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Old 12-07-2007, 09:29 PM   #1
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Default Looking for advice on how to care for "Orphan Annie"

Hi,

I'd like to share my story and would love to receive advice from your members.

Firstly, here is the story.

A couple days ago, I adopted a beautiful 10-year-old Yorkie who was seized from an abusive, neglectful home. A colleague of mine , Lisa, owns a moving company in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She found the Yorkie tied up in a corner of a decrepit home her company was moving someone into. The Yorkie - named "Orphan Annie" - was tied up on a short leash and wet from sitting in her own urine and feces. Lisa grabbed a towel, picked up the dog, announced she was seizing it from the owners and took it to her warehouse. Since Lisa has Rottweilers in her home, she brought the Yorkie to her business's warehouse. She and her staff had been taking care of her during the day and leaving her at the warehouse after the work day is over.

The moment I saw "Annie", I knew I was the right person to take care of her. Lisa was happy to give her to a good home and I have permanently adopted her and am working on getting her healthy again.

Lisa already took the dog to the veterinarian and he said Annie was malnourished, but generally in good health. She has a few small tumours on her body, but none of them are dangerous. He said we should keep an eye on them to make sure they do not grow much larger as they should then be removed.

Here are some questions I have:

a) Annie is 10-years-old and missing patches of fur on her back. I am guessing this is from lack of nutritional food. So I am feeding her high-end dog food and doggie vitamins. The dry food is Nutram for Senior Dogs. The soft food is Nutro Ultra for Senior Dogs and the vitamins are ProCare brand. Since her bowel movements were very loose and I could not get her to eat dry dog food, I have been chopping up the dry food and vitamins in a blender, adding some water and mixing with the soft food. She gladly eats this mixture. Is there anything else I can do to ensure she is getting the nutrition she needs? As well, is there anything further I can do to help grow back her fur?

b) We are working on training her to go to the washroom on a "puppy pee pad." She uses it 50% of the time and I try to encourage her when she makes mistakes. Any advice anyone can offer in regards to paper training an older dog?

c) It appears like she has likely had multiple litters of puppies and she has swollen anal glands. I read online that if the procedure of extracting the glands is not done properly, I could make it worse. Any advice on how to do this procedure correctly?

d) When she is placed in her kennel, she goes crazy crying and barking. This leads me to wonder if she has been left in a cage for a long period of time in the past. She goes ballistic at even the thought of being put in her kennel. Any way I can make her kennel less traumatic for her?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Warm Regards,

Jamie
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Old 12-07-2007, 09:57 PM   #2
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first off, welcome to YT!

Second, bless you for taking little Orphan Annie. do you have any pictures to share yet? we would love to see her.

now on to your questions

A) Your choice of dry dog food isn't as good as you think it is. I've actually never heard of it so i just looked up its ingredients. Look at the first ones. "Ground rice, chicken meal, select whole grain corn, chicken fat (preserved with Vitamin E), dried beet pulp, chicken, flaxseed, chicken digest" Dogs are carnivores and Meat should be the first ingredient. In this case its the 6th. It comes behind corn and beet pulp which are big allergy causers in yorkies. Also, chicken digest??? EW i don't even want to know what that is. LOL

Go to this site www.dogfoodanalysis.com and pick a 5 star food for seniors. A lot people here feed Canidae, Wellness, Chicken Soup, and Solid Gold. These are all excellent dry foods and they also have wet food varieties.

If you get her on a better wet and dry food you should see some improvement in her health and coat. Also since he has coat problems, you should get her some omega fatty acid supplements. Your vet can supply you with some, or you can get Salmon Oil and Vit E from a pet store or people store. I use Eicosaderm and purchased it off the internet. It is a liquid that has both the oil and vit e already mixed together and is easy to use.

You said she doesn't eat her dry food well. Is this because she just doesn't like it OR because she's having a hard time eating it? Have you checked her mouth for loose or rotting teeth? Since she's older and didn't come from the best living situation her teeth are probably horrible and weren't taken care of. They may be hurting her. Is there a lot of tartar on them? Do you notice a red line on her gums directly above her teeth? If so you might want to get her teeth checked by your vet.

b & d) I would think that she doesn't like the crate because she is just not use to it. If you want her to sleep in a crate then stick her in it and ignore ignore ignore all her crying. Any attention to her complaining will just encourage her to continue to do it. Another approach is to get her an expen. This is a larger enclosure that you can put in a corner of a room in your house. In this enclosure you can put a bed, her food and water, some toys, and a pee pad. Whenever you cannot watch her, even if its for 5 minutes, put her in the expen. This way if you walk away, she can't go somewhere else and potty where you don't want her to.

c) I'm not sure that her anal glands have anything to do with her whelping a lot of litters. Firstly i would get her spayed. I would also have your vet check her anal glands to see if they are full, impacted, or infected. Why do you think she has a problem with the glands? is she scooting or licking a lot?


You sound like you are very committed to making this work with her and i commend you already. Good luck with her and don't hesitate to ask more questions. Also, use the search engine to look thru the archives. Alot of these issues have been brought up before and you might find some other methods you would like to try. There is ALOT of great information on this site.

