12.14.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:42 pm by Lone Star Shih Tzu and Lhasa Apso Rescue
It never ceases to amaze me what people think is adequate care for our little lap dogs. I guess thats why so many of them need us desperately!
Little Giovanni was turned in by an owner that had had him for over a year!!! She admitted that she couldn’t/wouldn’t take him to a vet because of cost, but let him continue to rot in horrible condition rather than turn him over to someone that could.
His nails had not been cut since she found him a year ago. When we got Giovanni, his feet were encased in huge mats of hair. Here is one huge mat we shaved off of his back right leg.
So large were the mats, we didn’t even know his nails were over an inch long until we shaved his feet. Here is what we found…
Once we shaved off the mats, we discovered he was having a hard time making his back legs work. But, after a week, he is now up and walking acting pretty happy. He’s almost complete blind but his tail wags.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 12:34 pm by Lone Star Shih Tzu and Lhasa Apso Rescue
Last week, we received a nice care package for the NC Six from Kim and Bella. Bella, a gorgeous little shih tzu beauty, actually is likely related to the NC six. Kim purchased her from that breeder before anyone knew how horribly he treated his little money-makers.
These pictures include some of the blankets and pile of toys that Kim and Bella sent for the NC six.
Have you EVER seen anything so cute? Yes, that is Rhett, who used to be completely hairless. He was one featured on the Best Friends article about their rescue.
This is little Ashley.
This is Bonnie. She is still mostly hairless. She has hair on her feet and muzzle and that’s about it.
This is Boss man AKA Brent. His hair is very long and full on his legs, but his body is still mostly hairless.
This is adorable Charles. He had another bout with Demodex and lost the hair on his neck and head, but is now recovering nicely.
And last, and most adorable, is little Miss Prissie.
Can you believe how far they’ve come in only four months? They are all very, very friendly. The biggest challenge with them is housetraining. As with all puppymill dogs who have always just gone wherever, it’s a challenge training them where and when to go. We’re making progress, but they still have a ways to go.
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12.03.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:02 pm by Lone Star Shih Tzu and Lhasa Apso Rescue
Little Pate is another adorable little boy who came to us just before Hurricane Ike shut us down for a couple of months. Pate is an older dog who was having a very hard time keeping his back legs underneath his body. He could get around, but each step caused his legs to slip from underneath him and he would fall. Never detered, he would just struggle to get back up and try again. Pate did not have a very good life before coming here. He was a Houston SPCA cruelty confiscation for neglect. When I picked him up from the HSPCA, I was, frankly, astounded. He was, as usual, one big mat, but his nails were the most astounding part – they were growing in circles. In fact, even after I clipped a full circle of nail from most toes, his nails were still long. We were right in the middle of raising funds to underwrite Pate’s surgery when Ike struck and took us down for several months. We went ahead with his surgery anyway and did some small things to raise funds for him. The neurologist reported that he had four injured places in his spinal column – three herniated discs and one ruptured. She removed the ruptured and hardened disc material around the ruptured one but had to leave the other three. If you remove the material from too many discs, the spinal column becomes very unstable. She wanted to see how much he would improve with just the single disc repaired first. 
So, once his surgical site healed, he also started in the water treadmill. He has made amazing progress. He is now much more stable when he walks and although he still has problems, he is improving each day.Pate also suffers from bladderstones and has one shrunken eye. We will have those removed as soon as he makes a bit more progress.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 6:38 am by Lone Star Shih Tzu and Lhasa Apso Rescue
Little Monkey-man Harris came to us from the Harris County Animal Control Shelter. When we were first told about him, we thought he had been hit by a car – the shelter reported that he was completely paralyzed. We picked him up from the shelter as soon as they would release him and rushed him to our vet.
The vet said it looked like he had been “down” (meaning paralyzed) for a long time. The muscles along his back had atrophied and his backbone was protruding. He said it was doubtful that we could do anything for Monkey, but he referred us to neurology at Gulf Coast Veterinary Hospital anyway.
Once there, the surgeon also warned me that it was likely that his disc problem was too old to fix, but because he did have some deep pain response, they might be able to restore at least some of his ability to walk. So, onward we went.
When little Monkey started rehab, he could not even walk. He had been “down” so long that all of the muscles along his back and both of his back legs had atrophied to the extent that he did not have the strength to rise up on them. The rehab center at Gulf Coast, started him by using this exercise ball. They slowly moved it back and forth requiring him to use his back and leg muscles to steady himself.
They also are doing a lot of range of motion and stretching exercises to further heal his leg tissue.
After attending rehab twice a week for a couple of weeks, we could see that Monkey was making progress. He was able to steady himself and actually stand on his back legs, but still couldn’t even take a step. We started to get a bit depressed about it when one Sunday afternoon, as he was out in the yard with another little dog, my Cherie, he decided he wanted to make friends with her and took one step forward with his back legs before falling down. That was an amazing day! Because he took one step, we knew he would eventually walk.
We continued rehab with Monkey twice a week. He started in the water tank and went for short “walks” which was mostly his front legs and one or two back steps each day.
After several weeks, Monkey is now walking and even is allowed to play in the daycare with the other dogs.
He is still continuing rehab twice a week. He has a funny “high step” in which he lifts his back feet way off the ground as he walks. And he has a bit of neuro deficit, but frankly, if he never gets any better than this, I’m happy. He loves life, loves people and loves other dogs. He walks and even runs and has a GREAT time.
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