Some rather strange weight loss milestones for Buckles
09 Aug 2011 2 Comments
Last Friday, Buckles had a perfect weigh-in — he lost 0.6 pounds, right on track with where I’d like him to lose. Not too fast, not too slow. Yay Buckles!
Our food regimen continues as follows:
Morning: 1/4 cup of kibble (with his thyroid pill)
A couple of veggie snacks during the day (if I am home). Carrot or cucumber.
Evening: 1 cup of kibble, 1 cup of mixed veggies and yogurt (usually some pumpkin, some green beans, and some yogurt, but I try to mix things up a little to keep it interesting). Also his thyroid pill.
He doesn’t act hungry during the day, so I know the pumpkin and green beans are doing their job of keeping him full. The 1/4 cup of kibble in the morning keeps his blood sugar relatively stable too.
Now Buckles has lost a total of 3.6 pounds (down from 63 pounds when we started). Our goal is 30 pounds, I think.
This week, Buckles discovered that he can bend around and lick himself “down there” as many dogs delight in doing. Now he acts like he has to make up for lost time (!). That’s a rather odd milestone, eh? I actually had to go sleep in the other room last night because the slurping sound was driving me crazy.
And that’s when I realized that ….
Buckles also has acanthosis nigricans, a skin condition that is caused by 3 things: obesity, hypothyroidism, and food sensitivities. Poor Buckles has all 3! This looks like lots of dark spots on his belly, and raised crinkly skin in his armpits. Before he lost the initial 3 pounds, I didn’t think he was itchy — but the truth seems to be that he DID itch, he just couldn’t SCRATCH because he was too big! The poor guy has been itching and itching all this time, and couldn’t do anything about it! So now I am giving him benadryl to help with the itch, and topical creams. On Friday he will have an oatmeal bath after his next weigh-in, and that should help too. We also do cool compresses on his belly, where the itch seems to be worst.
We discovered, thanks to our friend Regina (@ReginatheRVT), that Buckles LOVES squeaker toys. I don’t have any around the house because one of my dogs annihilates them within minutes, so I hadn’t seen Buckles with a squeaker before. But Regina gave him one after his weigh-in last week, and he he loved it! He had a big smile on his face as he squeaked that cheeseburger (ironically, the only kind of cheeseburger he is allowed). So now, when he rides in the car, he gets to squeak the burger the whole way.
Through it all, he is calm, affectionate, and oh-so-grateful to be safe, fed, and loved every day. Once in a while, he asks to be hauled onto the bed for snuggle time. He trembles when it storms, but he calms down when he gets his snuggles. He is a very special guy, and he is going to love getting all the attention he deserves in a forever home some day.
Weigh-in Tomorrow for Buckles!
04 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
We had a great start last week on Mr. Buckles’ Biggest Loser diet plan. He lost 3 pounds in his first week! Now, to be honest that was a bit of a shock. And I think it’s too fast. But still, it was a nice way to kick-off his success.
The first week, we were struggling with some diarrhea, which was probably from all the stressors he had been through (being in animal control, going to the vet, riding in the car, staying in another cage). He was tested at the vet and was negative for any intestinal parasites or little buggies like giardia or coccidia. So I had to take a few days to get his tummy under control. He fasted for one day, then had plain rice for a couple days, then we started gradually working up the what I would consider the “normal” weight-loss regimen for a 63-pound dog who should really weigh around 30 pounds: 1 cup of Natural Balance kibble (the regular blue bag). 1 cup of mixed vegetables: carrots, canned pumpkins, green beans. And a bit of whole milk plain yogurt.
So his weigh-in last Friday showed a 3-pound loss. He is definitely feeling more chipper. His waddle has a bit of the strut about it now. And he’s beginning to try to kick up his heels in the yard, just a bit.
This past week, I fed the same as above, except I added a 1/4 cup of kibble in the morning to try to keep his blood sugar more even (insulin production can encourage fat storage).
Tomorrow is our next weigh in. Wish us luck! I’ll tweet from @DREAMRescue and send a picture. I’m hoping for another 1/2 – 1 pound. Nice and gentle, but steady, loss for my sweet man.
Buckles Regimen: Week One
28 Jul 2011 2 Comments
in Back Issues (IVDD), Rescue Life, Tips and Training, Weight Management
Buckles’ tummy seems to have straightened out (thank GOD – that was foul), so yesterday we started him on the usual weightloss regimen.
