,
Wonderful news, Cody survived the night. In fact this morning he is up on his feet and walking again. Over the course of 2 hours this morning he ate 2 cups of rice and boiled chicken in a pedyalite/caro syrup "gravy". He ate it greedily and fast to the point that I had to remove the bowl and slowly hand feed him tiny portions over the course of 2 hours. Sometime in the night he lost his gentlemanly careful nip of food in your hand LOL Now, when I took the bowl away from him he looked at me and said, ok ok ok, and SAT and cocked his head and begged to have it back. I took a small bit of the rice mash in my hand and offered it to him and he half swallowed my entire hand LOL. He didnt bite, he just wanted every last drop. He didnt growl or try to bite when I took his bowl away, even though he was starving and bolting the food.
The IV fluids and antibiotics last night were the key. He even took himself outside and used the bathroom all on his own- even lifting his leg. His eyes are bright again and he is responding when you call his name. I think he is through the worst.
Thank you all for your prayers and good energy. I'll keep you all posted- sorry for the frequent updates but this is easier then answering everyone's questions :)
Friday Feb 8th, Day 2: 3pm
Hello all-
WOW is all I can say. The outpouring of prayers and well wishes and donations for Cody is leaving me stunned. We are up to $370 in his vet fund. I have already been able to pay off the first vet bill and buy him more IV fluids, food, and medication for his wounds. Thank you all for your hard work, it is MUCH appreciated by both Cody and I and though we have a long road ahead of us paved with bills and long hours- there is a light at the end of the tunnel for this amazing special guy!
OK, now on to the real reason you opened this ;) Cody is doing better. He is eating on his own again, if you missed the report from this morning. He is eating a special mix of Nutro high protein wet food, turkey and rice baby food, boiled chicken, rice, nutrical, and pedialyte. We give him this 6 times a day, in small portions. He is drinking on his own too, pedialyte and water. He is not drinking enough so we are continuing the Sub Q fluids. We have taken him tentatively off of IV fluids and are continuing oral antibiotics. The least amount of stress we can put him under the better.
Good news! Contrary to our original thoughts, Cody is NOT deaf. Originally he would not respond to any sounds, and would jump a bit when we would touch him. Now, with the new life in his veins from the IV fluids and 24 hours on antibiotics, he is perking up when I come in the room, and cocks his head when he hears me mix his food. When one of the other dogs began to bark in a different part of the house, he growled. So he can hear perfectly fine- but I cant imagine how close to death he was before when he could not even lift his head when I called him.
Parts of his personality are coming out now. When I come into the room with his alloted portion of food he will stand up and slowly wobble to the door, and then carefully sit and wait until I put the bowl down in front of him. I have taken the bowl away from him while he is eating because he was eating too fast and he did not growl or snap or try to protect his bowl.
I set a small box of toys down next to him when he was in bed to see if he had any interest in them. Ever so carefully he pulled the softest plush duck out of the box and laid it down next to him. I left the box there by his bed and went away to check on the other dogs, and when I came back 20 minutes later he had removed all of the plush toys and laid them out around him in bed. He wasn't chewing or playing with them, but had almost made a pillow from them. It was very cute! I took a picture of it, but am having some uploading issues so it will have to wait just a bit before you can see it ;) I am happy he feels he has company there with him.
His stools are still very rancid, and worm filled. I think he has every worm known to man. He is also throwing and coughing up worms. His urine is cloudy but as of this morning there was no blood in it.
If I am not responding to your personal emails, I appologize! We have cody and quite a few other animals here needing attention so I have been running around and working since 5 am, with not much chance to answer each email. These updates will keep coming though, and hopefully I answer everyone's question with them. I will also be working out a webpage for Cody so that everyone can check updates in the morning, since this list is doubling every day.
