Picasa

rescued Bouvier bitch, available for adoption

Picasa is a mid-life spayed bitch, very sweet and gentle, who landed in Rescue as the result of her owner's death. She is exceptionally well behaved and very easy to live with. She would be well suited to a home that is moderate to low activity in lifestyle. She gets along well with other dogs in the home. Unknown as to behavior with cats. The photo above was taken at the shelter. She had not been groomed in a long time. Because she was matted and had skin infections, I had to clip her coat off.

(8/15/08) Picasa has been in Rescue for about a month now. She was brought into the Oakland Animal Control after her owner's death.

By a quirk of fate, I had had some knowledge of Picasa some years ago. Three and a half years ago, just before Christmas , I got a phone call from her owner who had very recently obtained her from a breeder known to the Bouvier club to be a source of repeated problems, quite a few of whose dogs had landed in Rescue over the years. My caller had encountered this man and the dog in a park near her home and had admired the dog. The man had offered the dog to her (whether for free or for sale was not told to me), representing her as a normal healthy dog and recently spayed. The woman was enchanted and took Picasa home. The cause of her call to me was that Picasa had been having a bloody discharge and had been having difficulty defecating. The woman's vet had said the dog was victim of a botched spay and would require expensive abdominal surgery. The woman was partly disabled and living on Disability, ie low income, and could not afford treatment. She did not want to surrender the dog to Rescue however, nor did she want to return the dog to the former owner (possibly also had no way to contact him). I did web research to find a number of organizations which will make grants to lower income people faced with expensive veterinary care, and provided this information to the owner. She was going to follow up on it. Sounded like the problem was on route to solution.

Then Dec 31 , I got another call from her. She and Picasa had been in a minor car collision, or maybe not so minor, and now Picasa's hind legs did not work very well. One of the dog rescue people who had already been helping her was able to get the dog to a vet and was trying to arrange for some financial aid. Now it was looking like Picasa was paralyzed or nearly so. I sent the vet some recent info on a new treatment discovery from Purdue U that seemed to help in spinal cord injuries if applied within first 72 hours. One of our BCNC Rescue Team, Deb, who lives in same area as Picasa's owner, volunteered to help her. The treating vet desperately wanted to have the dog evaluated by a veterinary neurologist and Deb offered to do the driving and the club would pick up the bill for the neurologist. The neurologist was able to diagnose Picasa as having hemi-vertebra, a malformed vertebra causing some instability in the spinal column. He felt Picasa had a chance to recover from her apparant paralysis if treated either (a) with surgery or (b) home care as directed, and he thought that the chances were about the same either way, not good but not impossible. Picasa went home with her owner, still unable to use her hind legs. I heard later that the owner had an offer of a donated "doggie wheelchair" , ie hind end support on wheels for rear-end paralysis. That was the last I heard. At this point the owner was pissed off with Bouvier Rescue. Hard to understand since we had done nothing but help. On the other hand , we had urged her to surrender the dog to us and she may have realized it was because we did not trust her to get the dog the care she so desperately needed. It's just as well of course, as the club would probably have followed the neurologist's advice to euthanize her.

So now it's three and a half years later, the owner is dead, and Picasa is at the shelter and she is walking reasonably normally. She is able to lie down and get up on her own. No trouble defecating. No trouble urinating, though she does sit right on the ground rather than squat above it , which means that sometimes the urine flows onto her rear leg hair. Deb went to the shelter to see her, and yes indeed it really is the same Picasa, not some other dog with the same name. Deb confirmed to me that (as the shelter volunteer had stated) she is walking without difficulty, but a bit short strided and her back is a bit "roached" upwards, and she is able to urinate and defecate easily and normally. And that she is very sweet and trusting.

I was able to go get her the following day.

Yes, she is sufficiently normal in functioning for ordinary life. Not a candidate for athletic events. Not a jogging or hiking partner. Perhaps should not engage in wild rough play with other dogs or be insituations where other dogs would crash into her, as often happens at the Dog Park. But a dog who can live a normal and enjoyable life. And she is sweet and trusting and cooperative. Couldn't ask for a nicer dog in that regard. She's also a pretty dog, or will be when her coat grows out again.

