I
immediately took them to the vets to be checked out.
I had stool samples checked for worms and parvo,
heart worm tests, ears checked and an over all exam.
Pups checked out fine except for a bad case of round
worms.
Velvet
weighed only 85 pounds and had an infection, round worms,
and a yeast infection in both ears and diarrhea.
Thank goodness the parvo test was negative. I waited
for the results on the heart worm test which would
take a few days. Mean time after spending a good
amount of money at the vets I was sent home with
pills for Velvets infection, pills for her diarrhea,
medicine for all three for round worms and drops for
her ears which has to be applied twice a day for 7 to
10 days.
You can see how skinny Velvet
was. This was taken after she already had put some
weight on. Her pups were equally skinny.
This is the after
picture. You can see how much weight she is putting
on and how good she is looking.
Velvet
is starting to put on weight is now up to 91 pounds and is such a loving and gentle
dog. She is wonderful with my Pomeranian rescues and
kisses my Great Dane. She is loving to my cats and
friendly with everyone she meets. She listens well
and just wants to please. That weekend I found a
wonderful home for Velvet with an older lady who
already has 3 Great Danes. She came to visit Velvet
and the two of them hit it off immediately. I told
her I can not let Velvet go until I get the results
of her heart worm test. She agreed since she was not
in the position to pay the $200 some dollars for
treatment should the test come back positive.
The
tests came back positive for heart worms on Velvet. I
knew it was too good to be true. Velvet no longer has
a home waiting for her and now she faces treatment.
My husband feels the previous owners knew she had
heart worms and that is why they gave her up. They
kept her son and the father. The total cost for the
treatment is $220 plus she will have to remain with
me for several months to be tested again to make sure
the treatment was successful.
This
is purely a case of neglect on the previous owners
part. If they were responsible pet owners there would
not have been pups to begin with, Velvet would have
been on once a month heart worm preventative and up
to date on her vaccinations. Now they dump their
responsibility and Velvet has to pay the price for
their neglect. Some how it just doesn't seem fair.
Velvet and her pups did not deserve this treatment.
They are such sweet and gentle dogs. I am grateful
that her pups tested negative.
UPDATE: Feb 22, 2000
at 4:00 AM I heard Velvet crying and howling from her
bedtime crate in the garage (my garage is fully
insulated and heated. I keep Velvet in a crate at
night to make sure there is not fighting between her
and my Dane until they get to know each other
better). Velvet has never howled like this before. I
figured she must really have to go potty.
I
went into the garage and right next to Velvet is a
pen with a mom lab mix rescue and her 6 three week
old pups. Some how a pup had fallen into the water
pail and was hanging onto the lip of the bucket
trying to keep his head above water. I purposely use
a tall bucket for water for the mom so pups can not
fall into it. It is impossible for the pups to climb
into the bucket or so I thought. The only way I could
figure was the mom was laying beside the bucket and
the pups were on top of her back. One pup must have
climb up the mom and other pups to reach the bucket.
I
quickly grabbed the pup, rushed in the house, wrapped
it in a towel and ran upstairs to my bedroom and
asked my husband if he was awake enough to hold the
pup while I checked on the rest. I gave him the pup
and ran back to the garage. Velvet was still howling
so I let her out and she ran right over to the pups,
which she's never done before and sniffed through the
cage to check to see if they were okay. The mom who
normally growls at any other dog that comes near her
pups just touched her nose to Velvet's and let Velvet
sniff her pups. I then found another pup all wet. The
mom must have pulled that pup out of the bucket.
I
let Velvet outside and took the other pup upstairs. I
found my husband awake blow drying the first pup even
though he had to get up in a few hours to go to work.
We finished drying off both pups then I took them
downstairs, let Velvet in the house so she could see
them and she had to sniff both pups and carefully
look them over. As soon as she could see that both
pups were fine she immediately settled down and
seemed calm and relaxed.
I
gave Velvet the biggest hug and told her what a
wonderful dog she was and a hero.
She saved
that puppy's life. She happily pranced back to her
crate and went to sleep. I removed the bucket and
replaced it with a small dish of water. I then
returned the pups to a very eager mom and made it
back to bed at 5:45 AM just in time to wake my
daughter up for school in 20 minutes. <grin>
UPDATE:
March 2, 2000 Velvet went in for her heartworm
treatment. She weighed 101.6 pounds and looks great.
I will get to bring her home tomorrow.
UPDATE:
March 8, 2000 Velvet is not happy that she has to be
kept quiet and confined for 4 weeks following the
heart worm treatment so there is no stress on the
heart. She wants to play with the other dogs.
UPDATE:
March 29, 2000 Velvet got a wonderful new home. A
husband and wife adopted Velvet. The best part is,
they don't live too far from me so I will get to see
how Velvet is doing from time to time.
Taken of Velvet the day
before she was adopted
