Doggie Woes

A couple of weeks ago, almost 3 weeks now, I adopted a rescue dog, Quincy.  He's reported to be 4 years old.  His story is that he was rescued from a dog shelter in OH.  I know this to be true.  Supposedly his family had made a trip for Christmas, the dog got out and would not listen to them to come back.  They had to journey back home without the dog.  Because he has a microchip, the family was contacted but did not want to, or perhaps were not able to come back to get him from where ever they  live.  Then a  rescue person took him out of the shelter and placed him with the lady I got him from.  She had him 2 weeks or so before placing an ad on Craigslist for a new family for him.  Enter Jenn, (myself) looking to adopt a rescue dog.

Quincy is on the right with his best bud

Jamie, the lady who had the dog, brought him over for a playdate on a Thursday, and he never left!  He is a calm, sweet and loving dog.  The kids took to him immediately!  He got along with my punk labrador 3 mos. old puppy.  I kept harping on this poor lady about his health records.  I finally got a copy of his rabies cert. that does have the name of the dog shelter as well as the vet who did the rabies shot.  I kind of "let it go" about the rest because it was a sticky situation due to how he came to me.  Apparently, when you adopt a dog from a rescue group, if you are unable to keep the dog you are supposed to return him to the group.  So there was a bit of an issue since this wasn't done and he was placed with us.  The original lady didn't even get his health paperwork yet due to them being backed up, busy or what have you.  So the chance of me getting any of it is slim to none.

Quincy Jones

He is a sweet dog, calm and loving, yet playful with the pup and cute as pie, especially when his ears perk up.  TOO CUTE!  I did notice, though, that something about his eyes was slightly different.  It wasn't cloudy per se, but the pupils weren't clear either when the light hit them a certain way.  It was subtle and I really didn't think too much of it. 

This morning when I woke up around 5:15 AM, I saw that his entire right eye looked red!  Not the whites part, but the pupil and iris.  You could see the pupil underneath vaguely but it was like a red haze over the entire eye.  So weird!  YET as it got more light outside, it didn't look as bad as it did in the dim light.  I have been looking at this all day, along with reading on Google and Google images.  I am afraid it may be some early stages of Glaucoma.  I called the vet and they are going to fit him in between two other patients at 5pm.  I am just hoping that it is something that can be treated in a relatively affordable way.  please please please!!  I'll update later after the appointment.

**UPDATE**

Well I wish I had some good news to pass on, but the fact is that he has uvelitis which is caused by inflammation in the body, but the bad news is that he is HEARTWORM POSITIVE.   This dog pants all the time, even in the middle of winter, and now I am understanding why.  This is a truly sad situation.  This is the best dog ever.   Sadly, though heartworm is SO EASY to prevent, and it only costs around $10 per month if you buy 6 mos. at once, we are past that now.

Since he is already infested, the choice is to put him down or take the very expensive and very torturous road to treatment.  Treatment costs about a thousand dollars.  First a very thorough work up including chest X-rays, blood work etc,...to see severity.  Next, we poison the dog with arsenic for 3 months to weaken the worms so that we can treat to dispel them without killing the dog.  Oh, and he must be confined for 8 weeks during that last leg of treatment as well because the worms are in his lungs.  What a nightmare.  What a decision.  Our family is in love with this dog, in only 2.5 weeks.  This is not what I bargained for.  All I wanted to do was give this dog stability and a happy safe life, and this is what he gets.

*UPDATE-2/8:  After much E-mailing back and forth, I found out through the shelter that was scribbled on his Rabies Cert (how I found them) that he was tested for heartworm and tested negative.  This was just a couple of months ago, and as it is the middle of winter, and there are no mosquitos around, the vet guesses that perhaps he had gotten infected this past summer.  It takes up to 7 months to show up consistently on the testing.  Therefore they may not have been mature enough in Dec.  I guess it is better to know now though, than to let it go on and on before finding out.  This is certainly  more than I bargained for.  We love him so much already though, we are going to treat him and hope the tax refund HURRIES UP!