Rocky Mountain Great Dane Rescue, Inc.

Scooby is a very sweet boy who was surrendered by his family to the Kansas Humane Society in Wichita. They were unable to care for him and he has clearly been sorely neglected and underfed! He weighed in at only 87.3 lbs and is extremely emaciated with all of his ribs and hip bones protruding. The shelter also noticed that he had an abnormal heart rhythm and an enlarged heart, so they contacted RMGDRI for help! Scooby was promptly picked up from the shelter and transported to Colorado where a foster home awaited him so that we can get him the care he so desperately needs.

December 16, 2007

Upon his arrival, he immediately made friends with the other Danes, Llasa Apso, and cats at his foster home. He was also thrilled with all the attention from the humans and curled up on the couch for pets! Unfortunately, Scooby was extremely dehydrated and vomited the only food we could get him to eat, so he was put on IV fluids. After 2 bags of fluids, he perked up quite a bit and although he has not been eating much, he is holding down both food and water. Since he is so malnourished, it will be a very slow, gradual process to get him to gain weight and become more interested in food.

December 18, 2007

Scooby saw a Cardiologist, Dr. Carroll Loyer, at VRCC today. We did radiographs and and ECG and he was diagnosed with Dilated Cardiomyopathy. The echocardiography revealed poor left ventricular function and moderate ventricular dilation. He has no left atrial enlargement (which could be Myocarditis) and Atrial Fibrillation, but the right side of the heart is normal. The prognosis for these dogs is generally pretty good and they tend to respond well to treatment, so we were all very relieved to know there is hope for this gentle giant.

Dr. Loyer has prescribed Pimobendan, which is a very expensive medication. He does not recommend Diltiazen at this time due to Scooby's GI Issues. He would like to do an abdominal ultrasound to look into that issue further and we will work on putting some weight on Scooby to prepare for surgery. Scooby will eventually need to be neutered and Dr. Loyer wants to scope him at the same time and will be there to closely monitor anesthesia due to the high risk for dogs with heart conditions.

Scooby is in wonderful hands and is being fostered by a vet! He fit into the pack immediately and has warmed his way into all of our hearts.

December 24, 2007

Scooby has not vomited since starting on Cerenia. We are going to stop the Cerenia tonight and just continue the Metoclopramide since he is eating like a champ now. He still needs something tempting in his dog food, but he is eating close to 8 cups a day mixed with whatever the specialty du jour might be, and he is really chowing it down. We are fairly sure he is actually beginning to gain a little weight too, which is exciting.

Dr. Winton is going to pull some blood on him tomorrow and recheck his albumin to see if we're making any progress. He had a particularly heavy green snot day today, even though he's been on Ciprofloxacin all along. We are adding Amoxicillin to the mix because it will give us 4 quarter antibiotic coverage for whatever is going on in his respiratory tract and it's also a good GI drug. He still does a lot of burping and his poor foster mom lives in fear of more projectile vomiting, so we're going to put him on Famotidine until we get the ultrasound done just to be safe. This has been a very challenging case, but we are making progress with him thanks to constant reevaluation and readjustment to his arsenal of medications.

Scooby decided to give his foster mom the best Christmas present ever this morning! He stuck his head in the dog food can and started munching away on dry dog food! She couldn't condone the behavior of course, but was secretly thrilled. She fed him 5 cups with some rice and hamburger and 3 more cups after work. He is a different dog!

December 28, 2007

The ups and downs continue with Scooby. On the up side, he had his abdominal ultrasound this afternoon, and aside from some enlarged mesenteric lymph nodes (which looked reactive rather than cancerous) everything looked normal. On the downside, he was very pale this morning, so we pulled some blood and ran a packed cell volume. He's quite anemic, with a PCV of 21%, normal being around 35-60%. Dr Winton also did a rectal exam and his stools are pretty dark and tarry looking, so we suspect the blood loss is in the GI tract. The good news is that the ultrasound didn't show anything serious, so we'll be adding more drugs to the arsenal to see if we can settle things down. We are going to do a full CBC and will probably run several more over the next few days to see how he's doing. He's still eating and has gained an impressive 27 pounds, tilting the scale at 114 lbs today, but he still looks like a rack of bones. He has an amazing spirit and loves everyone he meets, in spite of the fact that he must just feel awful most of the time.

December 29, 2007

Scooby's PCV count has dropped to 15%. He is pale and lethargic today, so we are really worried. His foster mom rushed him over to VRCC and he is going to need a blood transfusion. He is schedule to be scoped on Wednesday with Dr. Diehl, but we may need to push that up if we can't get him stabilized. Please keep this sweet boy in your thoughts and prayers!

December 31, 2007

Scooby had two blood transfusions at VRCC and went home afterward. His PCV held overnight and was 20% the last time we checked it. He has been eating well and has kept his food and medications down. His color has improved slightly and he is back to following his foster mom everywhere she goes, so we think his energy level is better. We are going to run another full CBC and chem panel done before we see Dr. Diehl on Wednesday. We are delighted to see him begging for food and attention. He even stole a pecan pie off the top of the refrigerator and ate the whole thing (with some help from his friends). We can't say he's out of the woods quite yet, but he is stable.

