ALLIE - A DOG BLOG

What follows is a record of her history since we found her -- but first a bit of "philosophy".

I am not (as Dotti Delehanty said - see below) the "mother Teresa of dogs." I do, however, believe in humane treatment for all creatures and a dog which has been left to starve or die of (preventable) infection while tied up so tightly that it has rubbed the skin off its legs and back has not been treated humanely. Any dog which has barked for 15 hours asking for help deserves a chance to live and that is what I chose to give her. I am glad I did. She was clearly someone's beloved pet (she had been spayed, is good with indoor furniture, and loves to cuddle and sit on laps). She seems to have given her owner faithful service for 6 or 7 years. The place we found her (according to the people at the animal rescue society in Allegan) was near a "retirement community." My guess (and theirs) is that her owner died or was shipped off to a nursing home and the dog was tossed out to fend for herself. She must have been out for more than a month when we found her and had been captured and tied up by the Allegan police to be picked up in 2 or 3 days by "animal control." If she had been badly sick, injured, or in pain, I would have had her "put down." Simply put she was starved and dehydrated and when she began to regain her strength she was clearly loveable and well- behaved. Her blindness (and deafness) seems to be recent but she appears to be learning how to deal with it. I believe she deserves to live.

History: On Sunday, June 20 we stopped at Allegan, MI for the night, camping at the high school. As we set up camp (~3:30 PM, EDT) we heard a dog barking but thought nothing of it. (LOTS of dogs bark at bikers). The dog barked all night, however, and in the morning I went across the street to see what was going on.

I found a very small, very starved, toy poodle with badly infected eyes and ears. The poodle was tied to a gas pipe next to a Verizon maintenance building and had been hobbled so badly that its rear legs and back had been rubbed raw by the rope and gas pipe. (It turns out several had gone to look at her during the night, but everyone thought she belonged to someone in the Verizon building). I called across the street for help and one of the PALM bikers (name unknown) hopped over the (6 foot!) school fence and helped take the rope off the dog.

I took the dog back to camp and another man (again unknown!) found a box and padding for it. Several women (Julie Macgregor and Dottie Delehanty, Deb Jurink, Kim Bender (SAG driver), and Betty English) offered to take the dog to the end of the ride (Monroe, MI) in a SAG truck. Since the bike ride was going to last 4 more days and Julie was an experienced dog “rescuer” this seemed like a good idea.

When they took Allie to a vet on Monday they found she weighed only 7.5 lbs – 35 to 40% below her ideal weight, and was both deaf and blind. Deb's mother, Kathy Wieringa (sp?) in Middleville MI, washed and groomed her (see pix below).

At first the crew named the dog “Palmie” but later this was changed to “Allie” (for Allegan, where she was found.)

(L) Allie with Julie just after we found her.--- (R) Allie with Julie after her first vet visit and clean up.

Note: you may right click on any of these images and down load them full size

Later that day Allie collapsed and they rushed her off to an other vet (Susan Drapek, DVM, the “Traveling Vet” in Eaton Rapids, MI - our next stop), where she was given oxygen and put on IV fluids for dehydration. That night I saw Julie and said I would take full responsibility for the dog (I believe the Chinese proverb: “when you save someone’s life you become responsible for it”). Meanwhile, Dottie had asked the riders in the evening meeting for donations to help with the vet bills. So the next day (Wednesday) we stopped off at the vet’s office with $72.25 in cash and held Allie for 45 min until she stopped shaking and went to sleep.

After that, knowing she was in good hands, we checked in by ‘phone at the end of the ride each day.

Thursday , June 24: Allie came off the IV (but “wanted to be held ALL THE TIME”).

Friday, June 25: she tested positive for “parasites” (no surprise)

Saturday, June 26: we picked her up in the morning (with our Number One Dog, Fiona along so Fiona would know she was an active part of this “rescue”), paid the rest of the bill (with help from another $81 in donations!- the receipt is at the end of this chronicle.), and took her home to East Lansing.

THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR ALL THEIR HELP! Allie’s first week “at home” is recorded below:

Saturday, June 26, 2004: Allie arrived home at 12 Noon. Ate ~ 5 Tbs of canned puppy food. AND SLEPT. She had another 4-5 Tbs of food at 4 PM, went out doors for a few minuets and SLEPT. Ate again at 9 PM (4-5 Tbs, almost the whole can by then) went out doors and SLEPT ALL NIGHT!. Our biggest worry was that she would need constant attention. This was unfounded. She slept straight through the first two nights after she came “home.”

The one complication was that she finally decided to sleep on the dirty laundry from the PALM trip. Solution: I put on a bunch of old stuff from the rag bag (PIX 3 below) and she slept happily on those while I washed the laundry.