A fast update on the other doberman and the siberian and siberian mix we pulled with Cody. The other doberman is doing well and is still here awaiting foster care. She needs a home where she can be kept seperated until we can HW test her, which should be next week. She is housetrained, crate trained, very sweet and knows sit, shake, down and stay. No idea on cats or dog friendly. The siberian is going into foster care tonight, she is a real love. The siberian mix has already been adopted by her foster mom, or should I say her foster moms 3 kids. They planned a strike if she let this one go. Go Shortie!
More to come later-
Sat Feb 9th, Day 3
Hello friends of Cody- Just wanted to update you all on Cody's status. Medically, he is still dehydrated and recieving sub Q ringers. He is slightly less anemic and is starting to get the color back in his gums. His eyes are not quite as sunken in and he is beginning to look a little more alert. Still, every time I see him lying down, I think he is dead. You can't possibly look at him and still think he is alive. Today we decided he was stable enough to do a bit of grooming. We pulled several ticks off of him. He has fleas, but he is still too weak to introduce flea control into his system. Instead we gently washed him with Dawn, since dawn breaks down the wax on fleas and then they can drown. I can't decide if he looks better after a bath, or worse! You know, the funny thing about him is, I really can't decide what color he is. His original animal control paperwork has him as Fawn, but when I saw him I thought red. Now that he is bathed, I go back and forth between fawn and red. His face definitely looks fawn. I think we won't really know until he's filled out some more. Someone else even told me he looked blue! I don't see blue at all, but who knows.
Cody wanted to eat like a horse today. I think his full starved attitude is coming back, and he would have eaten 50 LBs of food today if I would have let him. Instead he ate every two hours, but if I was even one minute late in bringing him his food, he would be standing with his head over the gate watching for me as though he wondered if I had forgotten him. It did not take him long to get used to his schedule! I've had to be very careful in feeding him because he doesnt even chew he just wants to inhale his food. I feed him slowly by hand if possible, or I have two bowls and carefully give him mouthful by mouthful into his bowl. He likes to drink his water all at once as well, so we have to watch him there. He is drinking 50% water, 50% pedialyte, and he will let it sit in his bowl for four hours, then drink the whole bowl at once. He's using the bathroom less frequently, which is excellent, it means more of his nutrients are actually making it through his body. His stools are firming up but they are still LOADED with worms. He got 4.5 ccs of Strongid T and he's still passing them. He's also vomitted and coughed up worms.
Cody is such a sweet boy. He will lay in your lap with his head on your shoulder while he gets his fluids. He lets me take his food away if he is eating too fast, and clean and treat his wounds...
Alright now, for those of you who have squimish stomachs please don't read the following. Today while cleaning his wounds after his bath, I gently squeezed one of the oozing wounds on his leg to pull some of the puss out so I could disinfect it and put his medicine on it, and was shocked to see two small dead maggots come out as well. Our vet thinks while he was at animal control he was infested, and the treatments on his wounds kills the maggots but they were so deep they didnt wash immediatly out. DISGUSTING!!! It made my heart ache.
Squimish warning over. That's it for Cody boy for today. I am hoping he is through this part of the woods, and will at least survive to put on weight before we attempt to treat him for the heartworms I am almost possitive he has. Still too anemic for the test :( More tomorrow-
Day 4: Sunday 02/10/08
Hello all-
Just a fast update about Cody!
I really think we had his color wrong originally. I don't think he's fawn at all, or even red. Now that he has had a bath, in sunlight he really looks blue! I denied it but look at his new pictures for yourself and tell me what you think.
Cody has gained 3 LBS in 4 days! It's amazing what a difference lots of good food, IV fluids, antibiotics and worming can do just for starters. He really is starting to look better. He still weaves a bit when he walks, and he can't hold his head up for very long when standing, but he can hold it up when he is laying on his bed and he will stare out the gate at me for an hour. His gated off area in my room is directly across from both my bed and my computer, so it seems like he is always watching me. I tried to lift him into the bed to see if he would like to lay there while I was working on the computer earlier, but he would have none of that. when I set him down he immediatly started shaking and tucked his head until I picked him back up and carried him to his doggy bed. He does seem scared, if I am sitting in his bed with him he will keep his head turned away from me unless I have a cookie, his NutriCal (he loves that) or if I have lifted his head and laid it on my lap. The door outside is right next to his gated aera, and when we go walk outside he likes to stay right by my side, even sitting down next to me when I stop walking. When I open the door to go back into the bedroom he walks right into his gated area and lays down on his bed.
