Rocky Mountain Great Dane Rescue, Inc. |
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| Duncan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Duncan is an incredibly sweet and loving, 1.5 year old, Merle male with natural ears. He was seized by animal control from his former owners due to neglect and cruelty. The nice people at Helping Hands Animal Shelter in Topeka, Kansas, called RMGDRI immediately to ask for our help. Duncan scored 0.5 on the overal body test at the shelter because he was so severely malnourished and only weighed 67 lbs. He also tested positive for heartworm and clearly needed a lot of TLC and time to recover in a home environment from the life of neglect he had endured previously. |
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Sunday, October 29th Just a few hours after we put a desperate call out to our group of volunteers asking for an emergency transport for this sweet boy, the transport was covered. One of our volunteers by the name of Laura drove all the way from Denver to Topeka because we knew that time was of the essence. Everyone at the shelter had fallen in love with this gentle giant and was overcome with joy to see him go to people who understood the breed and would get him the care he so desperately needed. During the trip back to Colorado, Duncan was a very good boy. Laura quickly realized that he was infested with fleas and he patiently let her pick them off him one by one. She and Duncan did not arrive back home until the middle of the night, so he spent the night in her apartment until he could go to his foster home the next day. Monday, October 30th Duncan's foster mom, Bree, was very excited to finally meet him and apalled at the skin and bones excuse for a Dane who arrived. You can see absolutely every rib, back bone, and hip in his body and he doesn't have an ounce of fat on him. He has all sorts of pressure sores and skin tags from lying on concrete and sleeping outdoors. His body has endured horrible conditions and is in desperate need of a comfy dog bed and indoor living. Introductions with the other dogs in his foster home went extremely well. He met the dogs, both big and small, with a tail wag and no sign of aggression. Duncan explored his new digs and reluctantly went outside to the backyard as if he was scared he was going to be locked outside. His mom fed him and he quickly ate 1 cup of dried and canned food mixed together. After he ate, he still acted starved and scavenged every counter top, shelf, and table in hopes of finding something else to eat. He is so thin that we are going to have to monitor his meals and feed him very small amounts every couple of hours until we can build up his capacity. The collar that his foster mom put on him was a puppy collar because his neck is so thin. When you pet him, all you feel are his bones. He finally curled up in relief on a giant dog bed into a tiny ball of bones. Duncan will be headed to the vet first thing in the morning for a thorough exam to determine a plan of action for his treatment. We are in love already with his gentle spirit and brave attitude and can't wait to see him fat and healthy someday very soon! |
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Tuesday, October 31st Dr. Landry could hardly believe
what he saw when Duncan walked through the doors at his hospital. Like the
rest of us, he was simply blown away at how incredibly cruel and horrible
people can be and said that this was one of the worst cases of malnutrition
he has ever seen. He thoroughly examined Duncan and was surprised at how alert
he is, considering his condition. His heart sounds good and he weighed in
at 70 lbs. He needs to put on at least 15 lbs before we can even think about
treating the heartworm. PM Report Duncan had his first bath tonight night. Bree and Lindsay were able to easily lift him in the tub because he weighs next to nothing. At first he wasn't real sure about the water, but as soon as he realized that a massage was part of the deal, he just stood there and let us run our hands all over his bony body with shampoo. After the bath we covered him with a blanket and once he was dry we soaked his sores in Betadine to keep them clean and avoid further infection. The final step was frontline to treat the fleas and he was tuckered out for the night after all of his pampering. |
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November 2, 2006 Yesterday we were contacted by a woman who thought that Duncan was one of two severely neglected and starving Danes whom she spotted near the Great Dane Nationals held in Topeka. However, today, we spoke to Animal Control Officer Trickett who was the one who seized Duncan from his home. Duncan was apparently across town from the location in the story, tethered to a pole with a chain. The person who called him in works in law enforcement and was off duty at the time, but called saying he had just seen the skinniest dog of his life. He was alone and there was not a second Dane, but Animal Control is looking into the other situation to see if they can locate the other dogs from the previous report who obviously need our help as well! As far as Duncan's owners goes, a ticket was issued to the owners so AC will see them in court. The end result will be entirely at the discretion of the judge after hearing testimony and operating within the guidelines for cruelty. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, so the ACO will be forwarding our web site to the city attorney prosecuting this case in hopes that it will influence the court's ruling. November 7, 2006 Duncan is coming out of his shell
more and more every day and he continues to gain strength and courage. His
meal quantities have been increased to 2 cups per meal and we continue to
feed him every couple of hours. We will hopefully get him weighed sometime
this week to see how much he has gained so far. |
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November 13, 2006 This week, Duncan finally graduated out of his puppy collar and into a big boy collar! He happily trotted around the house after his foster mom put it on him and told him he was a good boy for growing bigger. Duncan is slowly making progress with the potty training. It has been frustrating and challenging for his foster mom, but our behaviorist is working closely with Bree and assures us that he is on the right track. We took him to get weighed today and were very dismayed to find that he had only gained 1 pound since his first vet visit. After speaking with our vet, he is not concerned and said that we have to be patient because he is battling a variety of issues which are all fighting against his ability to gain weight. The heartworm and other intestinal parasites are keeping him from being able to absorb his food properly, so we will be getting him to the vet again this week for another deworming and to take in a stool sample so that he can check for other potential issues that might be slowing the absorption of food. We are going to switch his food to another high caloric food with a soluble fiber source and will be adding more digesting enzymes in addition to the probiotics we are already supplementing his diet with. Duncan continues to down every single meal and his appetite is wonderful, so we are hoping that he can start to put on some weight soon! |
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November 21, 2006 Bree took Duncan back to see Dr.
