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No good deed goes unpunished.
Many of you know we had another German shepherd in our house that we were "temporarily" homing while the owner found a suitable home for him. We had him over 9 months (at least - that's the earliest picture of him I can find).
This is what we had to change because of him:
- Since he and Zorro did not get along we had to keep them separated, meaning one in their crate and the other out. Most of the time it was Gallon who was out and Zorro was crated.
- Gallon was an additional dog that had to be walked.
- We could not travel. With 5 large dogs and two that didn't get along it would be impossible to transport all the dogs anywhere and just imagine a hotel room! So we weren't able to go to Orlando for a weekend like we do like to do every few months.
When we got him he had gone from bad home to bad home to bad home and so on. He seriously looked like shit - skin issues, ear infection, severe separation anxiety issues, you name it.
We asked the owner about it and he said he didn't know about the allergy issues but his thyroid was checked out by OFA (I think that's the people who do it) and it was OK.
We took him to our vet and they said it could be caused by a lot of issues but the most common and least evasive is some sort of allergies - most likely food. So we switched his diet, two weeks later, no help. We switched it again, and no help. We went though 4 or 5 diet changes with no luck.
We took him back to the vet since it wasn't helping. Next step - medicated back and an ear flush. We tried that for a month, it didn't help.
We ended up taking him to an allergy expert and they think it was hypothyroid and to put him on soloxine to try that out (this was a month ago).
We also had two failed breedings with Kiri (one round had 3 artificial inseminations, the other round had two ties and two artificial inseminations).
Every step of the way we let the owner know what was going on and asked him if he had any suggestions. Not once did he offer any.
We spent over $1000 on HIS dog (even though he promised he would co-own Gallon with my wife the paperwork was never changed so technically it was never our dog) that we didn't have and we did everything we could have done (and would have done with our own dogs). This is not including the very high end food (around $3-$4 a pound) we also bought to try).
He took the dog to his own vet and they took skin grafts (which our vet would have done today - we had an appointment with them for another visit over the issue).
He's mad at us because he feels we didn't do enough to help the issue. He's also upset because gallon was bleeding on his legs (ankles etc..). Mind you - I'm willing to bet due to the severe change in surroundings he probably chewed himself and we had blankets in his crate as well as him sleeping out of the crate at night on a carpet or on the bed - now he's in a crate with no blanket (hard) and it out on a concrete patio a lot - of course he's going to bleed (the owner claims we were too soft on him).
He's also upset because now he can't ship out the dog like he planned to (it does take months for hypothyroid to go away or get under control as well as the symptoms (skin, ear, etc..) will stick around for months afterwords.
I'm not sure what else he expected us to do, he was sick when we got him plus he wasn't eating and was scrawny as hell (at least he's at a good weight now). The sad part is that the owner has been a good friend of ours as well as an excellent mentor for my wife with the German shepherd breed. Now, I don't think he'll want to associate with her anymore.
This is what we had to change because of him:
- Since he and Zorro did not get along we had to keep them separated, meaning one in their crate and the other out. Most of the time it was Gallon who was out and Zorro was crated.
- Gallon was an additional dog that had to be walked.
- We could not travel. With 5 large dogs and two that didn't get along it would be impossible to transport all the dogs anywhere and just imagine a hotel room! So we weren't able to go to Orlando for a weekend like we do like to do every few months.
When we got him he had gone from bad home to bad home to bad home and so on. He seriously looked like shit - skin issues, ear infection, severe separation anxiety issues, you name it.
We asked the owner about it and he said he didn't know about the allergy issues but his thyroid was checked out by OFA (I think that's the people who do it) and it was OK.
We took him to our vet and they said it could be caused by a lot of issues but the most common and least evasive is some sort of allergies - most likely food. So we switched his diet, two weeks later, no help. We switched it again, and no help. We went though 4 or 5 diet changes with no luck.
We took him back to the vet since it wasn't helping. Next step - medicated back and an ear flush. We tried that for a month, it didn't help.
We ended up taking him to an allergy expert and they think it was hypothyroid and to put him on soloxine to try that out (this was a month ago).
We also had two failed breedings with Kiri (one round had 3 artificial inseminations, the other round had two ties and two artificial inseminations).
Every step of the way we let the owner know what was going on and asked him if he had any suggestions. Not once did he offer any.
We spent over $1000 on HIS dog (even though he promised he would co-own Gallon with my wife the paperwork was never changed so technically it was never our dog) that we didn't have and we did everything we could have done (and would have done with our own dogs). This is not including the very high end food (around $3-$4 a pound) we also bought to try).
He took the dog to his own vet and they took skin grafts (which our vet would have done today - we had an appointment with them for another visit over the issue).
He's mad at us because he feels we didn't do enough to help the issue. He's also upset because gallon was bleeding on his legs (ankles etc..). Mind you - I'm willing to bet due to the severe change in surroundings he probably chewed himself and we had blankets in his crate as well as him sleeping out of the crate at night on a carpet or on the bed - now he's in a crate with no blanket (hard) and it out on a concrete patio a lot - of course he's going to bleed (the owner claims we were too soft on him).
He's also upset because now he can't ship out the dog like he planned to (it does take months for hypothyroid to go away or get under control as well as the symptoms (skin, ear, etc..) will stick around for months afterwords.
I'm not sure what else he expected us to do, he was sick when we got him plus he wasn't eating and was scrawny as hell (at least he's at a good weight now). The sad part is that the owner has been a good friend of ours as well as an excellent mentor for my wife with the German shepherd breed. Now, I don't think he'll want to associate with her anymore.
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