Gus here

I'm starting to feel like if you put Rogue and Blaze together you get my Gus.

Gus is my foster failure that I've had since August. He is approximately 10 years old, hypothyroid, bone spurs on spine, arthritic and chronic bronchitis. For the most part, we have gotten these issues under control and he's turned out great.

I had recently started him on Flovent for his cough, hoping to get him off steroids. On March 26 overnight, his cough got worse. It started to sound like he had picked up kennel cough. I called the vet and picked up doxycycline and cough tabs for him and he got his first dose around 11:00 on Friday. By 2:00, I knew something was seriously wrong and rushed him to the vet. They took him in back to stabilize him and when I went back to see him, he was on ice packs with a temp of 106 and on oxygen. Somehow he had developed pneumonia seemingly overnight. Since they didn't have an actual oxygen tent, I brought him over to the emergency clinic.

Over at the e-clinic, he was on an IV drip and had constant oxygen. After 24 hours there and $2,000 later, I decided to bring him home even though they wanted him there another 24-48 hours with no guarantee of surviving. His discharge papers said his temp was not regulating and even on oxygen, his levels were still low and if he got worse, he either needed to be rehospitalized or euthanized.

At home, Gus was on three different antibiotics, his flovent inhaler, and nebulized three times a day. Saturday and Sunday I hand fed him tiny amounts of canned food.

By Monday, his appetite started to return and he started eating his dry food once again. We just had our second recheck and he is staying on the antibiotics for another two weeks. Other than still breathing a bit heavier than normal, he is acting like himself again. In his case, I believe he was stressed out at the e-clinic and needed some mommy love.

Here he is a couple days ago reclaiming the stairs. He has the Blaze poodle look going on.

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n313/beardiedawg/IMG_2373.jpg

 

Here is Gus's rescue picture. He kind of looks like an armadillo with the fat pockets all around.

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n313/beardiedawg/125901844.jpg

Here he is a few months later starting to look and act like a dog.

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n313/beardiedawg/IMG_1381.jpg

And here he is getting his sheltie fur in.

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n313/beardiedawg/10422370_10203531832444678_21511269.jpg

Looking back, he looks so much older in his shelter pictures. Losing the weight and exercise has definitely brought him back to life.