He met one of the neighborhood stray cats in the yard today, and he walked past it with barely a glance. However when he was on his bed, one of the foster cats here strolled in and jumped up on my bed and he growled at the cat until I walked over and pet the cat and told Cody it was ok. He does the same thing with other dogs, if he can see them through the door, or hear them in other parts of the house. I think he's just very worried in general.
Anyway here are his new pictures, you can see in the peeing (ha, sorry!) one that he has put a little bit of weight on which is FANTASTIC. he also looks much better after a bath. His face pictures show just how bad the bit marks and wounds are. I did not include pictures of the wormy-wound, because I didnt want anyone getting sick over their morning coffee, but I did take pictures of that.
Thanks again for prayers and hard work, I'm calling the vet tomorrow to get him seen again.
Day 5: Monday 02/11/08
Cody has gained 6 LBS !!!! He has regained enough strength to return to the vets to draw some blood for testing.
Drumroll please.......
Cody's first test is HW negative!
That's right- jawdropper of the year. The vet and I were both stunned, we fully expected his test results to come back loaded with heart worms. Dr. Fluke wants to do two more blood tests before she absolutely clears him of having heartworms, but right now it looks like he's escaped them! We also felt he was stable enough to go ahead and innoculate and get on HW preventative. No flea control just yet, but soon.
We are updating Cody's color to Blue- after the bath it's very obvious he is a blue boy! He also has CDA, and probably some thyroid/liver issues but we are awaiting further testing for that. His open wounds were exaimened and declared healing.
Because of everyone's wonderful donations I was able to COMPLETELY pay his accumulated vet bills. He will be going to the vet every two weeks to check his progress, and I will keep you all updated.
Also, we have a reporter/photographer from charlotte observer coming out on Thursday morning at 9am to meet Cody and write his story. Someone forwarded her Cody's plea for help. She called me this morning and asked if she could come out and interview Cody for a piece she is doing on the problems animal control faces.
Go Cody, Go!!!!
Day 6: Tuesday 02-12-08
Good evening Cody lovers,
Cody's doing well. He had some issues this morning, and was vomitting and drooling and didnt want to get out of bed, but some plain rice and ginger snaps helped that. I think everything we did at the vets yesterday just finally caught up with him.
I am noticing some issues with Cody that really push that he was abused. He is fearful and when you approach too fast- he shakes and slowly lowers himself to the ground. Earlier I walked in to let him out and I had a pooper scooper in my hand that I had just bought to go clean the backyard and when he saw the pooper scooper he immediatly turned his back on me and balled up in the corner shaking. He wouldnt look back up at me until I put the scooper away and came in and sat down in front of him and lifted his head and told him it was ok. Then he crawled forward and put his head in my lap but he still wouldnt look at me. It took about 15 minutes before I could convince him to go outside. He doesn't like to go outside on his own either, I think he's terrified that he's going to be left out there. He's fine being left alone in the house, and will go outside if I walk outside with him, but if I just want to put him out in the backyard while I am cleaning his "room" or fixing his food, he will walk to the door, look down at the floor and slowly sink to the floor and turn his head towards the wall like "Please...please dont put me out there..." Its utterly heartbreaking.
He did very carefully approach me with his stuffed duck in his mouth today, and dropped it in my lap, but then he appeared to think better and retreated back to his closet to watch me. When I gave the duck back to him he wouldnt take it from me but when I set it down he watched me for a minute then slowly picked it up and high tailed it back to his bed.
He breaks my heart daily... but he is the sweetest most "honest" (for lack of a better term) dog out there. I'll keep up with the daily reports until he is really on his feet and doing better, then I will probably drop down to 2-3 times a week.
Thank you all for your continued support. More tomorrow!