Because Picasa had been in a shelter, with contageous disease always a potential threat, she spent her first two weeks at my place in quarrantine in my outdoor rescue run. I took her for modest length walks twice a day. By the end of the first week it was obvious she was walking more freely, with greater range of motion in her legs and with less "roach" in her back. After clipping and treatment with flea prevention, her skin started to improve. Her behavior was always excellent. She started showing a bit of liveliness at moments.

Once I got her into the house, her whole attitude brightened up more and it is clear that she is a happy dog, though usually a very laid-back one. She got along with my own four dogs immediately and effortlessly. She adapted to our ways easily. Easy to walk on leash , either by herself or in a group. Walks a bit slower than some younger dogs would, which suits me fine but would not suit someone into speed walking.

I got her an appointment at the Vet School (UC Davis) in the Community Medicine Service as soon as possible, so we could follow up on her medical questions. I was hoping that perhaps a neurological exam and spinal X-ray might lay to rest any worries about her future in that regard. Unfortunately all they could do would be to show where she is now, but not make predictions for the future. Most dogs with hemi-vertebra live pretty normal lives however. I asked the VMTH to send for her previous records and they did so, but these arrived only several weeks later and showed nothing we did not already know. Her blood chem panel and urinalysis did show a few oddities that we are following up on. Nothing scary, but could be stuff an adopter would want to know about. The vet verified that she has what appears to be a classic spay scar, which confirms that she is spayed. (Given the history , I was not going to take this for granted). She's heartworm negative and has started prevention. The vet found some deep seated skin infection and put her on 4 weeks of antibiotics and will re-check her again when those are done. She'd already had her Rabies, DAP, and B ortatella vaccinations at the shelter.

So now (8/17/08) that's where we are. Picasa greets each new day with a bit of a dance, anticipating getting her morning antibiotic dose in a glob of canned food. She goes on walks and we are now up to over a mile and a half. I've had a few inquiries from possible adopters, but of course any adoption has to wait untill we have finished her veterinary check out. Her behavior continues to be exemplary. She has been to Farmer's Market and enjoys meeting strangers and being petted by them. Only even slightly problematic behavior is that she seems to be reactive to meeting strange dogs if they are black. She's fine with may own two black dogs and one black with white sprinkles dog. All she did towards the strange black dogs was bark and lunge forward. I'd like to do some more work with her on this. I don't want to take her to the Dog Park however because some of the dogs run around like wild cannonballs and slam into anyone or any dog who does not get out of their way. That's not a real good idea for her to be slammed into.

Update 8/31/08 : her health re-check

A week ago Picasa went back to the VMTH for a re-check, new blood panel and new urinalysis. Dr Meadows was very impressed at the improvements in her overall demeanor (more alert and active) , her movement and all neurological signs, and her skin and coat re-growth. When her lab results came back, they showed that all the items that had been a bit abnormal a month ago had returned to near normality. So the conclusion is that her poor condition at time of rescue was due to poor situation prior to rescue, most likely poor nutrition and a lot of stress during the previous period. Given that her owner was probably dying for some time , it makes sense that the dog was not receiving normally good care during that period.

 

I would consider Picasa ready for adoption at this point, though I am in not the slightest hurry to see her leave me. She is easy and pleasant to live with and gets along fine with all 4 of my own dogs. Since two of mine are quite old, one of the two with serious health problems, I'd be quite content to keep Picasa myself. But surely there is some really deserving person out there who needs her more than I do and who can give her a richer fuller life, a life in which she would have a starring role rather than just a supporting part.

I need to get a photo of her that shows her clipped down. Her face is especially pretty. And now that her bare spots are growing in, she looks very nice all over. She is cropped and docked, in case anyone cares about that. Grey in color.

Picasa lying down

shorn, with some re-growth

For more information or an appointment to meet Picasa, phone me at (530) 756-2997 between 10 am and 5 pm California time.