A 63-pound dog would normally eat about 2 cups of food per day. Yesterday I gave Buckles an evening meal of high-quality kibble (we use Natural Balance, the regular blue bag) and a combination of canned pure pumpkin, yogurt, and green beans. About 1 cup of the kibble and 1 cup of the other stuff (total). I don’t believe in reduced-calorie kibble, it has too many fillers.
Buckles didn’t like the green beans when I first tried them a few days ago, but he likes them when they are mixed with kibble. I guess they get kibble crumbs on them.
The pumpkin is very bulky with fiber, so that should keep him feeling full. He does not act like he is hungry in between meals.
To keep his blood sugar on an even keel throughout the day, I give him a veggie snack in the morning and afternoon. This morning it was carrots. He really liked those. Last night all the dogs got bell pepper snacks. Buckles was not impressed with those at first, but when he saw the other dogs chomping on them, he changed his mind.
We will have Buckles’ first weigh-in on Friday, and I’ll try to weigh him every week on Friday to make sure he is progressing. (Does anyone know how to do a progress graphic chart on wordpress? Like one of those thermometer things that shows the target and how much you’ve progressed toward it?)
I don’t expect that he will have lost much, if any, this week, since we spent most of the week getting his tummy straightened out. After that I am hoping for about a half pound per week at first.
Buckles has learned that in the evenings when I read, he is allowed on the bed for snuggle time, which he loves. 
He can put his front paws on the side of the bed (barely) and then I put my arms around his middle and haul him up. He gets down again by the ramp. Snuggle time is very important to dachshunds’ emotional health!
Buckles starts his Biggest Loser Journey
26 Jul 2011 4 Comments
in Rescue Life, Tips and Training
This is Buckles, the sweetest, gentlest, most patient dachshund of all time. He is probably part beagle (maybe that’s where the patience comes from). But the most important thing to know about Buckles is that he weighs 63 pounds. ACK! An appropriate weight for a standard dachshund is 16-32 pounds. An appropriate weight for a beagle is less than 25 pounds.
Biggest Loser Buckles
I estimate that Buckles should weigh about 30 pounds. That means he has more than half his body weight to lose. With this weight, he is at extreme risk for a back injury due to IVDD, diabetes, thyroid problems, and all kinds of other nasty stuff that I’d rather he not have to deal with. He deserves a happy life.
I’ve had Buckles only 3 days, and he has already started following me everywhere I go around he house, and he settles down sweetly on his bed beside mine. (Thank goodness he doesn’t want to sleep IN the bed; there isn’t anywhere close to enough room!)
For the next few months (who am I kidding, at least a YEAR!) I’m going to journal Buckles’ progress and what we do to help him get healthy again. Buckles is only 7 years old, and he should have a lot of life and love left in him.
But before we go on the weight loss plan, I have to get his tummy straightened out. Right now he has terrible diarrhea. The vet checked him out and didn’t find any parasites or bacteria, so we’re going to start with some bland food (rice, boiled chicken) and plain yogurt until he’s not having that problem any more.
I’ll also be tweeting his progress with hashtag #BLBuckles if you want more info along the way!
Wish us luck!
Crazy Rescue People
29 Jan 2011 3 Comments
in Rescue Life
The rescue community can be a little, let’s say, unpredictable. There are a lot of “crazies” who do this work (if you can call what we do work — we don’t get paid, and we do all seem to love it). And “crazy” can mean a lot of things. Let us muse on crazy for a moment.
Crazy can mean you are willing to live with a slightly higher number of dogs than the usual citizen would. Let’s say, 6.
Crazy can also mean you have few (if any) boundaries when it comes to number of dogs. Maybe you have 10, or 20, or 100, or even more. When does the line to hoarding (a real “crazy” disease — I think it is in the DSM-IV even!) get crossed?
Crazy can mean you perhaps occasionally are a wee bit judgmental when someone asks you for help because they can no longer keep their dog. (This is a tough one, as most dogs come into rescue for “people reasons” not “dog reasons” and the people reasons could have been avoided.)
Crazy can mean you’re a real idealist / purist, and you see everything in black and white. So you “never adopt to someone who XYZ” and you are critical of rescue groups that do.
Crazy can mean you actually feel competitive with other rescue groups. (I’ve never understood this one. There are plenty of dogs to go around!)
