Little Claude, who had major surgery a few months ago AND suffered a horrible stroke just a few weeks after, is looking GOOD. He's gained weight and is just the sweetest little boy.
This is why we do what we do. Please consider a donation to our General Vetting Fund so that we can continue to save these litte dogs.
GO HERE to donate to our general veterinary fund. These funds are used for smaller, yet still expensive, surgeries, hospitalization, etc.
This boy is resilient!! He is completely back to normal after suffering a horrible stroke just a few short weeks ago.
I am very shocked that he's doing so well, but will thank my lucky stars for him!
We still need some help with Claude's bills.
To donate via PAYPAL GO HERE or GO HERE TO PLEDGE TO SEND A CHECK or HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CREDIT CARD AUTHORIZATION FORM.
Well, we dodged the bullet again. Mr Claude is recovering nicely. He is recovering at my house rather than Deogi so he's out of the sight of all the crazy youngsters. He is such a funny little dog. Loves his toys, and loves to snooze in my girls' favorite dog bed.
We're slowly decreasing his meds right now. Dr. Moore is certainly a hero in my mind. If anyone in Houston needs a fantastic vet, let me know - I'd recommend him to anyone. I drive from the Heights to the Sugarland area just so my dogs are well cared for!!
Here's Claude yesterday wondering what that big black thing was in my hands!
We still need some help with Claude's bills. I got the invoice yesterday and need to pay it soon!!
To donate via PAYPAL GO HERE or GO HERE TO PLEDGE TO SEND A CHECK or HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CREDIT CARD AUTHORIZATION FORM.
Thanks to all of you who are keeping us going in this hard economy.
Tonight, Claude was playing like he has had nothing wrong with him. The head tilt is 95% gone and he's trotting and running through the house and yard.
Amazing recovery - we are just hours past one week out. Last Friday, I didn't think Claude would live through the night.
To donate via PAYPAL GO HERE or GO HERE TO PLEDGE TO SEND A CHECK or HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CREDIT CARD AUTHORIZATION FORM.
Our Mr. Claude Galvez was released from the hospital this afternoon. After suffering a massive stroke on Friday night, Claude was rushed to SOVH late in the evening and Dr. Moore immediately went into action.
When I left Claude there that night, he was still immobile, contorted into something not resembling a dog at all. He was laying on his side, stiff, with one front leg in the air and only his eyes moving. It was terrifying. I thought for sure he would die. I took pictures, but they are absolutely horrid and will make you cry so I'm not going to post them here.
But by Saturday morning, Claude was sitting up.
By Sunday, he was eating.
By Tuesday, he was walking, and
Wednesday he got to check out and come home. This is Claude with Dr. Moore as he was releasing him!!
Claude is now resting comfortably in front of the TV.
This is an amazing story, with a happy ending, thanks to Dr. Moore!
Claude's bill totalled $466. Cheap for a life!
If you can help us with the bill for this deserving boy, to donate via PAYPAL GO HERE or GO HERE TO PLEDGE TO SEND A CHECK or HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CREDIT CARD AUTHORIZATION FORM.
This just in from Dr. Moore - Claude is walking. YAY!! Looks very skinny. Poor boy. Didn't eat for several days after his ear ablation and now hasn't really eaten a full meal since Friday.
But, by George, he's alive and WALKING!!
Claude has been hospitalized since Friday and probably will stay a couple more days. We will, of course, need help with his bill.
To donate via PAYPAL GO HERE or GO HERE TO PLEDGE TO SEND A CHECK or HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CREDIT CARD AUTHORIZATION FORM.
My vet just called me and asked "How are you?" My response to his greeting was "It depends on what you tell me!"
He said that he was going to have to charge me a ton of money for Claude. I laughed and said "FINE."
I could tell by the "smile" in his voice that he had some really good news.
Claude is sitting up and now is eating. He sent this picture of Claude eating a little canned food meatball!!
He firmly believes, because of the significant improvement in the past 36 hours, that Claude will improve to a point that he will have a good quality life. He may have a head tilt, he may stumble when he walks, but all in all, he should be ok.
These are the kind of things the general fund are for. I expect this to cost $400-$500. He will have to be hospitalized for a couple of days.
If you would like to donate to our general Veterinary fund to help with cases like Mr Claude and others, please GO HERE TO DONATE WITH PAYPAL.
