Sasha 06-277

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6/28/06: Sasha is a Golden mix from a full shelter in Missouri. With the help of the shelter workers and rescue volunteers, Sasha and some other dogs made their way safely to RAGOM last weekend. Sasha spent her first day in Minnesota with a temporary foster family. She was stinky and matted, so they cleaned her up and started cutting out her mats. We are still working on removing the mats, so it looks like she has been given a bad hair cut. Her temp foster family described Sasha as sweet, quiet, and well behaved. Sasha has been in her new foster home for a few days and she continues to show those same qualities with us. She did great with the dogs at her temp foster home, as well as with the two resident dogs here.

Sasha's records from Missouri have not arrived yet, so we don't know anything about her background. She doesn't appear to know her name or any commands. She has been limping on her left rear leg since she arrived in Minnesota. We will be taking Sasha to the vet as soon as possible to get her leg checked.

SashaSasha

At a Glance #06-277

Mixed Breed Born: March 2003
Female Weight not specified

Status: Adopted

Profile

6/28/06: Sasha is a Golden mix from a full shelter in Missouri. With the help of the shelter workers and rescue volunteers, Sasha and some other dogs made their way safely to RAGOM last weekend. Sasha spent her first day in Minnesota with a temporary foster family. She was stinky and matted, so they cleaned her up and started cutting out her mats. We are still working on removing the mats, so it looks like she has been given a bad hair cut. Her temp foster family described Sasha as sweet, quiet, and well behaved. Sasha has been in her new foster home for a few days and she continues to show those same qualities with us. She did great with the dogs at her temp foster home, as well as with the two resident dogs here.

Sasha's records from Missouri have not arrived yet, so we don't know anything about her background. She doesn't appear to know her name or any commands. She has been limping on her left rear leg since she arrived in Minnesota. We will be taking Sasha to the vet as soon as possible to get her leg checked.

SashaSasha

Updates

Monday, November 6, 2006

Sasha had fun on Halloween barking every time the doorbell rang. She seemed to enjoy all of the activity. Sasha has been busy going for walks, playing with toys, and running around the fenced back yard. She likes to play bow to people and then race back and forth around them in the yard. She does not know any tricks, but I think she would be very easy to train. She is very attentive if you have a treat in your hand. Sasha likes all dog treats, but her favorite treat is carrots. During the summer, she would wait patiently next to the garden fence for me to pick her a carrot. The garden was fenced last year because one of the resident dogs would pick her own tomatoes, beans, strawberries, and carrots. She taught the other resident dog and the foster dogs how to do it. So, now all of the dogs have learned to beg around the garden fence. In the house, Sasha is well behaved and plays quietly with her toys. We have a toy box on each end of the house and Sasha grabs a toy from one toy box and runs to the other toy box to exchange toys. She has not learned how to put the toys back, so usually one or both of the toy boxes are emptied quickly.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Sasha was a busy girl one day last week while I was at work. I came home and noticed that Sasha had white tufts of something stuck on her face and back. I thought it was probably stuffing from a toy. Sasha does not rip up toys, but one of the resident dogs definitely would. I followed Sasha and the trail of white pieces down the hallway to the dog room. The white stuff turned out to be toilet paper. Sasha had shredded a roll of toilet paper on her blanket. She finished pulling the rest of the paper off the roll and then shredded the cardboard. Since this was the only naughty thing Sasha has done in her foster home, I had to take pictures. She looked so proud of her mess and took a nap on top of it while I cleaned up the hallway. I couldn't figure out where she had gotten the roll from, since the one in the bathroom was still intact. Yesterday, I finally caught her accomplice. One of the resident dogs pulled a roll out of a decorative storage container. She then walked right past me and placed the roll in front of Sasha for her to start shredding.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Sasha is starting to walk on her left rear leg and is putting some weight on it. She still likes to run around on just three legs and she is very fast. She is so fast, she caught a squirrel in our yard the other day. She got him by the tail and luckily, he got away. Sasha was really pleased with the mouthful of fur she caught. Sasha's left rear leg is getting stronger each day. She likes to put her front paws up on the front window to look outside for squirrels. This is a great exercise to get her to put more weight on her left rear leg, so we encourage her to look out the window.

Sasha enjoys going for walks, but she is not so great on a leash. She likes to run at full speed to the end of her short leash, then stops, and then she dashes to the left, then the right. My neighbors are used to seeing me walking different foster dogs, most of which do not walk well on a leash. But they have never seen me zigzagging wildly down the street with a dog running on three legs with a funny haircut. We received many strange looks. I tried the gentle leader on Sasha and she does not like it very much. We made it down the block with her bucking the entire way. Then she stopped and rolled over and over in the grass. So we will continue using the gentle leader and try to make it further around the block each time.