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Old 12-07-2007, 09:59 PM   #3
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Jamie, thank you so much for what you are doing for Orphan Annie. Welcome to yt. I know you will get lots of good advice here. I am not one of the more knowledgable ones so all I can do is welcome and thank you for coming here. Patty
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Old 12-07-2007, 10:13 PM   #4
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What a wonderful person you are to open your heart and home to a little sould who needs it. Bless you. Sounds like your already doing a great job with her and I don't have anything to add to that at all.
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Old 12-08-2007, 06:37 AM   #5
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God bless you for taking little Orphan Annie under your loving caring wings. You are an Angel and she is blessed to have you. You may want to try an x-pen insted of the crate if it is that traumatic for her.
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Old 12-08-2007, 07:43 AM   #6
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Here is my beloved Annie.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Orphan Annie Before & After.jpg (192.5 KB, 152 views)
File Type: jpg Annie Before 1.jpg (164.2 KB, 110 views)
File Type: jpg Annie Before 3.jpg (159.6 KB, 99 views)
File Type: jpg Annie 5.jpg (142.5 KB, 140 views)
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Old 12-08-2007, 07:45 AM   #7
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Here are more photographs.
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File Type: jpg Annie 1.jpg (137.2 KB, 79 views)
File Type: jpg Annie 10.jpg (146.6 KB, 71 views)
File Type: jpg Annie 11.jpg (137.5 KB, 87 views)
File Type: jpg Annie 14.jpg (193.9 KB, 116 views)
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Old 12-08-2007, 07:55 AM   #8
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she's very cute! she almost looks chocolately in the pictures. congrats again on rescuing her. she looks wonderful with her new hair cut
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Old 12-08-2007, 08:02 AM   #9
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God bless you Jamie for giving her a home. She's adorable in her sweater.
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Old 12-08-2007, 09:45 AM   #10
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Wow! What a sad little pup when she was found. Her body has taken a substantial amount of damage, and her immune system must be so beat up, especially being 10 years old. I adopted Charlie at 10 and he had lived in poor health conditions for three years or more. I feed him Orijen (grain free) and Solid Gold wet food with vitamins/fish oil. He had major dental work completed and left with four molars on the bottom. Also, he had demodex (treated with Ivermectin), and -0- level on his thyroid. So, he also takes Soloxine twice a day. Thyroid & demodex (mites) cause hair loss.

His coat looks so much better, but the lower third of his back is still thin. Lots of brown spots on his skin which is related to hormones.

I would suggest a full Geriatric blood panel which is a good indicator where your pup's levels are at this time. Dental is so important due to toxins (His dental surgery was expensive, but worth it).

His little body is recovering and I am sure he had thyroid problems for most of his adult life and it was not addressed. Once a pup has demodex, they can never be given prednisone.

She looks so much better and bless you for saving this beautiful little pup. Also, Charlie does not like the crate either, and fearful of canes, umbrellas.

The transition takes months, and lots of patience. Warmly, Deborah

PS Rescued pups are so deserving of our love and you will find they don't demand our attention, even though it is needed. They are conditioned to wait...
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Old 12-08-2007, 11:12 AM   #11
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Congratulations on adopting her. I'd leave the anal glands to the vet or groomer. The food sounds good, and you can offer her fruit and veggies. I'd keep her in an Xpen and just leave the crate their. If she wants to go in she will. I wouldn't push the issue as she seems really traumatized by it. Best wishes nursing her back to health.
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Old 12-08-2007, 11:34 AM   #12
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Thank God she was found by a caring person. Keep us up dated on her progress.
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Old 12-08-2007, 06:31 PM   #13
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Thank you for all your wonderful advice and comments.

I just noticed something on Annie's stomach today that has me extremely worried (the poor little sweetie).

I'll take her to the vet next week, but thought I would take a photograph and see if anyone is familiar with this condition/problem.

It looks like a deep blue/purple bruise on her stomach that protrudes. It is soft and fuzzy in appearance - and seems to be sensitive. She won't allow me to touch it.

I don't think it is a bruise as she has been away from the abusive home for approximately a month now.

Any feedback or suggestions (other than to take her to a vet, which I will be doing) would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to take her on Monday.

Her bowel movements are much better (more solid) and she eats very well and goes to the washroom regularly.

When I go out and come home, she is excited as a puppy. She seems okay other than grunting with discomfort when I pick her up.

I look forward to your feedback.

Warm Regards,

Jamie
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File Type: jpg Annie's Stomach 1.jpg (186.1 KB, 86 views)
File Type: jpg Annie's Stomach 2.jpg (192.4 KB, 82 views)
File Type: jpg Annie's Stomach 3.jpg (197.7 KB, 105 views)
File Type: jpg Annie's Stomach 4.jpg (115.3 KB, 41 views)
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Old 12-08-2007, 06:42 PM   #14
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hmmm, i'd be a little worried about those. i'm sorry. the vet needs to do a fine need aspirate on that to check what kind of cells its made of. She's not spayed right? it might be a mammory tumor.

are they anywhere else on her body? blue under the skin might indicate blood clots in that area. she might have a blood disorder.

a senior blood panel should be run and those lumps need to be checked out.

I hope its nothing.
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Old 12-08-2007, 07:23 PM   #15
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You have yourself a beautiful little girl there.
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