Annual microchip check

Your pet’s spring check up is the perfect time to have their microchip checked to make sure it’s still active. Eleven-year-old Laddie is an excellent example of the power of this tiny tool – after picking him up from animal control we called the microchip company and they were able to tell us who this sweet boy was registered to! Sadly, after contacting his owner he is not able to go back to his original home but happily, we now know his age, name and history. Laddie is comfortably chillin’ in his foster home getting some veterinary care and lots of tasty food and seems very happy to be called by his real name!

Ginger Bear is available for adoption

Ginger Bear is a beautiful, sweet collie girl, with an immune system disorder which affects her skin. Her family sadly surrendered her to MWCR when their vets were unable to successfully treat her condition. Ginger Bear has responded well to a high dose regimen of Prednisone that she is slowly weaning off. Her foster mom often calls her “fuzzy wuzzy” as she is re-growing all the hair that she lost. Her first five years, living in North Carolina in a quiet serene environment, she had no problems, but moving with her family to Wisconsin (and a home on a busy, high traffic street) two years ago, things changed and she was plagued with bouts of skin eruptions and hair loss. Her foster mom is confident that she will be able to continue her excellent recovery with no, or low dose levels of Prednisone, and a life in a quiet, loving forever home.

Ginger Bear is a “velcro” collie. She absolutely loves her people and will follow them everywhere. She is friendly with all people and other dogs. She is house-trained and has wonderful manners (other than occasional counter-surfing and dog bone possessiveness), knowing sit, stay and come. She is a happy girl, with great energy for a 7 year old dog (D.O.B. November 11/25/09).

Her ideal home would be one that could continue to provide her with great care, good food, stability, low stress, and of course lots of love. Although she does not have separation anxiety, she would thrive in a home with someone there most of the time, as her greatest joy is to be with her “person” or “people”. She could be an only dog, or share a home with other quiet pets. She will definitely need a home where her outside area does not have exposure to cars, as she is car obsessed, and will bark and try to chase cars, which causes her stress thereby likely contributing to her skin issues. Ginger’s foster mom loves her and wishes she could adopt her, but already has four dogs of her own, and regular foster dogs.

Check out Ginger Bear’s updated bio and pictures! http://mwcr.force.com/apex/MWCR_AllAdoptionsView 

The photos show her now, when her skin condition was at its worst, and before, when she lived in North Carolina. A beautiful Collie girl, now and then.

This is an example of what we do with your donations!

Ginger was regretfully surrendered because her owners felt it was the best way to get her the help she needs for a severe skin condition. Ginger’s foster mom got the results of her allergy test and she’s allergic to quite a bit – including human epithelial cells, which means people. That in combination with the dermatomyositis (DM) is probably is why her condition is so severe. So the plan is to get her on a food she can tolerate, keep working on getting her skin better and then we’ll start allergy treatments to help her build up an immunity to the environmental allergens. If we can keep the allergies from flaring up that should also keep the DM from getting out of hand. Ginger says she’ll just take a quick nap while we figure out the details.  

We are all so thankful for your donations, allowing up to help this sweet dog.

Sweet Mia

Sweet Mia is still looking for a forever home, so if anyone is interested in adding a nice older lady to their household please let us know. She could also be a possible candidate for ‘forever foster’, ideally near the dermatologist MWCR uses in Minneapolis. Her foster mom, Joan, will be at the Minnesota Frolic, June 5, so we even have transport to the area. Mia’s bio is below – please consider making her a part of your family!

Mia was surrendered to MWCR with her companion Bobbi when their elderly owner could no longer care for them. Bobbi has found her forever home but 10 year old Mia is still looking for the perfect place. She has recently been diagnosed with dermatomyoitis (DM), which has caused her to have some skin issues. Mia had to have emergency surgery for pyometra (uterine infection), and since DM is a hereditary autoimmune disease, we think it may have flared up because her system was fighting that infection. Her foster mom said she’s starting to see new hair growth, so that’s an excellent sign. There’s not a lot of preventative treatment involved with DM, mostly a matter of dealing with any symptoms if they pop us and cause discomfort. We have had several members whose collies have had it and they recommend good food, some supplements and reducing stress as much as possible. Mia was recently at the collie frolic in Milwaukee and was a big hit!

Mia likes to look pretty and enjoys being groomed. Car rides were new and scary at first but now Mia is jumping in and out like a pro. Going for walks was likely also new and she seemed to have no clue what to do at first but is starting to get the hang of it and now enjoys walks, behaving better each time. She gets excited when seeing a person or animal on their walks, but passing traffic does not bother her. Neither does the vacuum cleaner – when it gets too close for their comfort, she will calmly walk away from it.

Mia is out-going and spunky for her age, quick to show affection and really enjoys being around her people. You can’t help but want to pet her as she will come to you to say “Hi” often throughout the day. Do you have room in your heart and home for this lovely lady?

Would you consider being one of our heroes?

Here is a great article from DogWatch.com about what it means to be a foster parent for a rescue:

Fostering dogs: The hardest job you’ll ever love

If you’re interested in becoming a foster family for MWCR, please click here.

Murdock

Sometimes our collies come in a bit more needy than others. Vice President and Adoption Coordinator Sarah Rebernick tells us about one such collie. Thank you to all our members and donors. You make rescue possible!

Aug. 11

Murdoch, a 2-4 year old sable/white boy, came to us from a farmer who found him with a bad wound on his back end. He thought it was a bite from another animal, possibly a coyote and treated him with home remedies. He contacted us to surrender Murdoch and we picked him up on Sunday.

Murdoch’s vet visit on Monday revealed that he is indeed a collie in need of rescue. He has several broken teeth and his coat is tangled into a solidly matted coat of armor with what appear to be metal shavings stuck in it. He tested positive for a couple of tick borne diseases, which is not surprising since he was covered in fleas and ticks under that solid mass of hair. The poor baby also has a large abdominal mass that was drained of over 8 oz. of (icky, stinky) fluid. He went home last night on antibiotics and will return today to be shaved and assess whether or not the mass will need to be surgically removed and if he will need to be neutered – he is matted so badly that they couldn’t tell :-(.

Through all of this he has been an absolute angel and his foster mom cannot say enough about what a nice boy he is. I’m so glad he is here with us and am really, really grateful that his foster mom is willing to help him become the happy, healthy collie he should be!

 

Aug. 12

Excellent report for Murdoch on his return trip to the vet. The mass stopped draining and was soft and small – we’re hoping it’s part of his original bite wounds and will absorb on it’s own now that it’s been treated. After shaving it was discovered that he will indeed need to be neutered, so we’ll take care of that and assess his teeth when he’s feeling better. The groomer reported that he was a perfect gentleman and even gave her a play bow when she was finished. She did a wonderful job and managed to save some mane and tail – he certainly looks handsome with his new lion cut. He lost 5 lbs of flea & tick matted hair, bringing him down to a svelte 65 lbs, which is just about perfect for him. Foster mom says he feels so much better now that he hasn’t stopped doing a happy dance since they got home :-).

 

Food donations

MWCR has been fortunate to be the periodic recipient of dog food and treats, as well as a few bags of cat food, as part of a local pet food distribution. This is being distributed to our foster homes.

Barb and Dave Gibson

MWCR President Terry Libro snapped these pictures of MWCR  members Kitty and Arnie Hilk and Barb and Dave Gibson working hard in the off-and-on again drizzle to unload the semi-trailer, sort the items, and load Arnie’s pick-up.

Arnie loading up his truck.

 

 

 

Supervising the operation were the Hilk’s trio – Tristan, Jackson and Sammi