Sasha is feeling really good and is playing more each day. Before her surgery, she loved to spin in circles and then go racing away. She was playing with a toy yesterday and was so excited she started spinning. She hasn't tried this since before her surgery and must have extended her left rear leg too far. Sasha cried in pain and hid in her kennel. The other dogs ran to her aid. Sasha does not want other dogs around her when she is hurting, so I thought she would be growly with them. I was wrong. Sasha came right out of the kennel and let the other dogs lick her muzzle. Then she came running to me for sympathy and spent the rest of the night in my lap. The other dogs would come over periodically to see if she was ok and she was very nice to them. She is really affectionate and I think she likes being part of the pack now. Sasha has really come a long way since joining us.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Sasha had a few difficult days right after her surgery. She was in pain and would whimper off and on throughout the night. She was growling and snapping at the other dogs and stayed in her kennel most of the time. She didn’t want the other dogs around her, so we made a gated recovery room for Sasha.

Within a few days, she was more outgoing and wanted to be out with us. Sasha is back to being buddies with the resident dogs. We have to make sure the other dogs aren't too wild around her and bump into her injured leg. She is eating fine and gets around pretty well. Sasha had difficulty with stairs, so I was carrying her up and down the stairs for a few days. She is using the stairs now by herself, but I have to make sure she doesn't go too fast and get off balance. Her leg is still sore, but I think it is healing up fine and she does not mind doing her rehab exercises. The only problem she has right now is that she likes to lay down on top off her injured leg. She is not putting any weight yet on that leg and she can't get back up. She starts crying and squirming and someone has to lift her up. Sasha is taking Rimadyl for the pain and antibiotics for two weeks.

Sasha went to the vet a couple days ago. Her left ankle and foot started to swell up below her surgery site. There was a large mass filled with fluid hanging off of her leg. It was edema (fluid draining and collecting from her surgery site) and was not anything to worry about. It has now started to dissipate. Sasha's ears are still inflamed, but we are just going to clean them every few days rather than treating them again.

Sasha's itchy skin is back. She breaks out in skin rashes that get scabby. She can't take any steroids until she is off of her Rimadyl. So, we will just wait for a couple weeks and see what happens. We can give her a bath when she has her stitches out next week. While at the vet, Sasha crawled under a bench and ended up stuck on top of her hurt leg. She was squealing and struggling, so we had to lift the bench off of her and help her up. She was quite cross after that and took it out on a dog that was trying to meet her in the waiting room. She barked and growled in his face, which is really out of character for her. She usually loves meeting new dogs.

Sasha's stitches will be removed next week. Then she can start short walks and swimming to exercise her leg. She is not putting any weight on her back left leg yet, but she does occasionally put a toe down on the ground. She is feeling a little better each day and her sweet and spunky personality is coming back.

If you'd like to donate to Sasha's medical care, our address is:

Retrieve a Golden of Minnesota, P.O. Box 5567, Hopkins, MN, 55343-0492, or go to the Network For Good web site (copy and paste the address below into your browser):

http://partners.guidestar.org/controller/searchResults.gs?action_donateR...

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Sasha went to her surgery consultation in Stillwater and received lots of attention at the vet office. Everyone was very interested in the little dog with the shaved head and the limp. She received lots of sympathy after her story was heard. Sasha let all of the attention go to her head. She is normally very quiet, but became very loud at the vet. She wanted all the dogs and people present to come and see her. If they didn't, she barked at them. One woman came over to see her and Sasha was a little too friendly. She flipped the back of the woman's skirt up in front of everyone.

Sasha has an appointment for a femoral head ostectomy (FHO) next week. This procedure will eliminate any pain by preventing contact between the upper leg bone and the pelvis. With an FHO, the head or ball portion of the upper leg is removed. Then, a false joint will form with the leg muscles, ligaments, and tendons. Sasha should have normal usage of the leg and no pain after the surgery and rehabilitation. Sasha will have one to two weeks of rest after the surgery. Then she needs to start exercising the leg by going for walks and swimming. She will also have flexing and extending exercises that she needs help with. Sasha can be adopted at any time, except immediately after the surgery.

Sasha is still being a well behaved little girl in her foster home. Her scabs have healed up, her skin looks great, and her hair is starting to grow back. She is just finishing up her antibiotics and prednisone this week. We'll be keeping an eye on her skin to see if the itching and rashes return once she is off her medication. She is doing great and will be all ready for her surgery next week.