The end of froggy

2 minutes after posting the picture of them playing with the frog toy, the two conspired to destroy him....

Sharing at it's best!

Growing!

When we picked Jinx up from AHS, he was just under 13lbs. He's now growing well, and over 14 pounds. Still not quite big enough to play with Luna, who is 52lbs, but that doesn't stop them. Before leaving for work this morning, both of their heads and necks were wet from playing all morning! So much for the bath Jinx just got last night...

Back to being a normal puppy

Jinx is now about 90% recovered from all of his ailments! He is no longer coughing or sneezing. Eye discharge is resolved and ulcers healing. He is using all four legs and runs around playing with toys. He can easily keep up on walks and likes playing with Luna!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0_w1PTciBY

Jinx helping me catch up on work

After being out of town for a few days, I needed to catch up on work. Jinx wanted to help!

Rolling around

The little guy has discovered the joys of rolling around in the grass. A lot easier without a cast!

Puppy Teeth!

I had forgotten how sharp puppy teeth are. Lucky for me, Jasper (perhaps now Jinx?) decided to remind me. This little ankle bitter has been teething non stop this morning. I guess that means he is feeling better. Indeed, he's be hobbling around, playing with toys, everything a normal puppy would do. He's full of energy, and even slept for 7 hours last night, which is nothing short of amazing. This is the most sleep we've had since we took in this adorable little foster pup. 

While attempting to capture his rambunctiousness on camera, Jinx decided his favorite toy was my camera strap. That makes taking pictures very difficult as he bolts across the room to get the strap. 

Kristie is starting to like the name Jinx after all this little guy has been through, so let's see if that name sticks. 

Getting along and starting to share

Jasper now has his own bed, and four floppy legs

Jasper got his cast off today! That is great news, but his leg is still a bit deformed due to it starting to heal at a bad angle before he was seen by the ER. We'll show some pictures of that soon. He is trying to adapt to not having a cast, but tends to avoid that leg altogether. Hopefully with some exercise, he'll be walking and running like all the other dogs in a few weeks.

For the past few days the little guy has been using Luna's bed and travel crate. Needless to say, Luna was not fond of that, and often tried flipping over the bed with Jasper in it. Thus, Jasper was given beds made of towels.... which Luna also moved around thinking that they were toys for her. We are still working on the concept of sharing!

Special thanks to Paul and his family for generously providing a crate, bed, and some new toys for Jasper! This little guy who couldn't catch a break with his medical issues is now being shown all the love and care a puppy could ask for!

A lesson in sharing

Luna and Jasper decided to wake up up at 5AM. Thanks guys. Jasper wouldn't quiet down until ~11:30PM, and we had a bathroom pitstop at 2:30AM as well... so needless to say we didn't much sleep... again.

Now that Jasper is feeling better, he is starting to play with toys. Unfortunately, Luna thinks all the toys are hers. When Jasper gets a toy, even one that is for him, she decides to take it away. Not very nice! The temporary solution was to sit in between them, with Jasper behind me chewing on a toy and playing tug-of-war with Luna in front of me. This was working well for over 5 minutes, until one time I turned around and saw that Jasper had fallen asleep on the toy!

Oh, and almost forgot, his diarrhea is gone! That's one issue down... a few more to go.

Corneal Ulcers

Here you can see the corneal ulcers in his eyes highlighted by the fluorescein stain. The green spots you see are the ulcers. 

Jasper - Day Two, looking good!

Coming home...

On the drive hope, Jasper opened an eye to see who his new friends were. That was good news, we knew he  had at least one eye! Below are the first pictures of him when we let him out of the car. 

Here we have Luna checking out her new friend, in a makeshift bed of towels in a plastic container.

Medical Summary

So the poor pup, who I've been calling "Lil' Dude" until we come up with a better name, has more problems than he deserves.

His history is a little patchy to us, but he started at Town Lake Animal Center, transferred to Austin Humane Society with a broken leg. The leg was radiographed by Dr. Kerpsack (an orthopedic surgeon) and found his radius and ulna to be fractured on the right front leg. The fracture had already started to heal since puppy bones are growing so quickly. The best option was to put a splint on his leg to stabilize the fracture while it continues to heal. He will see the surgeon tomorrow for a recheck and to either change or remove the splint.

Poor Lil Dude also has other orthopedic issues - laxity in his carpal joint (wrist) in the left leg, as well as both of his tarsal joints (ankles). His bones haven't kept up with the growth of his tendons, and the joints are bending in the wrong direction.

The reason for his crusty eyes when we first saw him is due to his upper respiratory infection. This type of infection is more of a problem in shelter situations, and with the stress of being a growing puppy with a splint on. The eye discharge crusted over, sealing his eyes closed. The crusting also caused a more serious problem, rubbing on his corneas. The friction caused corneal ulcers to form on both of his eyes.

The flakey, oily, smelly skin is likely due to demodex mites. These mites are normal inhabitants on dogs, but can get out of hand in physically stressed dogs (especially puppies). He was already treated for this, and it appears to be resolving.

We are also lucky enough for Lil Dude to have some nasty diarrhea as well. This is likely caused by a combination of things: parasites, stress, and bacterial unbalance in his intestinal tract. He's been treated with a de-wormer to cover the most common parasites.

Current treatments he is receiving:

Clavamox (Augmentin) liquid every 12 hours for the respiratory infection

Metronidazole every 12 hours for diarrhea

Tramadol every 6-12 hours for pain related to his fractures

Warm compresses over his eyes and cleaning every 6 hours

Antibiotic eye drops every 6 hours

Moderate, controlled exercise to help strengthen his muscles and joints

It's already clear that he's on the road to recovering from all of these problems and getting back to being a normal playful puppy!

Went to the Austin Humane Society to volunteer, came home with a foster puppy.

After spending the afternoon helping treat the dogs and cats affected by the Bastrop fires, we made the offer to potentially foster a puppy. The AHS foster coordinators got our info and put us on a call list, but suddenly remembered a "cute but broken puppy". She showed us Jasper, a sad looking puppy with a broken leg, crusted over eyes (completely shut, we thought both of his eyes might have been removed) who was also missing patches of fur and covered in flakes of dried skin. He has an upper respiratory infection, and possible mange as well to top it all off.

Upon bringing him home and cleaning him up, we discovered he does indeed have eyes! Well, while that was good news, we did discover that he has ulcers in both eyes after staining his corneas.

Kristie and I will both contribute to this blog to share photos and status on Jasper's progress. Of course, we are also looking for other name suggestions, as Kristie is not too fond of Jasper.

Luna seems to like Jasper enough, but can't seem to understand why he won't play with her.