Hey, Boo Boo!

Boo, a.k.a. Busa,  had a vet visit today, his first with us. He is up to date on all of his shots but we wanted to have him looked over and be sure he's healthy and has no occult problems that we need to know about, like a heart murmur, ear infection (now THAT would be a big problem, lol.....) etc. He also needed a bordetella vaccine so he can start obedience classes. 

Well, as we've noticed with him, he's not readily accepting of strangers. When new people try to interact with him he growls and hackles go up. Nothing terribly aggressive, but he is obviously fearful of new people. We have learned this about him over the past 10 days or so we've had him, and we're working on it by bringing him all over the place, to parks and neighborhoods and any business that will let a dog in, and exposing him to a broad range of people and animals. We aren't trying to have him actually meet or be petted by strangers, or have him actually meet other dogs, but just walk among them and be exposed, and gain some trust in us and confidence in himself. It won't be an overnight fix, but we are prepared to handle it. 

This is basically all we did at the vet. We went into a room and he was fine with the vet tech who brought us in, since she did not try to pet him but gave him his distance, but when the vet and another tech entered he growled and was immediately suspicious, hackles up, and moved against me. Fortunately, the vet recognized this as fear aggression and she spent the next 30 minutes warming up to him with a large quantity of peanut butter. She asked one of the two techs to leave so there would not be so many people to worry about. It took some time, but he gradually came around, and was actually affectionate with the vet and enjoyed her petting him.

She felt, and I agreed and wanted to suggest it, that we should not try to give him the bordetella today, since it is delivered intranasally and she'd have to hold his head back to do it, which he might not appreciate. I will bring him by tomorrow afternoon just for a meet and greet in the lobby, so the staff can fuss over him and give him treats, then bring him again on Friday afternoon for the same procedure, but then hopefully he'll accept her looking him over and administering the vaccine. 

In our experience, once he gets to know someone then he is very affectionate and loving, and will accept verbal correction and physical handling without any quarrel, so we're hoping he'll feel comfortable by Friday. We're trying not to imprint a negative experience at the vet, and if we'd moved too fast I'm sure that would have happened, and he'd forever be anxious and hard to handle when we're there. 

Otherwise, he's now 85.7 pounds, up from 82, and she wants him to eat more - he's a little too skinny for his height, and he lacks some muscle development that she expects to see from a dog of his age and size. We're giving him 3 cups of Taste of the Wild Grain Free kibble twice daily, since he won't eat more than that, and she recommends a mid-day meal of about 2 cups. He's still growing, and he'll need more food. Right now he's 30" at the shoulder but she said he'll get taller, and of course fill out quite a bit, for an adult weight of about 130. That's about what Sirius is (Sirius is exactly 30" at the shoulder) and he seems to be built very much like him, though Sirius wasn't so lanky and gangly when we got him. 

I'm giving him much more exercise than he was getting, so that will help with muscle development. We walk a couple of miles in the evening, these days not until about 9 p.m. because that is as cool as it will get before my bedtime, and then 4 miles early in the morning. Once it is not approaching 100 degrees F during the day I think we'll have more outings, but many dogs go off their feed a bit and are less active when it is this hot. He also fetches beautifully, and with the ball throwing stick we got we can really launch it a long way for him. 

I must assume that this fearfulness is why the previous family decided to rehome him. If you aren't experienced training dogs, and experienced with large dogs as well, I can see that this might be daunting, and even scary when you have a baby in the house. We know what needs to be done and we are prepared to manage it and work him through some of this, though we also recognize that at his age he'll likely always take some time to warm up to people. 

We don't have a problem with aloofness, and, in fact, I'd almost prefer my dogs to evaluate and assess a person before they love all over them. We'd like the person breaking into our home not be slobbered and licked to death as they rob us blind, after all. What I don't want is fearfulness, and fear aggression. Confidence and trust in his owners is the answer to that problem. I need to realize that we have not had him but a matter of days, and he's already quite attached to our family, and is already protective of us, but he really doesn't have enough experience in our world to fully trust us and be confident. I think with a lot of exposure as well as a good obedience class or two he'll come around and be a great dog for us. He already is, but we just have a little tweaking to do. 

Colorectal Carci-No-No

The diagnosis is in for Sirius the 6.5-year-old Great Dane/Rottweiler mix. His rectal tumor came back as invasive carcinoma. Our canine capers just don't end, do they?

I did not like the looks of it when I saw it, but I was looking at it from a human perspective, and I wasn't sure if it was something more typical in dogs. It isn't, and this type of cancer is not terribly common in canines. 

So, based on the literature his prognosis is for another two years, which is not too shabby, especially considering the typical lifespan of a giant breed dog, but we certainly didn't expect this. The vet wants to check him every 2-3 months to see if there is any recurrence, and handle it surgically. This is not anything that would be treated by chemotherapy. 

