May 2023 Rescue Report
For the most part, rescue has been slow the past month. We have been nursing Sophie after her diagnosis of a perianal fistula. She gets strong drugs once a day that will help it heal; twice a day she gets a stool softener and twice a day she gets a laxative. The goal is to keep things soft so the fistula will heal. The vet tells us we have to treat her for five or six weeks. This is better than the first week, when we had to give her a liquid laxative twice a day; she is still fearful and had to be trapped first. We have cross-fenced the back yard again because the girls are not coming in willingly. Now, even in the small yard, they still seem afraid of coming inside. Consequently, Kathy has been walking them many times a day, more often right now because we just started Sophie on Amoxicillin for a possible UTI and it’s better than mopping.
Holley alerted us to a dog in the Salem area, a 5 year old who needs a new home. We wrote to the address in the Craigslist ad, but as of this report we have not heard back.
We found Harmony last August in the SpokAnimal shelter in Spokane. She had been seized along with six other dogs from a hoarding situation. Her tail and other spots had been shaved because they were coated with feces; she was lucky compared to the other Sammy, a young male who was almost completely clipped (we took them both, and placed him in a great home). Harmony’s notes said she had a mammary tumor, so we left her with friends Tom and Erin in SeaTac, who got her to their vet for surgery right away. We fostered her since because she was listed as 12, and Kathy and I take the seniors. It was hard to believe she was that old because of her energy level. She ran around the yard like a young dog and loved to play.
In March I was petting her and found a lump that was suspicious. Our vet found not one, but two lumps that were a recurrence of mammary cancer. We scheduled surgery but asked for x-rays first, which showed it had probably metasticized into one lung, so we decided against surgery. She also had a slight cough. Two weeks later we took her to the vet again because she was crying out when she lowered her head. More x-rays showed the vertebrae in her neck were out of alignment, but they couldn’t tell if cancer was present there. We started her on Prednisone and almost immediately she seemed better again. The last few days of March she slowed down, and we gave her pain meds to keep her comfortable while we decided when to make that last trip.
March 4, Harmony was still excited to see her dinner, barking and diving in like normal. That night after bedtime, Kathy saw that Harmony was breathing heavily and decided to sit with her. She stayed and comforted her until Harmony lost her fight and stopped breathing. Rest in peace, Harmony. You were a good girl.
