For those who follow me on Flickr, I’ve been posting pictures for a few days now. I first learned about Henry on Thursday night. A post on TexAgs was made, with a local student asking what to do about his roommate’s neglect of a pet dog. The thread’s long, but details a tragedy. In brief, the dog’s owner came home and found that the dog had a bad case of bloody diarrhea while left in the kennel during the day, decided that he didn’t want to deal with it, and since the kennel obviously smelled bad, he threw it (with the dog in it) outside in the hundred-degree July heat.

The answer from the community was to get the dog some emergency medical care (done, he has a bad case of whipworms), call animal control and get things documented (done, dog owner getting a warning to surrender or adopt out the dog within 24 hours or he would be cited for first degree animal abuse), and then find another home for the dog because our local shelter is overcrowded and would have put the dog down since he had medical issues and was not immediately adoptable. I ended up taking in Hemi (as he was named), changing his name to Henry (as it sounded about the same and was much better suited to him) and will care for him for the next 90 days or until he’s certified to be worm-free. That is, if I can’t talk my roommate into letting me keep two of them. But I’m a sucker like that!

Henry has learned, in the past few days, how to sit, how to lay down, that it’s not polite to put paws on people to get their attention, that stealing Eo’s bone is a bad idea, how to walk on a leash properly. We’re working on wait, stay, and come. He would make an ideal agility dog. He’s intelligent (can open a foldable wire crate himself), agile (even in his underfed, underweight, and malnourished state he can clear a three-foot-high baby gate from a standing start) and very, very eager to please.

Eowyn and Henry get along mostly fine — she’s in a lot of pain right now and has been known to react a bit harshly when he bumps into her backside. I’m keeping them from interacting where the opportunity for him to hurt her (inadvertantly or not) presents itself, and keep her on a down/stay with me protecting her hips when they’re both out of crates. She’s supposed to be on 100% kennel rest this weekend anyway, but I’ve been letting her out to sun herself and for some social time.

If Henry was not a 45 lbs medium sized dog to Eowyn’s large-breed 75 lbs, and if Henry had a ridge or Eowyn was without one, they could be siblings. My best guess at his breed is Blackmouth Cur / Lab cross… but who really knows. It’s impossible to tell. They’re mutts, they’re good dogs, and I’m happy to have them in my home.

Welcome to the family, Henry.

I told them that Eo doesn’t like being around other dogs when she’s on leash, so the shuffled us off into the back to wait for her to be evaluated. A very nice 4th year student came in, sat down with us for a while and talked about what we needed to do, and said it would take about a half hour.

I spent that half hour admiring the very nice Bull Mastiff and a ridgeback/amstaff mix that were hanging out in the lobby with me.

After the thirty minutes was up, the 4th year student came and got me. They had done a stride evaluation on Eo both while she was running and walking, and had come to the same conclusion that I had — Eo needs surgery, and needs it bad.

We spent a bunch of time talking about the X-rays I brought in. The X-rays are from when Eo was six months old and Courtney was practicing on her. The other X-rays I had taken last year at the Booneville Animal Hospital, who is Eo’s normal vet. They indicate that Eo’s femur has no socket to fit into (a congenital defect), and as a result, her femur is making bone-to-bone contact on her hips. It’s causing the head of the femur to spread into a ‘mushroom’ shape. Despite all the care I’ve taken to keep her weight low and to exercise her enough that she has enough muscle mass back there to compensate, Eo’s health is deteriorating rapidly. She’s developing arthritis in her hips and knees that is patently visible from the X-rays shown. I’m told that the X-rays they just took last month were worse.

There are two surgeries they can do on dogs with hip problems like Eo’s. The first is a hip replacement, just like would be done in a human. This involves sawing off the top of the femur, implanting a new femur head prosthetic into the sawed off zone, and then grafting a new socket for that new femur head in the pelvis/hip area. It’s expensive, and carries a lot of risk in the form of infection or of the prostheses breaking at some point. As a result, it’s not typically recommended for younger dogs.

What is recommended for younger dogs is a Femoral Head Ostectomy, or FHO. During this procedure, they lop off the top of the femur and depend on the animal’s muscular structure to support it’s weight. Rehabilitation after the surgery is critical if the dog’s going to regain mobility.