We will, at some point, have to decide how much intervention we wish to do for him, and I am of two minds on the issue. I have always said I would not go to heroic efforts to save an animal, considering that they won't understand why they are always at the vet, always feel ill, having anesthesia and recovering from surgery, but at the same time you love your pet and don't want to lose them. 

I remember clearly when Stella died, and she knew she was dying; and all she wanted in the world was to go off to the most remote part of our wooded back yard to be alone. She did not want us to hold her or comfort her at all. I think animals have a better understanding and acceptance of death and they don't fear it and don't have emotions wrapped up in it. It is a normal aspect of being on this planet. The comforting is a human behavior, and is for us more than for them - we can't help it! 

We will simply have to play it by ear and do what we can to keep him comfortable if it comes back. We can't know if it has invaded or spread, since the pathologist did not provide information about the margins of the tumor, which annoys me. Maybe in the veterinary world they don't typically ask for margins (a determination of whether there are healthy cells surrounding the malignant ones to indicate that all of it was removed) but in my line of work margins are the basis for decisions on whether or not further treatment is indicated. 

In this case the vet will simply monitor the area and check for recurrence, and handle it surgically if so. She mentioned an "extremely radical" surgery would need to be done if it recurs, and I'm not sure I'm up for that - a dog with a colostomy? I don't think so! We'll see how it goes and cross each bridge as we get to it. 

We are obviously gluttons for punishment, with our new large breed addition to the family, but in spite of their issues we love having them. Our entire family has perked up noticeably since Boo has joined us, and even Sirius is more lively. We will soldier on!

Butt Out!

Sirius is at the vet's office this morning having surgery to remove a rectal tumor, which is a small thing, probably benign. It is apparently interfering with him evacuating his anal glands properly, leading to recurrent anal gland infections. He's a mess back there!

I have posted previously about Sirius and some excessive drinking and peeing. When I go back and review my journal entries and my vet records, I see a pattern here. When his anal glands are infected and he is in pain, he is incontinent. When we put him on antibiotics and clear things up, he is not incontinent. For the past couple of weeks since we scheduled surgery I have had him on antibiotics and he has had absolutely no problems with peeing in the house, either in his crate or on the floor. Previously, when we did not realize he had an infection, he was peeing on himself in his crate, peeing on the floor, and when his pain was at its worst, right when we started antibiotics, he wouldn't even bother to ask to go out, and once did not even go out the open door to the outside to pee. 

He has had an extensive workup for his kidneys and everything is completely normal, so I think I have stumbled upon the reason. We will see how he does after surgery. I am concerned about how you manage a large dog like this with stitches in his rectum, and a wound in a dirty location that can't be kept completely clean. It would be easier if it was on his trunk or on a limb, which could be dressed or wrapped and protected from dirt, but this is not the case. I guess he'll be on some kind of special diet, perhaps. 

Fingers crossed - poor fellow!

Did you Hear That?

Meet Busa

Busa is our new addition to the family. He is an 8-month-old Great Dane/German Shepherd mix we adopted from a young family who was unable to give him much of their time. He is neutered and up to date on his immunizations, and was very well cared for. The family adopted him as a baby from an accidental breeding of a female Great Dane with a nearby male German Shepherd, so he has known only one family in his life so far. He is 30" at the shoulder and weighs only 82 pounds, so he's pretty thin and lanky. He is very playful, but not too much so, and seems to have no problem issues that we need to address. 