January 4, 2008

I am relieved to report that everything went well with Scooby's procedure today. They started out laparoscopically exploring, but the surgeon identified a linear foreign body which appeared to be quite chronic, so they had to go in incisionally. They removed about 40% of his small intestine due to the large amount of scar tissue that was present and are sending off a sample to pathology, just to make sure his diagnosis was correct.

Scooby will be at a higher risk for short bowel syndrome, which is essentially chronic diarrhea, but it is too early to say yet how his body will react.

It is a huge relief to have identified the source of the bleeding and anemia and they were also able to neuter and pexy him at the same time. We are very grateful to all of the specialists who took part in the procedure to make sure everything went off without a hitch with anesthesia! Scooby will remain at the hospital for tonight for sure and we will re-evaluate tomorrow.

January 6, 2008

Scooby is looking great! His PCV is up to 26 and his total protein is improving too. He is being fed through his jejunostomy tube, but he also ate a few bites of canned food tonight. He is up and walking well, and he seems to feel much better. He's still on IV antibiotics and IV meds for pain and nausea, but he looks like he feels much better. We decided to leave him in the ICU for one more night so he can get the care he needs and not take any risks in moving him too soon. Dr. Winton will be picking him up bright and early tomorrow morning. He will have the j-tube for a couple of weeks so she can feed him through that if needed, but his appetite seems to be coming back. They plan to check his albumin tonight again to see if that's improving as well.

January 7, 2008

Scooby is very happy to be home! He was thrilled to see all of his 4-legged friends and wants to be where all the action is, but for the time being he will be confined to his own bedroom to keep him quiet during recovery. He is relaxing on the bed and has the TV on for entertainment and someone is with him most of the time to keep him compnay. He is eating and drinking, so he probably won't need IV fluids after today. We were also very excited to see that his stools are formed and he is not experiencing any diarrhea so far. A field trip outside to go potty was about all the energy he could muster up, so he happily laid down for a nap.

January 13, 2008

Scooby is 7 days post-op and is doing amazingly well. We added diltiazem to his medication list, so his heart rate has decreased a bit and he is feeling amazingly well for all he's been through. He has days when his appetite is a bit off, but some home-cooking sets it right every time and, as of today, he's eating dry dog food with gusto! His packed cell volume and albumin were still pretty low when we checked last, so we will repeat those tests today so we'll have the results in hand when we go back to see Dr. Devitt on Tuesday. Hopefully, he will remove the jejunostomy tube at that visit, since we haven't needed it since his second day home. We'll talk about his biopsy results and see if any further workup is necessary. The biopsies basically were consistent with inflammation and he still could have some inflammatory bowel disease, so we want to get Dr. Devitt's opinion as to whether he thinks the inflammation was truly totally confined to the section of bowel that was removed. We are so very grateful to all the people who have helped with this incredibly difficult, complicated case. Scooby is a fabulous dog with a spirit that just never quits and so much love in his heart. He still has a tough road ahead of him, but if any dog can beat the odds, this one can!

January 16, 2008

Scooby got his j-tube pulled yesterday and Dr. Devitt feels everything is consistent with a chronic linear foreign body and said to give him a little more time to see what his PCV does. He's entering boot camp as of today, since he got a clean bill of health, and he's already learning some manners. He will need to go back for his next echo in March to see where we stand and get him stabilized on cardiac drugs. He is experiencing some diarrhea and his PCV is still pretty low, so there may be some absorption issues with certain nutrients, but overall he is making incredible progress and definitely on track for a full recovery! He will always have his heart condition which will require meds to regulate and limit his life expectancy, but once we get him recovered from his GI issues, he should be ready to go to a forever home willing to take on a special needs Dane.

January 27, 2008

As of today, Scooby's packed cell volume is up to 34% which is just a few points shy of normal. He's eating like a horse, but still has very soft stools and sometimes outright diarrhea. He also vomits from time to time, and we are still playing with medications to get his GI issues under control, but he is gaining weight and feeling good. We started him on vitamin B12 injections since that is one of the nutrients he may not be able to absorb well, and he does seem brighter and livelier since starting the supplementation. His heart rate has settled down to around 120 beats per minute, which is a huge improvement over the 180 bpm he started out with. His heart rhythm is still pretty irregular, but he is showing no signs of heart failure and is truly thriving, considering all he's been through.

February 19, 2008

We decided to make Scooby a permanent fixture of the Winton household. Dr. Winton is in love with this big oaf and he is not a great candidate for adoption due to his very short life expectancy! She understands that his time will be limited with her due to his heart condition and is committed to doing whatever it takes to make the time he has left wonderful. She has decided to rename him Odgie to go along with her hockey name theme. Odgie has two other Dane friends named Bentley and Manon to play with and they were also adopted from RMGDRI, so he is in wonderful hands. We are so grateful that this special boy can feel like part of a family and receive the love he deserves despite his medical condition!

PS-He tipped the scales at 131 today!:)