TLC - BabyLove

Update on BabyLove (now known as "Viva")

2010-06-23T18:04:00.000-07:00

BabyLove and her new furever owners stopped by adoptions on the 12th of this month with her... She looks fabulous and is SO in love with her furever parents... It was so heart fulfilling to see the progress she has made and the shape she is in 6 months after I found her in a high kill shelter... This is the 'juice' that keeps us in rescue going - the great, successful furever stories!

2010-03-18T12:47:00.001-07:00

We are VERY happy to announce that BabyLove got a FANTASTIC furever home~!!!

A month's worth of progress...

2010-02-20T08:22:00.000-08:00

A month's worth of progress is shown in the photo below:

Periodically, a section of her skin will erupt and a secondary infection immediately sets in... And we start all over with the process on that spot...

Overall, the hair is starting to grow back in, particularily on her face, neck and shoulders... Her back end and legs are making very slow progress, but we assume that has to do with blood flow and how the body mends itself after such a rough time of it...

BabyLove has begun to play with the other young puppers now... At first, she didn't want to engage (rough housing hurt?) at all... She was very lethargic intially and it took at least a month of good nutrition before she put on a few ounces and the ribs stopped showing...

Her feet are no longer swollen 'clubs' with spikes for nails protruding out of the pads...

The smell?... Well, it is not nearly as bad as it was, but it certainly still is there and she will have months until we've conquered what she's encountered the first few months of her life at some owner's hands!

Update on BabyLove's progress

2010-01-25T13:45:00.000-08:00

BabyLove's skin and coat is already starting to make baby steps of progress...

While you can't see the progress on a daily basis, you can over a much longer period of time... And two weeks later, you can just now see the upper layers of lizard skin starting to peel off and fresh new (pink) skin trying to replace itself...

Her poor feet aren't near as swollen as they were originally... And there is a bit of peach fuzz coming in on the top of her head... We're still working on trying to remove the lizard skin underneath her eyes, but that's a tedious and long-term problem that only time, meds and daily baths will overcome...

She's still not that friendly with the baths... Some days I can count on it being an easy thing to get done... Other days, she's bound and determined that I will be as wet as she is!...

The BEST part of the progress is that the awful stench of the secondary skin infections and dead skin is starting to lessen a bit... OMG... That is the hardest part (at least for me) about cases like this...

She's such a sweetheart though... She's never cranky, noisy or snarfy... She'll play with us now, so you can tell the difference a few ounces of hard-won, good nutrition have done to her energy level... It is almost comical to see her play with those long legs and malnourished, thin body as she scampers... The legs get way out in front of her and the body has to catch up!

WARNING - images not for the faint of heart...

2010-01-11T17:42:00.000-08:00

Dogs and puppies are just the most spectacular beings... They love unconditionally, will lick the hand that abuses them and continue to believe in us much longer than we believe in ourselves...

I've been in rescue over thirty years and for the most part, I think I've seen 'the worst'... And then another one comes along - WORSE than the last 'worst' - and I have to rethink my participation in the human race all over again...

On January 6, 2010 our rescue pulled a few adults and puppies out of Kern County Animal Shelter... I purposefully drove those 100+ miles to the shelter that day, having been sent the information about this puppy in an email who we have named "BabyLove"... Someone asked if I'd seen this little one and after receiving the email, I just sat and stared at the screen - unable to believe what I was seeing...

We had already planned a trip to Kern County, and I had to print her information out to take with us... I just had to pull this little munchkin, but I was hardly prepared for the horrific visual I encountered when I saw her in person...

BabyLove is 9 months old and weighs not quite 4 pounds... She has tested positive for demodex mange... Basically it is a loss of hair caused by a mite commonly found in both dogs and humans, but generally the puppy does not have the auto-immune system to fight off the mite damage (in layman's terms)... The mites create a substance that the puppy must have auto-immunity - if not, hair loss occurs, secondary skin infections break out, etc...

It is found in spots (usually) on the face or feet...

As you can see from BabyLove, this didn't just start a few days ago... It has completely covered her head, down the majority of her back, on all of her feet and covered her poor little tail...

Where it is red, there is heat... And as you can see from the close up of her face, the skin has gone to 'lizard-scales' in most places... Many of these spots are crusty and most of these places seep blood from the skin...

Should I mention how greatly underweight she is as well?... Like I said, this didn't happen overnight, but has been going on for quite some time... Whoever owned this pup cannot have a conscience to allow this tragedy to occur and not seek medical attention for her...

... sigh...

As I said at the beginning of this, just when I think I've seen it all, God slaps me right in the face with yet another example of how horrific humans treat these poor little creatures...

There are few places you can pet BabyLove without causing her skin to seep blood... The back of her neck is raw (and to the skin) with just about 25% of her total coat left only across her shoulders and down her back...

We immediately began the medicated baths and topical creams, but even this is painful to do for her (and us)... While she must stand in the warm bath for 5-10 minutes every day with the medicated shampoos, she's so grossly underweight, she can't keep herself warm...

She (thankfully) took to the home cooking right away and that will help put a bit of meat on her bones and help with the healing process of her coat and skin...

There are wrinkles in the skin down her butt... And the 'lizard-scales' are the worse here... We can only assume being practically starved to death contributed to the horrific state of her rear end - clear down to the broken tail (two places) which makes it crooked...

You would think the utter agony she is in would make this little one grumpy and cranky, right?... No, she's actually VERY sweet and as much as I would like to hold her and pet her more, there's really not very many places you can that doesn't cause her skin to seep blood...

And she has even learned to tolerate the daily baths as well... Initially she wasn't too happy about them, and they must have hurt, but I think (??) the after effects feel so good, she's learned to look forward to them!

She does have an odd way of sitting - I think it might be one of the few ways she can that it doesn't hurt...

Forearms across the arm of the recliner, legs open and her belly almost flat, I consistently find her in this position throughout the day...

And she has such a sweet and dear little face... Periodically she comes over and scratches her face (especially the area between her eyes on her nose) against my hand... I have learned to remain motionless when she does this and I can only suspect it is itchy and my hand is not as abrasive as other things she uses to scratch herself with...

Today I found her scratching her butt up against a blankee that was hanging over the side of the couch and the fuzz from the blankee stuck into the crevices of the lizard scales... I ended up giving her a second bath today just to loosen up the fuzz fibers so I could remove them from her skin without causing her more pain...

I'm not a violent person by nature, but when I see things like this, I feel deep anger towards people who allow this to happen... There is just NO reason for BabyLove to be in this kind of shape... There is no excuse I would find plausible to explain why she was not taken to a vet, or given to someone who would... You just cannot look into those eyes and not feel great compassion and a desire to make things better for her - or you are simply lacking the 'human' part of the word 'humanity'....

It will takes months to get her skin and coat back in order... Putting back the necessary weight is the easy part... The bi-weekly med was not expensive, nor is the medicated shampoo and topical creams needed to arrest the demodex... Even the antibotics she is on aren't that expensive - going without a few Starbucks a month is all it would have taken...

I wish she could tell us who let this happen to her... And I can only pray that there are not more like her out there... Such a sweetie, she is... Truly named appropriately enough because she will get a lot of love as she recuperates from the neglect she's experienced at the hands of a fellow member of the human species....