I’m realizing that each of these could be their own blog post (thank you, inspiration!). There is plenty of crazy to go around. I do think that to do this work, you have to be crazy in love with the dogs. Otherwise, who would put up with the poop, the pee, the barking, the fighting, the risks of disease to your own dogs, the biting, the noise during dinner parties, the inconvenience of trying to go on vacation, the extra expense, the late night drives, the horror of the animal control visits, the hassle of the high-maintenance foster homes, the extra time needed by the adopter who wants a million tiny questions answered when you have a full-time job and twelve other adoption applications to call, the hassle of the owners who act like THEY are doing YOU a favor by “giving” you a VALUABLE DOG? No one would.
We’re all a little crazy. Some of it is good crazy, some is bad crazy. We try to stay out of the bad crazy. What’s your crazy?
DREAM Update
29 Jan 2011 3 Comments
We had a tough year in 2010. Our president (that’s me) was diagnosed with TINU Syndrome (an autoimmune disease) in March and has been down for the count pretty much ever since. The rest of our FABULOUS board of directors has scrambled to fill the gaps, all the while keeping as many dachshunds as we can away from the needle. It has been a bumpy road, but we’ve learned a lot — about each other, about the importance of compassion, about patience, about how important it is to do work that is important to you.
I’m getting back into the swing of things, slowly. We have a board retreat coming up at the end of February where we will reconnect, and figure out how to make 2011 a better year.
Thanks to all of you who have hung in there with us during all of this upheaval.
Top things DREAM dachshunds are thankful for
24 Nov 2009 7 Comments
I polled all the dachshunds in DREAM’s foster homes, and they all were thankful for something different!
Eli was thankful for tennis balls, which he now chases as much as possible (sometimes for hours), and for his foster mamas who throw the ball for him. Over and over and over. And over.
Stan was thankful for his new foster dad, who is teaching him about the crate being a safe place.
Nicodemus is thankful that his teeth don’t hurt any more. And for his dashing eyepatch.
Wendell is grateful that he has a safe place to sleep, with other dachshunds around.
Sweetness is thankful for her arthritis medicine, and her warm bed.
Fritz Gerald is grateful that he isn’t with that lady who turned him into DREAM, carrying the new puppy in her arms that she had just bought from a breeder.
Maci is thankful that she has someone to sit next to on the couch and watch movies.
Miss Dolly is grateful for her bed and her pretty yard. That’s all she really needs, she says. She is retired.
Zap! is grateful that everyone he meets loves him as much as he loves everyone he meets.
Yodel is thankful to be in a foster home with no other dogs. He likes all the attention all for himself. And for being so good-lookin’.
Zucker is thankful that someone came to get him after he was so scared and all alone on the street, and turned him into a vet who then found DREAM.
Jerry Beasley is thankful that anyone puts up with his grumpy old self.
Missy is grateful for her foster mama, who loves her old old face with her tongue sticking out the side.
Simon is grateful that he doesn’t have all those heartworms anymore. They made it really hard to breathe. And for the people who are going to adopt him tomorrow.
Brandy is thankful that her mom didn’t take her to the vet for the “blue juice” when she moved into an apartment that didn’t take dogs. And for DREAM.
Havarti was grateful for the training he is getting at Canine PHD to help him not be so scared.
Tonka is thankful for the dog park. When can we go again? And for his foster sister Delia, who plays “wild mustangs” with him.
Angus and Nessa are grateful that their dad’s friend knew how to find DREAM when their dad died, so that they didn’t go to the shelter.
Fella said he was grateful not to be in that dark garage any more, where he spent 4 years before coming to DREAM. Also warmies in his crate to help his arthritis.
Shannon is thankful that such a nice lady wants to adopt her, even though she has had skin cancer.
Rosie is grateful for her understanding foster family, who drove her around so much when she needed those surgeries on her mammary tumors and her bad tooth. She feels so much better now!
Pumpkin is grateful that she and her 8 babies are not in the animal control anymore, and the babies are not sick. That is no place to have your babies! (Soon she will be grateful that they are all in their forever homes. She is tired of nursing.)
Buttercup is thankful for her nice quiet foster home in Savannah. And that her eye doesn’t hurt anymore.
Mouse is thankful that her foster home has a big ramp, because she is too little for stairs, and their doggie door is on the second floor!
Starling is grateful for FOOD. But she doesn’t like her foster mama’s tricks to slow her down so much.