Day 12: Monday 02-18-08
Hello friends of Cody!
I appologize for the delay in updates for Cody's site. I have been experiencing some technical problems here on the ranch.
Cody is doing FABULOUSLY. He has gained 16 LBS in a week and a half. He is running now, and playing with squeaky toys (he loves noisy toys). He gets along fine with female dogs, of any size, but does NOT like male dogs, of ANY size, even neutered. If he so much as sees a male he will lift his lip. The exception was at Petsmart, when he was on a leash at petsmart picking up some new toys, he did just fine with male dogs walking around him, but as soon as we got home he was snarling at the males here. Territorial a bit.
Cody is off his medications for now and just concentrating on living the good life until he is ready to go up for adoption, which should be a few months from now. We may have to take him in to have a few of his nipples removed as they are all dead, but we are waiting to see on that.
We also have a lead on a possible original owner for Cody. I am gathering some information and then will be seeing if we can move forward and get the information to the authorities. We may be able to catch the bastard that did this to Cody after all. The lead comes from someone who adopted a male doberman from Gaston Animal Control (where Cody came from) that was an owner turn in from a "breeder" who told AC that he "had too many studs" (gag...). The male that this person adopted looks IDENTICAL to Cody in size, conformation, ear cut, head structure, and had very similar sores/wounds and was thin. This was also only a few months ago. We are investigating this 'breeder' and trying to track him down.
Thank you all for your well wishes and prayers, I will keep the updates coming as often as possible!
Please see attached photos of a very different looking Cody! I took some great pics of him playing in the house but the only ones that came out were the ones in the backyard. I guess the house is too dark for my camera phone.
Look at my face! So handsome. So different then his previous face shots!
Don't worry! I've got it pinned and it can't hurt you now!
Ahha! it thought it could escape ME?!
Waiting patiently for daddy to throw my loofa.
Theres a pretty red dobergirl in this pen... I think I'm in love <3
You can still see Cody's spine, hip bones, cheek bones, and ribs from a distance without a problem, but he is filling out so much and I no longer wince every time I look at him. I know he'll make it now! Probably another 20 LBS to go or so, and those bones will be covered. More soon!
Day 16: Friday 02-22-08
Very fast Cody update! I appologize for the delay, things have been very hectic here as we are overflowing and we are doing out monthly surgeries yesterday today and tomorrow. I have 25 dogs needing one kind of surgery or another and so am just a little lost!!
Cody is doing well, he is up to 63 LBS as of this morning. So he has gained 21 LBS in 3 weeks. He is still about 15 LBS underweight according to the vet. We brought him in this morning for a surgical consult, and unfortunatly he is still too thin and a little too anemic to go under. We were hoping to have the few dead nipples removed and maybe a neuter while he is under, but no go. Another month and he'll be able to go under we think. Now that he is just thin and not emaciated, he's gaining weight more slowly, which is good. The last time we weighed him was over a week ago and he was 59 LBS so 4 LBs in a little over a week I believe.
He's coughing again, and the vet who saw him today (our surgery vet) asked me five times if he had been HW tested. He is barrel chested and looks completely like he would be HW +, not a single one of us are believing the original HW test. We'll test again when he goes in for surgery.
The photographer for the Charlotte Observer came out and met Cody and took pictures of him, and the reporter showed up later that day and stayed an hour and met the animals and played with Cody. Not sure if the story will be actually published as she wasn't sure how to work Cody in since her story is more about the upcoming changes at animal control then owner abuse, but we will hope that he does get a blurb so maybe we can get the word out and explain to people how many dogs in his condition come into animal control every day.
I will take some new pictures when things slow down here and get them out to you!
BTW Cody's facial scars will most likely remain permanant. The vet thinks the hair folucles are damaged, and since he has a bad coat anyway, he will probably always carry battle wounds.
