Oh boy . . . just when we were trying to pay off our April vet debt, we took in another doggie in bad shape. This is Liberty (we are calling her Libby for short) and she is about ten years old. She came into the shelter in one of the most severe cases of matted hair and neglect as we have ever seen. It took more than two hours to shave her down, only to discover she was covered in hundreds of foxtails and has acid burns on her abdomen (from where the urine was being pressed up against her skin by the matted hair). But this girl only had kisses to offer and it is simply remarkable how forgiving animals can be after being so mistreated by humans. Libby urgently needs to find a foster home where her spirit can be nourished and someone willing to be of service is able to take her on as a foster dog for as long as it takes for us to find her a forever home.
For those of you whom are fans of Sweet Pea, we have a sad update. Sweet Pea has just been hospitalized earlier today and is currently on iv fluids to try to pull him through. We rescued Sweet Pea in August of 2009 and he was so frail and emaciated at only 11.5 pounds. After an intestinal biopsy, he was diagnosed with a condition called LYMPHANGIECTASIA of which is not curable but it is managable. Through a UC Davis recommended diet of high protein and low fat, with medium chain fatty acids (coconut oil) in his food, we were giving him three home cooked meals a day. Sometimes steak, sometimes chicken, sometimes sweet potatoes, duck, whatever he would eat that was high protein and low fat. We got his weight as high as 19 pounds (and even at that weight you could still see his vertabrae). In the last few months, he has struggled more and more. His flare ups have him declining to eat, bloody diarrhea.
This morning, he looked particularly not well and we took him to the vet to see an internist. They hospitalized Sweet Pea and have him on iv fluids, but the bloody diarrhea continues to come out. His white blood cell count is 63,000, his liver enzymes are through the roof (this could be a result of the prednisone he has been on to manage the disease). We are very very worried about him and we don't want him to suffer. The vet said we will see where Sweet Pea is at in the morning, do an ultrasound and go from there. Please send loving energy to Sweet Pea, tell him how very much he is loved and that he has so many fans that have followed his story from the beginning. He needs your loving and healing energy, now more than ever! Thank you so much to all of the friends of Sweet Pea.
Please consider becoming a MONTHLY DONOR as we are always in need of donations to help with boarding and medical on an ongoing basis!
Camp Cocker is looking for volunteers willing to be of service and open up their homes to offer one foster spot to a dog on an ongoing basis. Fostering a dog until it can find a forever home can be a lot of hard work, but the emotional rewards are incomparable when you know you have been a part of a dog's rescue journey from shelter to forever home.
If you are interested in joining Team Camp Cocker as a foster parent, please fill out the Online Foster Application so that we can learn more about your home and try to match up the best foster dog to your lifestyle. (Camp Cocker will pick the dog for you to foster based on compatibility with your other dogs and also based on whom has been in boarding the longest and is at the top of the waiting list to find foster). Thank you so much for supporting animal rescue!
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 08:54PM 
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