Manchego is grateful for the lady who found him at animal control and called DREAM. And also for his foster dad who is taking care of him while he finishes heartworm treatment.
Brady is thankful for bellyrubs.
Kirby is thankful that the lady at the dogpound found DREAM, because the mean man who dropped him off at the pound knew he’d be put to sleep that night and left him anyway. And he’s just a baby!
Olivia is grateful that she isn’t in a scary concrete run anymore at animal control. No place for a teeny chiweenie!
John-Boy is thankful that he is going to a foster home today that has another young dog that loves to play play play!
Duncan is thankful that his foster mom understands that he doesn’t mean anything by it when he tries to go on an adventure. (And for his new harness.)
Mattie is thankful for her adoptive mama, who drove up to see her from Columbus and is going to take her home as soon as her heartworm restriction period is over. And for her foster mama who took care of her during all of that.
We at DREAM are thankful for all the people who love the dachshunds and care for them their entire lives. We wish there were more of you.
I am thankful for our foster homes, who show these dogs so much love (sometimes for the first time in their lives), and then send them on to their forever homes, so they can help the next dachshund who needs them.
HowlOWeenie 2009 is upon us!
01 Oct 2009 Leave a Comment
Hope you’ve got your dachshund’s costume fitted!
Hope you’ve exercised your dachshund’s tail wag muscle!
Hope you’ve practiced your starting block technique for the race!
Hope you’re prepared to satisfy your shopping urge at the artist market – and packed lots of cash and checkbook!
Hope you’ve packed your lawnchair so you can relax for the Roxie Watson bluegrass!
Hope you’ve stretched your tummy for lots of hotdogs!
Hope you’ve limbered up for the dachsie hokey pokey!
Hope you’ve memorized your best dachshund joke!
Hope you’ve practiced your “Dachshund Idol” trick!
Hope you’ve perfected your howling duet!
Howl-O-Weenie is here! Click for complete details and schedule!
“Exception Rescue” vs. “Overpopulation Rescue”
15 Sep 2009 3 Comments
in Hope for the Future, Rescue Life
So much of what rescue groups deal with is because of the massive overpopulation of dogs — pure mathematics — too many dogs, too few homes. I call this “overpopulation rescue” and it is so overwhelming, we often can’t help with special circumstances that are really heartbreaking — when someone can no longer care for their pet through no fault of their own. I think if these as “exception rescues” : when life changes, and people have to adjust by finding new homes for their dogs. Situations like divorce, foreclosure, illness, or even death.
I often am saddened that we cannot handle these “exception rescues” because the “overpopulation rescues” are more than we can handle anyway.
Yesterday I had an “exception rescue” experience. Sadly, most of the time I have to say “no” to these, but this time was different.
I received a call from a very distraught woman. She asked if I remembered “Ed Simmons” (not his real name), who had adopted 2 puppies from us a couple of years ago.
Of course I remembered Ed. I remembered especially the smile on his face when he left with those two darling puppies, Angus and Nessa. I remembered Angus and Nessa because I’d watched them be born in my kitchen, just 6 days after I saved their mama from animal control. Mama had been scheduled for being put to sleep 2 hours before I arrived to get her. (Yes, pregnant. But that’s another story.)
Her voice choked up when she said, “Ed died. Can you come get the dogs?” (Amazingly resourceful, she had remembered the name of Ed’s vet, who then remembered me. Two big strokes of luck for those babies. Otherwise they would have gone to animal control and I would never have known.)
Luckily, I was in town and not on a business trip. I was also in the car and not far away. I headed over there. Angus and Nessa were in the back yard. Scared to death. Ed had apparently let them outside and then collapsed. They spent about a day back there, without food or water, and watching their dad through the back door window. They were frantic. When I arrived the authorities had already taken Ed away, but the dogs wouldn’t let anyone near them. The police were there, I suppose to make sure we didn’t take anything except the dogs.
I sat down on the back porch and within a minute or so, they remembered me. What a moment — after 2 years, they remembered! They climbed all over me, giving kisses and headrubs. I got them into the car and got them home. They were so relieved to be with people again.
We will always need rescue, because these situations are part of life. I dream of the day when all rescue is “exception rescue” and not “overpopulation rescue.”
As long as we buy dogs from breeders and petstores, giving them the financial incentive to continue their practices, we will have “overpopulation rescue.”