Go HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CREDIT CARD AUTHORIZATION FORM for any of the dogs. Fax it to me at 713-583-7816. Or if you want to send a check, just go to the PLEDGEFORM and we'll count it immediately.
My vet, Dr. Moore, who is undoubtedly the best vet in the greater Houston area, thinks Claude is doing unbelievably well considering the severity of the stroke yesterday.
Late last night, he reported that Claude must have tried to sit up and was still in the "unbalanced" mode and wound himself up in his IV line. So, Claude was sedated over night so that he could rest comfortably.
He was given a drug to thin his blood (strokes are caused by blood clots), so both of his front legs are very bruised - the first because the vein "blew" when they were attempting to get the IV in him - his blood pressure was exceptionally high. The second because that is where the IV is now.
This morning, Dr. Moore was amazed to see that Claude was sitting up - still with a significant head tilt - but sitting up nonetheless. Last night he could not raise his head up at all.
He continues to progress but is still not eating - this is not uncommon, evidently, in stroke victims so we're not too worried yet.
Dr. Moore says he has made SIGNIFICANT progress, but we still have to wait and see if he will be able to walk. After a stroke, it's a quality of life question.
He's in such good shape right now because I was able to get him treated within 90 minutes of the beginning of the stroke.
This was one scary event. Dr. Moore is a good 30 minutes away from me and while I was driving 80 MPH on the freeway, steering with the left hand, I had to hold Claude upright with my right hand because he kept vomiting. I had to make sure he didn't choke. Needless to say, my car needed a good cleaning this morning. Thank goodness for leather seats!
More tomorrow.
Our adorable little Claude suffered a stroke this evening.
He had just finished dinner, ran outside for a quick break and ran right back inside. At that time, he began to stumble.
Thankfully, I was able to get my vet to meet me at his clinic - Claude is hospitalized there right now. I got an update a few hours ago and he seems to be resting comfortably.
His vitals are good, but we don't know what the outcome will be.
Please send good thoughts and prayers for little Claude. He's suffered so much, he deserves to have a few more happy years.
More tomorrow morning.
Since Claude had his ear ablation surgery, he has become a different dog. He is very playful, interacting with the other dogs like a much younger boy!
Wow, he must have really been in pain for quite a while. I am so glad we went forward with his surgery.
Hello everyone. Our adorable Mr Cloud (AKA Claude Galvez) is recovering nicely from his ear ablation surgery!! He is now allowed out of the crate if he is relatively quiet. Isn't he a doll?
Claude is about 12 years old but very hardy. His ear has been his only real health problem since we got him. I'd love for him to find a forever home now. So if anyone's interested, please email me at teresa@shihtzu-rescue.com.
But, unfortunatly, because of all of the severe problems my own Ginger was having - last time I posted, she was having a stomach upset - well, that landed her back in ICU for several days this week - I just haven't had time to get back to writing you about the status of his surgery fund.
As of right now, we have raised $900 toward his vet bill. The total came out just under $2400 instead of $2600, but we are a tad behind. Please pass this message around to all lhasa lovers you know. I know the economy is horrible right now, believe me, we're feeling it at Deogi, but I still can't give up on these puppers!!
To donate via PAYPAL GO HERE or GO HERE TO PLEDGE TO SEND A CHECK or HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CREDIT CARD AUTHORIZATION FORM.
Thanks to Marty Howard, Barbara Grabell, Christine Apple, Dana Del Bianco,Dale Stone, Peter Ymson and Lorna Van De Wiele, Susan Lewis, Josh Rosenbaum, Anne Laquidara, Tricia Havis, Christine Hutchison, Vicki Wakefield, Davis Arnette, Linda Bridges, Mike Birke, Margaret Lubke, Diane Perry, Janet Bello, Wendy Barnum, Doug Cameron, Peter Ymson, Allen & Traci Breeding his fund is at $1000 right now. Still a way to go!!
Since we're focused so heavily on Claude Galvez right now, I wanted to repost his story starting from the beginning two years ago. Here goes.
We’ve committed to taking in the three senior throw-away lhasas in the Galveston shelter but desperately need a forever foster home or three for them!!! They do not deserve to remain in the shelter NOR in boarding any longer. PLEASE help!
If you have adopted from us and have a nurturing nature, please sign up for these puppers NOW. I really want to go get them before the weekend and let them know the love of a real home. If you’ve forgotten the story, here it is….
