Featured Pet in Need: Blue Eyes is Looking for her Family!

Blue at vet clinic (4/20/13)

UPDATE 4/26/14:  It has been a little over a year since Blue completed her heartworm treatment.  We would LOVE to find a local foster home (MEMPHIS AND SURROUNDING AREA) where Blue could learn what it is like to live “inside” a home so we can gather some information about what type of family situation would work best for her.  Due to having an “alpha female” in her current foster home, she is staying in the air conditioned garage with her foster friends.   She loves her mounds of blankets, but we would LOVE better for her for sure!  A fenced in yard is a MUST.

UPDATE 4/13/13:  BLUE IS READY FOR A FOREVER HOME!!!  This girl has survived the odds and has completely finished her heartworm treatment.  She still needs to get some of the “steroid” weight off, but is otherwise doing fantastic!  An ideal home for Blue would be a quiet home with very patient and understanding people.  Blue has never lived in a “home” per se, so she will need to slowly get used to living inside an entire house.  We suspect she would be very content to hang out on the couch or a doggy bed in time.  She will be very shy at first, but does come around with time.  Blue LOVES treats and is a creature of routine (don’t even think about forgetting to give her a little treat when she comes inside- lol- she will stand there and stare at you!).  She loves dinner time too and gets VERY excited!  We believe it would be best for her to go to a home without young children as they can be very unpredictable and would likely scare her.  Before coming to our house, Blue lived for years outside with a pack of dogs and her owner.  She never knew when she was going to eat and had several litters of puppies.  We are ELATED that she does not have to worry about that anymore.  We thank everyone who supported her so very much…words cannot express how much you all mean to us. 

 UPDATE 3/04/13:  Blue underwent the last heartworm treatment(s) on February 15th and 16th and so far is doing VERY WELL!  Please continue your prayers so that she can get over this hump and eventually find the perfect family!  Thank you ALL for your encouraging words and support.  This girl has been through a lot and she deserves the best life!

UPDATE 1/19/13:  BLUE is now half-way through a regular treatment dose and is doing very well!!!  In approximately 2 weeks, she will go to the vet for a regular or “back-to-back” treatment.   So she has about 6-8 more weeks ahead of her until she is in the clear so please continue to pray for this sweet girl!  

UPDATE 11/13/12:  BLUE started heartworm treatment today.   After lengthy discussions with Doc and another vet that Doc recommended, we decided to treat Blue with immiticide (the medication used in treating heartworm), however, we are going to give it to her in several “staged” treatments.   For instance, her first dose today was half of the normal dose for a staged treatment (a typical staged treatment consists of a half dose on month one and then a regular dose split between day 30 and 31).   If Blue did not have any symptoms (i.e., no enlarged heart and no lung changes), the treatment would have consisted of 2 back-to-back treatments.  Please say prayers for her yet again!

MEET OL’BLUE EYES…

Yes we realize this precious girl does not have blue eyes.  Long story short:  Blue Eyes was named by her previous “owner”.  She is approximately 3-4 years old and lived in the country with up to 35 dogs at one point not long ago.  We saw a post on Facebook from a friend of a friend about “tons of dogs left to fend for themselves”.  I (Allie) went out there to check out the situation one day and took pictures of the dogs.  WOWZA…lots of dogs for sure.  There is a man who takes care of them, Mr. B, but  he has limited resources as well.  Mr B. is essentially homeless and lives on a passenger van basically with some of his dogs (yes we have tried to help, but he prefers to stay there).  We became friends over the next few months and offered to help him get his dogs spayed/neutered.  We were able to get all of the females spayed except 2 (they were feral…still working on it though) thanks to many doggy angels who donated funds, etc.  That’s when we met Blue Eyes.  Ol’ BLue Eyes was pregnant along with another female, Wolfie.  Between the two of them, they had 14 babies.  Wolfie did not appear to have enough milk to feed the babies, so precious Blue Eyes nursed them all (that is what we suspect based on numerous “clues”).  We found rescue for all of the puppies when they were ready and proceeded to have those two spayed not long after the puppies were weaned.
Blue Eyes is on the right in this picture (taken in April)

 Puppies the day of the rescue!

SAFE AT LAST!  YES…ALL FOUND WONDERFUL HOMES! 

Blue and Wolfie came to stay with us after being spayed in July with the intent to return them to Mr. B after a few days of recovery.  We realized that Blue was just miserable out in the heat and could not breathe very well.  Wolfie was not happy being confined and spent much of her time outside, but Blue was different.  She clearly enjoyed the air conditioning and soft beds that we provided.  It became evident that we would just HAVE to keep her.  We returned Wolfie to Mr.  B after she healed and she was elated!  Blue is a shy girl, but she has already come so far!  She absolutely ADORES treats when she comes in from outside!  We knew that Blue would be heartworm positive because she had never had heartworm preventative and had lived outside 24/7 for 3-4 years (her entire life) with a zillion mosquitoes (that is how heartworm is transmitted).  No biggie…we would just treat her after she became stronger and gained some weight like we had done with many rescued doggies in the past.  

Well about 2 weeks ago, Blue began coughing and having a difficult time breathing.  Her tummy has always been distended, but we became worried about that too.  We took her to the vet only to find out that her heart was VERY enlarged and she had fluid on her lungs (pulmonary edema).  The xrays don’t lie…HUGE heart :(.  Doc is fairly certain the heart and lung “changes” are the result of heartworm disease.  Xrays also revealed this poor baby had been shot (buckshot…5 visible fragments if you will show on xray).  Anyway, Doc put BLue on several medications and asked us to return for a follow up visit today (October 18th, 2012).  Repeat xrays were done and the results were the same.  Blue’s prognosis was not good based upon her enlarged heart and lung changes.  Doc was going to start heartworm treatment today (stage 1), however she is not sure that Blue would survive (well truth be known, deep down, neither of us thought she would make it).  The next step is to consult with a fellow veterinarian on Tuesday to determine whether she may be a candidate for surgical removal of some heartworms from the right atrium (heartworm embolectomy).  She is technically in the 3rd stage of heartworm disease (thankfully has not progressed to the final vena caval syndrome yet, which is deadly).

So in a nutshell, Blue Eyes needs a miracle.  She has many supporters who love her and pray for her, but we can always use more.  We will update everyone when we hear more from the vet next week.