| Caiman | Boxer Age: 1 year Size: Large Gender: Male Dogs: Yes Kids: Yes Cats: Unknown Came in: 12/4/09 |
Adoption Requirements: • You must be 21 years of age • All current pets in the household MUST be spayed/neutered and current on shots (yes, we do call and verify this information) • We do not place female boxers with other female dogs • Attendance at a professionally run obedience course is a requirement of adoption! • We do not adopt out dogs as gifts • All pets are family companions! |
Yes. That is a real picture of a real dog. Yes. The dog is still alive in the photo. He is a one year old male boxer named Caiman. How could someone let this happen? We only know part of the story: Caiman's owner took him out of town to visit family for Thanksgiving. 11/30/09 Caiman was taken to the vet for the first time regarding this condition. He had cracked, bleeding, oozing and itchy skin. He was unable to open his eyes, his feet were swollen and furless. He was lethargic. The vet was appalled at his condition and ran several tests to find out what was wrong - what could have caused this poor dog to be in such pain? All of the results were inconclusive. He started Caiman on medicine and sent him home - urging the owner to take him to his own vet as soon as possible. 12/2/09 The vet followed up with Caiman's owner. He was disheartened to find out that no additional follow up treatment had been received, and in fact Caiman HAD no regular vet to follow up with. The vet again stressed the importance of getting this dog help and care. Caiman's condition had showed some improvement on the medicines he was given, but without a positive diagnosis he wouldn't be able to fully recover.
12/3/09 Caiman was surrendered to Animal Services. The owner stated that he knew the dog needed medical care but couldn't afford it. Many owners are unaware that the animal shelters can't afford expensive medical treatments either - Caiman was scheduled for euthanasia. |
Caiman 12/3/09 |
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Caiman 12/3/09 |
12/4/09 At 8:30am Boxers and Buddies was called by the Animal Shelter. The shelter director knew this dog could be saved and contacted Boxers and Buddies in hopes we could help. The animal shelter that was housing Caiman and Boxers and Buddies in Reno are more than 4 hours apart. Through great coordination and teamwork Caiman was rescued and safe within 6 hours of the original phone call. Caiman has (at this time) an unknown infection that covers his face, swells his eyes shut, down his chest and legs making laying and sleeping uncomfortable. The skin cracks across his feet and leaves oozing sores over a third of his body. Scabs on the insides of his eyelids scrape across his eyes every time he blinks, scratching the corneas and leaving his eyes crusted shut with the discharge of the infection raging inside them. This condition is obviously painful - Caiman cringes when you reach to touch him. He is going to need extensive vet care, blood work, skin scrapes, antibiotics, eye medication and special food are just the beginning. You can see the beautiful boxer boy just waiting to be cured underneath. Despite his pain and discomfort, Caiman is making the best out of his situation. His nub wags when he's not in pain. Even when given his medicine and his sore leaking eyes are being pried open there isn't a snap or a growl. He waits patiently for the torture to be over - wagging his tail when it finally stops. Help us help Caiman. No dog deserves this. |
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Caiman 12/10/09 |
Caiman 12/10/09 |
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Caiman 12/22/09 |
Update 12/20/09 Caiman has been to the vet weekly since his rescue. The vet thinks his condition was a combination of exposure to an unknown toxin and severe allergies - complicated by demodex mange that his body was too weak to continue to fight. His condition is improving. His fur is coming back and his face is no longer leathery and cracked. Caiman's personality is starting to emerge and he is a sweetie! Currently in a foster home with other dogs, he doesn't fight or scuffle - even though he is a young, unneutered (still not healthy enough to go under the knife!) male. He is playful and LOVES people and attention. He's working on his crate training and housebreaking and makes the most miserable boxer noises in his crate (unless you leave the TV on for him). He is good about taking his pills but hates his eye medication. Its his eyes that we're the most worried out. They are scratched and inflamed with blue abrasions covering the corneas and broken blood vessels surrounding the eyes. It's still difficult for him to open his eyes and he runs into things when walking around. We just started him on a new eye medicine in hopes of seeing improvements but the new drops seem to sting and make his eyes foam and water. If this medicine doesn't work the next one is $80 a bottle so we're keeping our fingers crossed. We wanted to give this one at least a week first - it just breaks our hearts to see it hurt him.
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His eyes are the most concern right now - the scabs are rubbing against his eyes and making them so irritated and swollen that we can't tell if it's just a result of everything else that's going on or if his eyelids are turned in (entropic) and need surgery. I'm afraid if we can't get his eye problems under control it could cause permanent damage to his vision.
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Caiman 12/22/09 |
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Update 12/28/09 Caiman had a vet appointment today. The vet followed up with his eyes which are improving. They're still so swollen that his eye lashes have turned into his eyes and are rubbing against his eyes irritating them. We're trying a new eye medicine ($80 a bottle) in hopes of seeing rapid improvements. Although the new eye medicine seems to be helping and we're going to follow up again in two weeks. If the meds work - which hopefully they will - we'll see the swelling go down and his eyelids will turn back out and no longer irritate his eyes. If the medicine does not work, Caiman will face a $400 surgery to cut into his upper eyelids and pull the eye lashes out of his eyes and resituate them where they belong. Even though Caiman is recovering and starting to look more like a dog and less like an alien, he is not out of the woods yet. Hopefully Caiman won't need surgery, but he is still on eye drops 3 times a day (at $80/bottle), antibiotics twice a day, allergy pills twice a day, special prescription anti-itch baths every other day and special hypoallergenic food to aide in his recovery. He still needs donations to help pay for his care. He has come a long way and will hopefully get healthy and be ready for adoptions soon. |
Caiman 1/03/10
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Caiman 1/03/10 |
Caiman 1/03/10 |
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1/10/10 Cat Test Results: The cat wouldn't run so I don't know if he would chase it or not. The cat stood its ground and hissed and growled. Caiman showed curiosity but no fixation behaviors or aggression. He sniffed the cat then moved on to explore the rest of the room
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Caiman 1/10/10 |