He is named after the Hayabusa  motorcycle, the fastest production bike in the world, and though we can't really relate to this affinity of his previous owner, he responds to it and it is the only name he's ever known. When we rescued Sirius he was picked up as a stray, so nobody had any idea what his name might have been, and in that case you can freely choose something that suits you, but since we have had to call Busa and get his attention right away, it seemed simplest to use his name. We often call him Boo for short, and he answers to that as well.
Did you notice the ears? I sure did, and that's what got my attention when I was browsing through Craig's List looking for ads for aquariums and aquarium fish, which I then post on my fish club forum. We have quite a few Hampton Roads members, and a sister club there, so I usually check the Norfolk CL page, and there was Busa. I have experience with Great Dane mixes (our Sirius is half Great Dane and half Rottweiler) so he really caught my eye, and I could not stop laughing at his ears. I kept returning to his page, and finally contacted the owners.
I didn't really think it would come to anything, Craig's List being Craig's List, with all the crazy people who lie and try to rob you, trick you into paying for something you don't get, or, common in the pet section, "flip" animals for profit. People will find free dogs, then repost them for a fee of $300 and higher, like a part time job. You really have to be on your toes to use Craig's List, and I was not optimistic. I figured they'd get a lot of responses, with his unique looks, and me being 90 minutes away from Norfolk would put me at the bottom of the list. I also assumed there'd be a big fee that would take me out of the running.
However, none of these things turned out to be the case. This is a young couple who have a baby and demanding jobs, so they are away a lot, and the babysitter doesn't like big dogs so Busa was crated more than they wanted. They were not interested in financial gain, and even gave us his crate. They simply wanted him to go to a home where he would not have to be locked up constantly and would be played with and loved. I guess they liked my responses and we set up a meeting in Newport News at a park.
We liked his energy right away. He is not skittish or nervous, but curious and active, though a little aloof at first. He doesn't rush over and love all over you, in other words, and I kind of liked that about him. I know plenty of dogs that jump up on you and lick you when they see you, and though I do, of course, want my pet to like me and seek attention, I don't want to be accosted. The couple was surprised that he didn't bark or chuff at us a little when he got out of the car, because usually he is a little hesitant when he sees new people, but he just accepted us right away, though he was not overly demonstrative. We hung out a while, talking, and they showed us his baby pictures and pictures of him with other dogs and their baby.
We wound up taking him home, and introduced him to our Dane, Sirius. Sirius is not exactly thrilled, let's say, but there have been no issues and no fighting. They are cordial. I thought he'd like Busa a lot, since they both have the same type of energy, and, in fact, Busa reminds me of Sirius when we first got him, since he was also about 9 months old at the time. Busa is very "daney" and so is Sirius. In fact, when we first got Sirius our vet thought he was pure Dane, though the rescue, Mid Atlantic Great Dane Rescue, was not sure.
So, now we're going on the third day of ownership, and it is going well. He is very well behaved and eager to please, is very well potty trained and does not guard food or toys. He doesn't get in the trash or chew your shoes, and he doesn't get up on the furniture, though the owners said he would. He chews the heavy sterilized bones we have lying around, and plays tug with his rope. He needs training for the basics, like sit and stay and such, but he's amenable and a happy-go-lucky type dog for the most part. He's very attached to his people, and is taking to our family quite well. He plays fetch as long as you're willing to throw the ball, but he's not obsessed with his ball like some fetching dogs can be. We love that he fetches, since we have never had a dog that was willing to retrieve a ball more than once.
We have taken him out every day so far, going to the pet store and the park, and are trying to keep him socialized, since we're not entirely sure how much exposure he has had. He seems pretty well socialized but he got anxious when we went to PetCo and there were rows of crates with barking rescue dogs, and a bit of chaos. We hung out a bit until he relaxed. We'll start basic obedience classes next week, I hope - we don't want to wait on that, but get him going with training right away. We didn't do that with Sirius because, like Busa, he was already trained in many ways and we felt like he was good to go, and now he has some impulse control and overexcitement issues that we're dealing with, almost six years later. We wish we'd have taken Sirius to class when we first got him, like we have done with our very young pups.
The only problem we've got right now is that he's not interested in eating much, but we've put a lot on him with the move to a new home and taking him all over the place this weekend. He needs to get settled into a routine, and I think this week we'll accomplish that, since my husband and I will be working every day, and the schedule of morning and evening walks with the predictable timetable will help him. Maybe we should have let him settle in before dragging him around town, but I feel strongly that exposure to many social situations is important at this age. I want him to be accustomed to riding in the car and going here and there, and seeing all types of people, young to old, of all races and wearing hats, carrying umbrellas, in wheelchairs, strollers, bikes and skateboards. I'm sure he'll start eating soon, but he's so skinny we are anxious for him to chow down.
Danes develop somewhat late so it is not unusual for young ones to be thin and lanky and get mistaken for greyhounds, as I've been told by a friend who owns and shows Great Danes. She thinks he'll fill out just fine in no time between now and age 2. However, being lean and fit is of great importance to large and giant breeds, since it is easier on their joints as they grow.
He was apparently neutered at around 3 months of age, which I think is way too early, but the owner said his vet recommended it at the time. I much prefer to wait until the dog is 18 months old or so, giving them time to physically mature. Even 6 months would have been better, but what's done is done, and that is one less thing I'll need to worry about.
So, I'll bring him in to my vet for a general checkup and be sure there are no health issues, but he doesn't need any vaccinations until he turns 1 year of age at the end of October.
Today I took him along for my morning walk and he did very well, after we worked on leash training a bit yesterday. By the end of the walk he had greatly improved. He wants to do what you want him to do, and all you have to do is get him to understand what that is. His only leash experience has been on a Flexi leash, so he could range all around you while you walked. He automatically expects to be able to do that on a short lead and that means he tends to pull, but simple corrections seem to work very well.
We have two dogs in the house again and we are all very happy. We have a nice dog that is still young and trainable, but we don't have to deal with housebreaking or chewing or anything like that, which is nice.
Oh, and he'd better not pretend he did't hear us when we call him, either!