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Everyone knows that puppies are cute, even the ones that people sometimes drop over our fence, but GSD pups take the cake, or the buscuit. Mr. Dusty was a little baby GSD, only 6 weeks old that we took care of while his owner was moving. Our friend dropped Mr. Dusty off with a supply of puppy food and promised to return after he finished moving. |
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One month went by, then two months, then three months. Mr. Dusty had now bonded with us and was a member of the pack. Our friend called one day and explained that he couldn't have a dog at the place he had moved to and he would come by and get Mr. Dusty and find him a nice home. 
A vision of Mr. Dusty chained to a Chevy on blocks in some knuckleheads backyard flashed before my eyes."He has a home!", I fired back and suddenly Mr. Dusty was officially ours. Mr. Dusty had figured out he was a watch dog and that's what he did. He watched things all the time. By the time he was 4 months old he had watched everything. One day in early June when it was starting to get hot he wasn't in his normal place where he watched everything. I searched everywhere and couldn't find him. After searching the house again I found him curled up in the shower where it was cool. I thought he was just feeling the heat. When we woke the next morning Mr. Dusty had lost 10 of his 40 pounds and was 'as sick as a dog' Being responsible pet owners we rushed him to our veterinarian. Mr. Dusty had never been to a vet before. HWDTWS refers to veterinarians as TED, The Evil Doctor. HWDTWS told Mr. Dusty to watch out as TED will probably try to Tutor him. 
Mr. Dusty was in no shape to understand what HWDTWS was babbling about. He was very dehydrated and was like a wet dish rag when I picked him up to carry him into the vet's office.After a quick examination the vet adminstered a Parvo test. It was positive. The vet explained the treatment and advised us they have an 80% success rate. We left Mr. Dusty at the clinic and returned home. We sprayed every inch of our ranch with Chlorox as that's the only way to kill Parvo. Parvo virus can be carried on a stick that a Crow could drop on your property. You could run over Parvo infected dog or coyote poop on the road and it would be carried right on to your property and Parvo virus can live for months. The next day we called to check his progress. We wanted to know but neither one of us wanted to make that first call. They told us Mr. Dusty was still hanging in there but it would take a couple more days to be sure he was responding to the treatment. By the end of the week we learned he had survived Parvo and we went to Las Vegas to bring him home. Mr. Dusty was happy to be home with the pack. We were happy to have him healthy and the vet was happy as he soaked us almost $1000 for vet bills. The next morning Mr. Dusty was laying on the floor and I noticed something that looked like tar on his fur right underneath where his right front leg plugs into his rib cage. I touched it and it wasn't tar, it was matted fur and dead skin. It peeled off like skin off Kentucky Fried Chicken! After a call to the vet we were headed back to Las Vegas. The vet took a look at him and he was back in the hospital. What was it? What caused it? We wanted to know but the vet could only speculate that it was a reaction to a Sub Cutaneous (under the skin) injection done by a local vet when Mr. Dusty first became ill and was dehydrated. 
The injection of about 1 liter of saline solution was done in the same area as where the skin died. This is what he looked like after the vet trimmed all the dead skin off Mr. Dusty's right side. The vet's plan was to treat him like a burn victim and gradually pull the skin back together. This process would take weeks and we were getting concerned about the vet bill. Mr. Dusty wasn't concerned as he was getting spoiled rotten by all the little girls that worked at the vet clinic. Mr. Dusty spent 10 days at the clinic and after the vet was satisfied the skin was growing back and the infection had been contained we went back to Las Vegas to get trained on the treatment process and then take our GSD puppy back home for a week. 
The treatment was simple. Keep the wound wet and clean. Apply Bag Balm generously to the wound. Dress him in a T-Shirt. Spray the shirt with water where it covers the wound and then wrap him with Vet-Wrap to protect the wound in case Mr. Dusty started scratching it. We had to do this sometimes 6 times a day and he was actually pretty good during these events. It was pretty easy for two people to accomplish this but when one of us was at work it got a little tough doing everything with one had while the other hand kept him under control. After a week at the ranch we took Mr. Dusty back to the vet in Las Vegas so the vet could slowly pull his skin back together. Every week the pork chop on his side was getting smaller and he was getting bigger. His appetite had returned and he was eating about 10 pounds of Canine Advantage a day when he returned from his first week at the vet. The vet clinic fed him real bland low cal dog food. After 8 weeks of treatments the vet had sucessfully pulled Mr. Dusty's skin back together again. He just had one little seam where the knap of his fur didn't quite line up correctly. After one follow up visit with the vet Mr. Dusty was back to 100%. That's the story about our free $2700 Un Registered GSD Puppy. Next: The Electric Dog! (U.L. Approved) BACK |
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