Not Back to Normal

Normalcy, if I ever could lay claim to such, has flown out the window. I gave in and agreed to my husband's desire to foster the dog from the shelter but did make him wait a week while we prepared the house with gates, spaces, etc., and bought a bunch of pet stuff!  This is a bit long so you have to bear with me.

I should have been more careful because my husband's dementia means that I am totally responsible for feeding and watching the dog when she is inside.  She has had a few peeing accidents and we are trying to get her to use the bell hanging from the door, as well as take her out several times morning and afternoon and before bed.  I also can remember the amount of feed as well as the medicine regime. Hubby is very good at walking and exercising the dog. We have had her for 11 days.  She is not a chewer, probably because she is 3 years old.  She is crazy for food.  She has Lymes and heartworm and is on medicines for that and if I put them in a "pill pocket" she will gulp them down in a second.  (Actually she will do almost anything for food.)

The first night we put her in a kennel in our bedroom, but her scratching and chewing kept us awake.  I moved the kennel to the living room, got an itching spray, bathed her with a shampoo and conditioner that was supposed to reduce dryness and itching, and also applied cream to a few areas.  Below she sits nicely in her kennel while drying in the sun. 

About the fourth night, she woke us up around midnight with a deep and frightening growl followed by the baying that only Hounds can do.  We later learned that our neighbor across the ravine was getting raccoons out of his garage.  We never would have heard any of that.

It is like having a new baby in the house.  I had to call the shelter (since we are fostering we have to use their vet referral) when I noticed two areas of serious sores.  One under her neck and one on her backside.  I put a cream there before she walks so that she would not lick it off.  They thought it might be the kibble they gave us which was something new to her.  She also was crabby when I tried to get her to stop chewing and only offering a rawhide chew worked.

They asked us to bring her up.  When they saw the issue they made an appointment with their vet for late afternoon.  Since they are 30 minutes from our house and the vet hospital is another 15 minutes from them, this meant driving back home at noon and waiting for the appointment time, and then driving the 45 minutes back up at 4:00 PM.  Bonus, she does not mind riding in a car in the kennel!  The shelter also gave a bag of new kibble that has no corn or wheat and is mostly meat.  

The visit to the vet took almost two hours between waiting and diagnosis.  We now have her on steroids and then an additional monthly medication for possible mites.   She behaved well at the vet hospital and even let them stick stuff in her ears!  The vet gave us as well some spray for the sore areas AND an ear spray!  We are hoping it is not allergies as I understand that is harder to treat and determine.  If it is mites we have no clue where she got them as it is my understanding that the animal shelters are very sterile and we have no pets here.

It was a very long day and when we got back and after we fed her and then after we took her out for a 15-minute walk, we put her in the kennel and went for out for our dinner!!  I was exhausted, and I still have not attempted putting in the medicine for her ears that they wanted us to do!!

She will go back to the shelter before our trip at the end of February and probably forget what little training we have been able to give her.  At least this will give us a break to decide if we have the energy for this.  If she did not have the skin problem, we could certainly work with her.  Hubby has fallen in love, of course!