We are going to start taking applications on Cody soon, although he wont be ready for some time, so if you know of anyone that preferably has no other dogs (def no males, a female would be ok but Cody is and will probably always be food aggressive) interested in doberman rescue, please have them email for an application. Cody is ok with children, but we prefer not to adopt to people with very young children. He LOVES my 6 year old brother, who comes up with my parents to volunteer and play with the dogs. When Cody met him he followed him around and stuck his head in his lap every time he sat down.
More later!
Day 26- Monday March 03
Sorry everyone- things are very hectic here. On top of Cody we pulled 6 14 week old boxer mixes, and a lab/doberman mix puppy... and they all have Parvo...plus coccidia, giardia, worms, and kennel cough. So it has been no sleep, up every hour with fluids, parvaid, IVs and antibiotics, and steralizing, and scrubbing etc.. and $3,200 vet bills :( What a nightmare.
Cody is doing better. He is 73 LBS now, from just over 40 pounds on intake (I think 42.. not sure would have to look at his notes) and he still has some weight to gain. He is starting to come more out of his shell and even got up on the bed with us the other day which he had normally refused to do. he LOVES to go on long walks, and walks so polietly, never pulls and listens to the faintest commands (like a very gentle flick of the leash and he will immediatly come back and sit next to or infront of you). I really would like to see Cody go to an obedience performance home. He has already learned sit, heal, finish, down, take and bring. Very minor little things but he is SO happy to have a job and he is REALLY REALLY good at it- he has never once not listened to a command, or been too distracted when you called him.
Cody's a bit sick right now- I am praying it's nothing but a stomach bug since we had the Parvo in the kennel (although he is in the house and does not use the kennel yard). He's not eating as well as he has been and he's been a bit mopy and has some loose stools. There's also been bad storms so hopefully it's just that, but if they don't firm up by tomorrow it's back to the vet he goes!
Hopefully he is having surgery on the 12th to have some of his nipples removed (they are dead) and to get neutered. His last two surgical consults have all resulted in the vet saying he is too thin to go under.
Here are some comparison pics taken about a week ago.
This one is particularly bad. The top one, my hand is litterally [I]cupped[/I] around his waist. My fingers almost meet. The bottom one, my hand is compeltely flat and doesnt touch either side.
His "beauty marks" We are using scar treatment (actually preperation H which has been used on horse scars and has always worked well) but we are unsure if the hair will ever grow back here, or on his thigh where he was shot.
In mid-belly-rub-roll-over :)
Day 34- March 11th
Well, we had a bit of a setback with Cody. Looks like he wont be having his neutering this month, maybe next month. He caught a bit of a stomach bug, and even with extra feedings of rice, chicken, turkey, hamburger and nutrical, he lost weight. The problem with being underweight or TRYING to put weight on is that it slips right back off of you given the chance. In eight days he lost 4 LBS!!! Back down to 69. I hate it for him- but I cant help to be a little jealous too, HAH I wish I could loose weight so easily ;) Oh well. some extra feedings now that he is better again should help regain it.
On the upside for all of you people worried about the parvo puppies, we lost one puppy in the very beginning that was too sick to be saved, but we managed to save ALL the others! Even the little lab puppy that I was planning to euthenize when we found out just how bad it was... well we decided to go ahead and treat her and Dr. Fluke and staff at mallard creek animal hospital did a WONDERFUL job! She survived and is fluroushing now. I am so glad we gave her a chance!
Some more good news for Cody- we will be starting agility classes soon. We are going to enroll him hopefully next month. We want him to have a job, and find someplace to channel his energy. Right now he is confused I think, it seems like he is never sure what he should be doing, but always hesitant and darting from one thing to another. I think it's overstimulating for him..we are pretty sure he spent his first life chained to a tree or doghouse or something. Now that he is inside and has toys, and bones, and beds, and people to play with, he seems to move like a hummingbird from one thing to the next (unless its a leg, then its LEAAAAAANNNNNNNNNN forever). Hopefully agility will help him come into himself a bit more.
OK all for now! more updates and pics soon. If you would like to donate to Cody or to the rescue in general, we sure could use it for Cody's upcoming surgery, and the parvo vet bills!!
