Rocky Mountain Great Dane Rescue, Inc.

On Wednesday, January 31st, Mia came into rescue. Her lifeless body had to be lifted out of the back of her owner's car and placed into my car. She had already seen a vet in Pueblo who diagnosed her with pneumonia and her owner could not afford to get her the care she needed, so she made the difficult decision to turn her over to our care. We rushed her to Alameda East Veterinary Hospital Emergency Room immediately.

While Amy and Lindsay were waiting on the doctor, they made her a bed on the floor with our coats and she laid down with barely enough energy to continue the effort of breathing. Each breath was very labored and her chest trembled with each intake. Dr. Ruff examined her and took another look at the x-rays and agreed with the diagnosis. She recommended we get her admitted to ICU and expects she will need to remain on IV fluids and antibiotics at least for a few days before she will be healthy enough to go home. She will also need to remain in isolation due to the fact that we don't know what caused the pneumonia and suspect it may be canine flu.

Dr. Ruff also examined her neck wound and believes that it is the result of a possible dog fight and puncture wounds that have not healed properly. It is not uncommon to lose hair when a wound becomes infected and it has clearly been irritating her based on the obvious scratch marks. She felt it would continue to heal on the antibiotics she is already on and the hair will grow back eventually. It may also be the result of an embedded collar, but the wound is only on one side which makes that theory suspect.

Wednesday, January 31st

Lindsay got a call this morning from Dr. Hillis with an update. She said that they put her on oral doxycycline and she seems to be doing well. She is still on an IV also and they are making sure she is hydrated and checking on her regularly. She is resting comfortably, although still struggling pretty hard to breath. She will keep us updated!

PM Update

Mia is still struggling to breath. Her pulse ox is down to 86, so they have decided to put her on oxygen. She is breathing much better on oxygen and she is starting to eat which is a good sign!

Thursday, February 1st

Mia had an allergic reaction to one of her medications today and her eyes and nose became fairly swollen. The suspected it may be the Doxycycline, so they decided to take her off that for a bit and gave her some Benedryl to see if that helped. They continued the Baytril and other antibiotic in the mean time. She pulled out her oxygen and when they retested her pulse ox, it was back to normal, so they decided to keep her off the oxygen to see how she did on her own. She is starting to act less lethargic and appears to be in fairly good spirits

Friday, February 2nd

Dr. Miller decided to put Mia back on the Doxycycline because it is such a good medication and her allergic reaction had cleared up. Her respiratory rate is improving and she isn't struggling quite as hard to breath. One of the vet techs in ICU named Heather has been taking very special care of Mia and hand feeding her meals every couple of hours. She is eating really well and making progress! They are fairly confident that Mia will get to leave the hospital tomorrow, so our fingers are crossed.

Saturday, February 3rd

Dr. Miller called first thing this morning to report that Mia is ready to be released! She will remain on antibiotics, but they feel confident that she is in the clear and ready to be in a home environment for the remainder of her recovery. She did vomit this morning and had a little diarrhea, but they aren't overly concerned and blame it on the fact that she has been eating so much and this was her first bowel movement in days. She was very happy to be headed home and has really come out of her shell! Mia is a happy girl with a ton of love to give. Once she is done with her antibiotics, we will be scheduling her appointment to be spayed and she will soon be ready to go to her forever home.

Wednesday, February 7

Mia hasn't coughed once in the last 2 days, so she has made wonderful progress with her recovery! She really doesn't like "pill time" very much, but she can be convinced with a hot dog or peanut butter in hand. She has really bonded with her foster sisters, a mini-Dachshund named Gracie and a Lab mix named Lucy. She and Lucy in particular play about 10 hours a day and are best of friends. Mia would love to have another dog to play with in her forever home.