Please allow me to relate a sad story. Yesterday animal control picked up two horribly matted and filthy Lhasas on a remote road where they had obviously been dumped. Upon arrival at the shelter the terrified dogs cowered in the corner of the kennel. It was hard to tell what they were and the smell from their wet filthy bodies was gagging. I came to work this morning and decided my first task would be to shave down the two dogs so they could be assessed. To my horror, the underside of the matted fur was crawling with hundreds of maggots. The fur over the rear of the dogs was so hard that neither dog could defecate. As I released the mats, they began to pass huge amounts of feces, also laden with maggots. I almost decided at that point to just put these poor creatures out of the misery they were enduring, but did not want them to die in that condition, so I continued. In addition to the maggots, thousands of fleas covered their poor bodies. After they were shaved and bathed I found two older, neutered males who were as sweet as can be. One is blind, or nearly so, and the other has severely inflamed skin and lesions from the mats/maggots. They both have infected ears and are going to need major care. We have a local vet who has generously donated services to our shelter and I am going to call him tomorrow and have them evaluated. These dogs are well fed and someone loved them at some time in their life. I am now determined that unless the vet says there is no hope, they will not be euthanized. I know it is very hard to place older dogs, but if your rescue has any fosters who can help these boys recover, I think they would be adoptable.
Then a few days later….
I have an update, the day after the two males came in, a female was found dumped in the same area, in the same condition. She also had twine wrapped tightly around a leg and has an infected paw. All three went to the vet and are on antibiotics, as well as medication for the eyes and ears. The female and one male have ulcers on their corneas, but the other male’s eyes are OK. All three are sweet dogs and obviously came from the same owner. The female was thrilled to see (or smell) the other two. They are safe in my office waiting for an “angel.”
Here are the pictures sent to us by the shelter…
Many of you know how I've been struggling with my own little Ginger's life for the past three months. For those of you that don't, Ginger has been battling lymphoma, which is cancer of the lymphatic system, since October 2006. In April, she came out of remission and we've been struggling to get her back to a good place. She had a bad, albeit fairly common, reaction to one of the drugs in May and was in ICU for five days. AFter trying practically every chemo on the market, we finally realized she had become resistant and chemo was no longer an option for her.
Last week, we tried a new, non-standard, approach which was to use radiation. Ginger's lymphoma is, thankfully, not in her internal organs as of yet, so she was a candidate for nodal radiation. In this protocol, each external node is hit with radiation three times in the span of a week. Thankfully, all of her nodes practically disappeared.
But, late last night, she became very, very ill - bad gastric upset - so this morning we spent the morning at the vet for fluids, tests and many drugs. As of right now, 2:30 pm, she seems to have stablized and is snoozing comfortably.
So, now on to the update on Claude....some of this has already been posted on our facebook page, www.facebook.com/lsstlar, but here goes....
GCVS called early Friday morning to tell me I could come get Claude. This was MUCH MUCH earlier than I expected. I picked him up late yesterday afternoon. Here he is with Ms. Paula, his new best friend She had to explain all of the after care for him and she also told me how lucky it was that we accelerated his surgery - the infection was spreading quickly inside of the closed-up wound.
You can see how swollen his right ear is - poor boy.
Dr. Hottinger closed up the open, gaping wound and inserted a drain tube which will come out on Monday.
As of right now, we have raised $900 toward his vet bill. The total came out just under $2400 instead of $2600, but we are a tad behind. Please pass this message around to all lhasa lovers you know. I know the economy is horrible right now, believe me, we're feeling it at Deogi, but I still can't give up on these puppers!!
To donate via PAYPAL GO HERE or GO HERE TO PLEDGE TO SEND A CHECK or HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CREDIT CARD AUTHORIZATION FORM.
As soon as we get Claude's funds raised, we HAVE to start on Mae's.
Thanks to Marty Howard, Barbara Grabell, Christine Apple, Dana Del Bianco,Dale Stone, Peter Ymson and Lorna Van De Wiele, Susan Lewis, Josh Rosenbaum, Anne Laquidara, Tricia Havis, Christine Hutchison, Vicki Wakefield, Davis Arnette, Linda Bridges, Mike Birke, Margaret Lubke, Diane Perry, Janet Bello, Wendy Barnum, Doug Cameron his fund is at $900 right now. Still a way to go!!
Claude is recovering from his surgery and they want me to pick him up this afternoon. EEK! This is way sooner than I expected. We have raised over $500 for him, but we still need $2100 in his fund asap.