Landry yesterday because we have been really worried about him. He has been
extremely lethargic lately and is losing interest in food. He had actually
lost a lb since he came into rescue and weighed in at 69 lbs. His gums were
completely white and once again, Dr. Landry was shocked that he was even alive
in his condition. There are basically 3-4 primary diagnosis that he is trying to rule out: Enzymatic Pancreatic Insufficiency (EPI), Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Pancreatitis, or some other primary GI Disease. He also said it is clear Duncan has some sort of "protein losing interopathy". EPI is a disease where the body does not produce enough pancreatic digestive enzymes which causes maldigestion or malabsorption of important nutrients. In order to manage EPI, you supplement each meal with pancreatic enzyme extracts and feed a highly digestible diet and initially give the dog an antibiotic to control small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, so it is certainly manageable if this is what Duncan is suffering from. Dr. Rob is a bit confused, however, because typically protein levels are not affected if you have EPI, so more tests need to be done to properly diagnose. Dr. Landry said for the volume/frequency of his stools, there is definitely a small bowel disease. He has started him on steroid therapy on the off chance that this is inflammatory bowel disease, but he will not start the digestive enzymes at this point because it can falsely affect the blood tests for EPI. The bottom line is that with the amount of food that Duncan is eating, he should not be weighing less now than when he came in, so Dr. Landry is extremely concerned. He is also worried because Duncan is obviously not a candidate for surgery at this stage. We are all keeping our fingers crossed that we can determine the underlying medical cause for Duncan's inability to put on weight soon so that we can get him back on the right track as quickly as possible! November 23, 2006 Duncan was released from TLC Hospital yesterday and Dr. Landry is quite pleased with his progress. He is up to 74 lbs and on a long list of drugs including 20 mg Prednasone 2 x day, 500 mg of Metronidazole 2 x day, 3 Pancreatic Enzyme 15 minutes before meals, and 10 mg Metoclopamide 2 x day. We are still waiting on the test results, but Duncan was full of energy and happy to be home! November 28, 2006 We finally got the test results
back, and Duncan was diagnosed with EPI. |
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December 5, 2006 Duncan has gained 5 lbs in a week
and a half, and is up to 77.8 lbs! Duncan also continues to come out of his shell and is finally acting like an adolescent should and getting into trouble on a regular basis! He likes to talk back to his foster mom when she asks him to do something and will run away from her with his tail wagging because he thinks it is so much fun to taunt her. He also decided that he couldn't wait until Christmas and kindly unwrapped some gifts to see if he could find anything good. We of course think it is somewhat comical, but we are starting to work on teaching him manners now that he is feeling better. |
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December 28, 2006 Duncan weighed in at 77.8 lbs today,
down a bit from his last weigh in, which we attribute to his anxiety and lack
of appetite while his foster mom was on vacation over Christmas. He is eating
20-26 cups of food a day, split into a minimum of 4 meals. He loves meal time,
and will twirl around in excitement. If he does not think his foster mom is
moving at a pace he finds acceptable, he will bark and run between his food
dish and the kitchen. |
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January 12, 2007 Duncan weighed in at a whopping
87 lbs today! That makes for a total of 20 lbs gained since he first came
into rescue. While this may not seem like much for being here for almost 10
weeks, but Bree and Dunkie have fought for every last ounce and we are so
happy to see his gains! February 2, 2007 Duncan went to his forever home with Michael & Susan in Littleton. He will be the only child for now so that they can focus on getting him adjusted, but they hope to eventually bring home an Akita puppy to keep him company. His new parents are very committed to training and have a ton of love to give this very special boy! They had a new collar and name tag for him and they are going to keep Duncan as his name. They both took Monday off work so they could have a 3 day weekend with Dunkie and take him to see Dr Landry where they will continue his vet care. Michael & Susan have promised to keep us all updated and send lots of pictures! |
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