Saturday, June 26: Allie at NOON; Allie on the laundry - Sue wearing Rags - Allie at 9 PM happy with the rags

Sunday, June 27, 2004: AM Weight: 3440 grams (7.584 lb) (Sorry about the metric measures – we have a baby scale with gram/ kilogram weights.) Slept 22 out of 24 hours. The rest of the time was either eating (a full can of Eukanuba puppy food in 4 feeds) or out doors “taking care of business”. We are putting eye salve in 3-4 times a day and find her eyes are not as red and runny. By the end of the day she was able to walk with her hind legs straight and keep her balance (see PIX below). She finds her way by cautiously bumping into things. (We had to block off the basement stairs to keep her from falling down).

Our one worry was that our first dog might not approve. Actually she even lets Allie use her bed!

June 27: - Top Dog (Fiona) taking care of Allie (L) Out Doors (R) Allie on Fiona's bed

Monday, June 28, 2004: AM Weight: 3445 grams (7.595 lb) (not much weight gain). Still sleeping 22 hours/day. Tried feeding 1/3 of a can of dog food instead of ¼ but she refused the extra. Found that the people at the vet’s had forgotten to feed her worming medicine – so we will do that tomorrow (and hope for a faster weight gain). Made an appointment with a “doggie ophthalmologist” at the MSU Vet School (in 2 weeks). In the evening she climbed up on a box (1 ft) and jumped off! (sort of landed on her feet but still a bit wobbly).

Tuesday, June 29, 2004: AM weight : 3460 grams (7.632 lbs) Has not lost interest in food but does not want everything in her bowl! Much stronger. Came up to me and stood on her hind legs wanting to be picked up. Tried to jump up on the couch after lunch! (needed help). Looks like she will be up for several hours today. (She is at my feet “helping” to write this – see pix below.) Worming medicine at 3:30 PM – maybe weight gain will be better.

Wednesday, June 30, 2004: AM weight : 3551 grams - looks like a loss but probably normal fluctuation. UP ALL NIGHT! Every two hours she would yip and whine. We would sit with her a while, She would go back to sleep then start yipping again. Hope it is the worming medicine! Otherwise doing well - able to beg at the dinner table now (see pix below) and tries to jump onto chairs but still too weak.

June 30 - DINNER! (L) Food! (R) Begging

Thursday, July 1, 2004: AM weight : still 3550 grams. The night-time yipping was NOT the medicine - she insists on sleeping in the bedroom with us. (Fiona - our first dog gave up and went down stairs in disgust!) Achieved another first - after breakfast jumped up onto the couch - and back down again later. (She is clearly familiar with couches and chairs.)

July 1 - Climbing a Chair (L) Lift Off! (R) Safely settled

Friday, July 2, 2004: AM weight : still 3550 grams. HOWEVER, she did sleep through the night! The secret seems to be to feed her 3 times a day, ~10 AM, ~1 PM and ~7 PM.

Saturday, July 3, 2004: AM weight : still 3550 grams. Big day today! We took Allie to visit some friends who have 2 standard poodles. She sniffed and (almost) romped with them and left with a "big poodle smile" on her face. Later we took her for a walk on a leash (since one of the poodle owners had told us that her dog was good at walking that way after he became blind.) She walked 4 blocks (and I carried her back home to keep her from being too tired.)

July 3: After her visit - Allie walking on a leash -- Allie after her walk.

Sunday, July 4, 2004: AM weight : 3560 grams. Finally back to where she was on the 29th! Quiet day at home. (No firecrackers!)

Looks like she will be OK. Clearly she is getting stronger.

Monday, July 5, 2004: AM weight : 3570 grams. We switched to "small dog" (Eukanuba) dry food last night. She was getting her ears all gunked up in the puppy food! Looks like it is a better choice. She seems to eat more. Came home after biking (we are limiting our trips to 4-5 hrs until we feel Allie can deal with a longer separation) AND SHE WAGGED HER TAIL! - Guess she is beginning to feel like a real dog.

Tuesday, July 6, 2004: AM weight : 3870 grams! That is 8.53 lbs and a pound more than when we found her. She clearly prefers the dry dog food! Washed her with a mild dog shampoo - (see below). Most of the scabs from the rope burns washed off but there is a scar the size of a quarter on her back.

Clean Dog - compare this with the "found" pix at the top of this page!

Wednesday, July 7, 2004: AM weight : 3950 grams. Mostly still sleeping. Eats ~ 1 or more cups of food a day (in 2 feeds) - The package calls for 1/2 cup/day so will start to taper off when she hits 10 lbs. A (good?) sign of her improvement is that when Fiona was being too nosey today Allie snapped. I heard a snap and two growls (one from Allie and a lower one from Fiona) and found Allie with her teeth on Fiona's neck fur. Humm??