We planned out an FHO () and planned for it to happen in late May, which would be the soonest I could afford for it to happen. The procedure itself is $2,500; the after-care, including medication, will be about another $1,000.

Here’s where y’all come in. Up in the top right of the screen, there’s a button that says “Canine Hip Dysplasia” — inside there is an Amazon store. If you could order your puppy treats (and maybe even food — they have Innova for $15 off of what I pay for it at the grocery store!) through there for the next few months, it’ll go a long ways towards defraying the costs of the surgery. If you’d like to make a direct contribution, there’s also a paypal button.

Thanks so much for being with us through all of this.

I’ve talked before about how much Canine Hip Dysplasia sucks. But I didn’t expect her to need surgery this soon.

If you’re feeling generous and want to buy something for your own pooch, click on the Amazon ad below and buy something. It doesn’t cost you any extra, and I get a percentage of the sale. I’ve actually started buying my own dog food and treats and stuff from there — it’s on average $5-15 cheaper per bag of food than my local stores.

As we go through the surgery and rehabilitation process, I’ll post pictures.

Thanks, y’all. Means a lot to me.

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I really appreciate the support that everyone across the different communities I’m in is giving me.

Here’s a few pictures from Eo’s friends:

Thanks, everyone!

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She has juvenile-onset hip dysplasia. For all intents and purposes, she has no hip socket for her femur to fit into. Which means it rides right there on the pelvis, and basically just grinds itself in. She’s got it so bad that there’s no socket at all for that femur to fit into. It just jostles and clanks as she walks.

We’ve known about this since her one year old checkup. I had a slight suspicion before that, but it wasn’t anything that I could confirm. She’s a rescue mutt, so there’s no genetic history or breeding records that I can walk back through to find hints as to where it entered her genetic makeup. It could also be because she was torn away from her family at 4 weeks of age and wasn’t properly weaned, and likely wasn’t fed well. She was a wormy, flea and ant-bitten, undernourished mess when we got her.

Last night, she cuddled really closely to me in bed. That’s a sure sign to me that she’s not feeling good — normally she’s as independent and strong as they come. This morning, she was unwilling to put any weight at all on the right rear leg. When I touched it, she cried. Off to the vet we go.

A couple hundred dollars later (And thank you, Courtney, for all your sins — you did send me to a GOOD vet here in College Station, Booneville Animal Hospital), the vet sent her home with a referral to see an orthopedic surgeon.

This evening, I’m icing it. We’ll see what happens when we can get in to see the surgeon. She’s on bed-rest and kennel-rest (if I’m in the house, she wants to be curled up with me) and some serious anti-inflammatory drugs until then. I’ll have to make a decision on how much it costs and see what kind of help I can get through Eo’s pet insurance and other sources. If you don’t have insurance for your pet, it’s a good idea. It’s mostly if something catastrophic happens, but it can mean the difference between a chance or a painful decision to put an animal that is in a lot of pain and can’t do anything about it … down. I don’t want to do that, but I won’t keep her alive and in pain just because *I* love her and don’t want to let go.

Cross your fingers, everyone. Here’s to another great couple years at the very least with the love of my life.

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The toy is durable even for my Kong-destroying power chewer, but she DOES need to be monitored with it or she would’ve completely removed the feet and gutted the squeaker by now. I’ve found that playing with it is a good way to train her that not all toys are to be destroyed; after she plays with it she’s a little more careful to actually lick and gnaw rawhide (as opposed to crunch and eat)… I stop her if she’s trying specifically for the feet or squeaker.

This toy gets a big waggly tail as opposed to just about everything else we’ve tried, which has mostly ended up with four paws in the air!

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We bought my Ridgeback puppy (now 15 months) a Buster Cube, figuring it would stimulate her and entertain her to work for her food once in a while.

The problem: It’s made her a better scavenger. Ridgebacks are already great scavengers.

Today, I came back in from watering the lawn and pruning bushes to find every single dirty dish that had been laid carefully in the sink lifted out of the sink and licked completely clean. She’d only broken one bowl, likely by dropping another on it in as it slipped out of her mouth in the sink. The Buster Cube had taught her that if she lifts something that smells like food carefully and then drops it, she’ll be rewarded with food.

Of course, it’s my bad habit to leave dirty dishes in the sink. Is there a training device for that?

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