On top of that, Mae had some labs done yesterday and now her surgery is close to urgent. The amikacin she is getting daily is on the verge of harming her kidneys. We need to STOP this antibiotic and surgerically remove the plant matter from her deteriorating sinus cavity. This surgery is also around $2600.
I don't know what to do right now. With the economy as it is, we are having trouble handling the normal vetting costs much less these extraordinary things!
If you didn't get Claude's original story, here is a LINK.
Thanks to Marty Howard, Barbara Grabell, Christine Apple, Dana Del Bianco,Dale Stone, Peter Ymson and Lorna Van De Wiele, Susan Lewis, Josh Rosenbaum, Anne Laquidara, Tricia Havis, Christine Hutchison, Vicki Wakefield, Davis Arnette, Linda Bridges his fund is at $520 right now. Still a way to go!!
To donate via PAYPAL GO HERE or GO HERE TO PLEDGE TO SEND A CHECK or HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CREDIT CARD AUTHORIZATION FORM.
As soon as we get Claude's funds raised, we HAVE to start on Mae.
Our adorable little Claude Galvez checked in this morning for his ear ablation, and none too soon. I can tell the ear is getting infected again so this is very timely.
Dr. Hottinger will be doing the surgery today! Yay for Claude.
Here is what will be done, thanks Barbara G for suggesting these graphics.
This is what the ear canal looks like in a dog. The problem with Claude is that he had chronic ear infections way before we got him and the part marked "canal" was basically closed up because of scar tissue. In fact, his ear flap is shorter than the other and thicker suggesting that he had several hematomas too.
You can see how a horrible abcess can develop if the canal, through which "stuff" drains, is clogged up.
This shows how the surgery is done. Basically the part labeled "canal" or shaded with cross hatches on the above graphic, is completely removed and the opening to the ear canal in the ear flap is sutured shut - no more infection, EVER.
He deserves to live the rest of his life pain free. Please help us let him do that!!
If you didn't get the original story, here is a LINK.
Thanks to Marty Howard, Barbara Grabell, Christine Apple, Dana Del Bianco,Dale Stone, Peter Ymson and Lorna Van De Wiele, Susan Lewis, Josh Rosenbaum, Anne Laquidara, Tricia Havis, Christine Hutchison, his fund is at $340 right now. Still a way to go!!
To donate via PAYPAL GO HERE or GO HERE TO PLEDGE TO SEND A CHECK or HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CREDIT CARD AUTHORIZATION FORM.
Sometimes I just can't believe you all. We already have $245 toward Claude's $2600 surgery. And I'm positive he can have it because I know how much you all love these dogs.
Claude is a wonderful little old man Asks for nothing except a nice place to sleep and loves his food. He sometimes, when he feels good, will go play with some of the other dogs. Lately, with all of the infection, he hasn't done much playing.
He deserves to live the rest of his life pain free. Please help us let him do that!!
If you didn't get the original story, here is a LINK.
Thanks to Marty Howard, Barbara Grabell, Christine Apple, Dana Del Bianco,Dale Stone, Peter Ymson and Lorna Van De Wiele, his fund is at $245 right now.
To donate via PAYPAL GO HERE or GO HERE TO PLEDGE TO SEND A CHECK or HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CREDIT CARD AUTHORIZATION FORM.
Poor little Claude Galvez; he is one of our adorable forever fosters. He has always struggled with one bad ear - constantly infected, even when cleaned every day. I wanted to get his ear ablated many months ago, but with all of the other URGENT situations and the economy, I held off. Bad mistake.
Several weeks ago, Claude developed a massive abcess underneath his ear - I mean it was horrendous - like the size of a grapefruit. That's huge hanging off the ear of a 20 pound lhasa boy. I rushed him to Stafford Oaks and Dr. Brady, one of the wonderful vets, immediately opened it up and flushed out the massive infection.
This is what it looked like after it was treated. Yes, that red stuff is an open wound!!!
Claude then stayed in the hospital for about a week.
Since then, we've been working on getting that huge wound closed up, but now that the hole is almost closed and his ear is still draining we MUST get that ear out.
I spoke with Dr. Heidi Hottinger, of Gulf Coast Veterinary Specialists and she will do it
ASAP - as in TOMORROW, THURSDAY. The cost is $2600.
Please, please help us help little adorable Claude.
To donate via PAYPAL GO HERE or GO HERE TO PLEDGE TO SEND A CHECK or HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CREDIT CARD AUTHORIZATION FORM.
Thanks to all!!
