Gosh, where did I go the last couple weeks?  It's been a busy time here.  Booking clients who are going out of town, but also taking care of my own pets.  Thought I'd pass on some notes to you about them.

Taffy is our puppy mill rescue, a nightmare of genetic dysfunction, a product of irresponsible breeding and profit. She has a wonderful personality, very sweet, affectionate, a tiger at the doorbell, but has lots of medical issues that we have had to deal with (and the accompanying bills, upwards of $2000 so far). She has bi-lateral luxated patellas, which caused her to walk like a bunny rabbit.  Although our excellent surgeon, Dennis Olsen, DVM, here in Las Vegas, repaired the deformity, years of bunny hopping left her muscles too weak to hold her up once the mechanics of her condition were solved.  Over the last 2 years she has improved, however, to at least being up on the toes, although no longer taffy knees, more like Chaplain feet.

She also has an underbite, and a malocclusion of her incisors.  Therefore, her teeth  don't meet or match, and tartar builds up twice as quickly than on a normal bite.  We can live with that.  She has epiphora, runny red at the eyes.  We found a supplement that helps with that.

Her latest issue was a bladder stone.  Not just a little stone, mind you, but a huge one.  It has been the cause of her incontinence, the blood in her urine, her bowels going without her knowing it, and a few other unplesant symptoms.  Take a look at this thing:

That round white oval just in front of the hips shouldn't be there!  THAT is the stone. No wonder she was having troubles.  Of course, in this radiograph you can see the pins in her knees, also, from her patella repair, which involves the tibia as well.

 

This dog is just now 4 years old.

 

SO, a word to anyone looking at small dogs available at pet shops: Yorkies, Chihuahuas, Maltese, ShizTsus, and the like - BEWARE.  Just because it says AKC on the papers doesn't mean it had healthy parents, a clean environment, or any love until the day you end up with it.  This girl was at the shelter, and because of her disabilities, destined for the euthanasia room but for my rescue of her, and even though it's been expensive, it's hard to put a price on the love this dog returns to us. 

 

I will save the adventures of our horse's medical issues for another time.