Thursday, July 8, 2004: AM weight : 3970 grams (8.75 lbs). Is into a better routine: Walks 4-6 blocks/day on leash (needs to build up muscle!) trots right along but will run into trees and posts if I don't watch her.

Friday, July 9, 2004: AM weight : 3970 grams

Saturday, July 10, 2004: AM weight : 4000 grams; We have now established (experimentally) that she will sleep through the night if she sleeps in our bedroom - and will not if not. Guess that is OK since Fiona already has such privileges.

Sunday, July 11, 2004: AM weight : 4060 grams

Monday, July 12, 2004: AM weight : 4060 grams Long visit with the MSU eye vet. Both eyes are completely blind and the cataracts so far gone that they have damaged the retinas. We will be giving her some drops to see if we can improve her dry eyes (recheck in 6 weeks) but otherwise she will just have to memorize the furniture placement in the house. Meanwhile she grows stronger by the day and spent her entire 2.5 hours at the clinic sniffing everything (when she wasn't bumping into walls!) This vet's guess is that Allie's age is closer to 10 years than 7.

Monday, July 26, 2004: AM weight : Still ~ 4000 grams
Allie has turned into a chewer. When we go out we leave her in the kitchen (behind "baby" gates, with Fiona). She seems to want to get out and chews her way through the gate! I am pretty sure she is not eating it (the gate) - but her weight gain has stopped. She also has had a sequence of ear infections in the past week. The eye meds may not be good for the ears!? Next vet check in 10 days or so. I plan to ask about it.

Monday, August 9, 2004: weight holding steady at 4000 grams.
Took her to the "Traveling Vet" on Thursday. Got a rabies shot (so she can legally travel) and med for her still very smelly ears. The ears (after 5 days of treatment) are much better. This vet is pretty sure Allie is only 7 years old - "She has recovered too quickly for an older dog."
We have given up on keeping her in the kitchen with Fiona when we go out since she eats her way through every gate we put up! The solution: Allie stays in the living room while Fiona stays in the kitchen. Seems to work!
Our next goal is to learn how to keep her from pushing her water dish all over the floor (and spilling the water!) Our old poodle/shelty mix would push rocks, balls, oranges, anything around with his nose and this seems to be the same type of behavior. Anyone know how to teach a blind dog how to play with a ball instead of her water dish??

Tuesday, August 31, 2004: weight up to 4110 grams.
Lots of excitement! Allie went on a "road trip" to upstate NY for a week. Saw (with her nose) LOTS of big dogs. Stayed awake while traveling and seems to have enjoyed herself. She is becoming more "assirtive" about her needs (comes up and nudges when she wants to be scratched, barks when she wants to be put back on the floor from the couch etc. ) However, STILL has not figured out where the door for the back yard is! Her eye check showed much improvement in the "dry eye" condition (but she never will see again). With her short hair cut she feels the cold (anything below ~64 deg F) so we will just let her coat grow.

Wednesday, Sept 30, 2004: weight up to 4300 grams - the boys are calling her "Lard B__t".

We are letting her fur grow - since she feels the cold a lot - the extra fat (yes she now has about 1/8 inch!) helps.

We have found that sleeping at night is still a problem (probably because she is blind) and have been giving her melatonin (about 0.05 mg!) at night which seems to help.

We traveled back to the "retirement community" in Allegan last weekend to look for any possible owners. No one recognized her but several people did say there had been 5 deaths in the community in the early part of the summer.

As you can see from the PIX below, she is doing very well.

Allie doing what she does best: (L) Eating - Aug 14. (R) Sleeping - Aug 24.

In March we decided she had gained all the weight she needed (9.8 lbs!) and was strong enough to have her teeth cleaned. (Talk about Dog Breath!). However, upon cleaning it was clear that 4 teeth were so bad (broken into the nerves) that they had to be removed. The pain and fear proved too much for her and that night she started to cough and breath irregularly and developed a very rapid heart beat. We took her into the "Doggie ER" at the MSU vet clinic. (Just like when our kids were small - but 38 years later!) As usual, the clinic staff was very kind and helpful and managed to calm her heart down to a normal level with pain medication. In the process, they took an X-Ray to look at her lungs and found 3 broken, poorly healed ribs which clearly showed her abuse had been more than just neglect! (Looked like a boot kick to us!)

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ALLIE SAYS THANKS FOR YOUR HELP

Copy of the Original (June 2004) Vet Bill. (right click to enlarge it). - THANKS for helping Allie! Back to the Top

 

Update: July 08, 2005 -- simkin@pa.msu.edu