Matty Groves, reprise & more photos (& updates)
EDIT 09/09/09: Matty has a new home!! If you are linking just to this post, there are more details (and a photo) at this later post: http://karisu-sama.livejournal.com/458210.html (includes links to my husband's photo albums of Matty, and information) I think it will be absolutely wonderful for him, and I believe he will be loved to pieces and cherished as he very much deserves!
I hope he gets the abscess on his heel seen to soon, and the two oozy spots on his belly by his leg, and perhaps eventually gets to a radiologist if there are questions about his heart murmur. I have been assured these will happen.
I have to say this is hard on me, as I could not help bonding with him even though I had always planned to try to place him, and I love him to pieces too. A day or 2 more, and I think I might not have been able to let him go at all. One cannot find a dog with a sweeter, more gentle, more loving temperament. So many kisses on top of his little soft furry head... ;_; Lots of crying here...
EDIT 09/08/09: More pics of Matty!
Tomorrow we shall see if Matty may have a new home! I hope it's one where he'll get lots of love, cuddles and kisses! He still needs to see a vet again about his right heel - he has an abscess, and there may be a foxtail inside, so it will require probing. Muttville will help out with that, whether he is here or at his new place.
EDIT 09/07/09: Yes, it's been a while since I updated; mostly I've just been treating Matty with his meds and dealing with my busy life... About a week ago, Matty went to a vet up in Oakland courtesy of Muttville and got dental work done for probably the first time in his poor little life! (They removed 12 teeth!) He still has enough teeth to eat with, though, and now his breath smells GREAT. Dr. Yang also fixed his "cherry eye", and removed more embedded and covered-over Foxtails from his belly.
Also, Dr. Yang estimates him at only 10 years old - and many Cockers have been known to live to 16, 17... so, Matty may have quite a bit of life left! :)
We had a party at our house this past weekend, and he seems to have enjoyed all the people coming by and saying "hi" to him. :)
This little guy is just looking better and better and better. We thought Matty was fairly deaf, but it could also have been due to the antibiotic medicine clogging up his ears every day. Today he got stuck in a room where I was napping, nosed at the door to try to get back out, and I asked "Matty, what are you doing?" and he immediately turned around and noticed me there! So, it looks like he might not have the best hearing, but he CAN hear!
Thanks to Muttville's posting, Matty might have found a new home! *crosses fingers* A college student (who lives at home with parents & grandfather) is coming to visit him on Wednesday. I hope it works out. He's adorable, he's snuggley, he loves to follow people around and lie down near them when they are sitting, and we're all going to miss him when he leaves....
Here is is on our deck today, after another bath (especially to wash off the sticky ear-cleaner residue from his ears and neck). Apologies that he still looks like he needs to see a groomer, as I haven't got the proper tools to give him a nice spiffy trim.:
EDIT 08/21/09: Matty got a refill on his ear meds yesterday, otherwise not much to report except that he's still cute, his eyes are doing better, we pulled some foxtails out of his body (that were travelling through his skin in an outwardly direction), and he is still getting comprehensive medical tending-to every day. I look forward to when his issues are all much improved, which I'd like to see before we place him. I have more pics, but need to be on a different computer to post them - probably more updates when that happens (Tuesday, perhaps?)
Home leads not panning out. Maybe we'll hear from Muttville?
EDIT 08/17/09: "Silly pup tricks": the following is a photo of an apparently very comfortable SLEEPING dog:
I added all this li'l guys vet bills so far up tonight, and it's pretty scary (quite a bit over 1k), and it's not over yet... :/ He was obviously loved and wanted before in his life, and then subjected to awful neglect before being "dumped". I am so angry at whoever neglected him so much to need all this "fix it" care.
EDIT 08/16/09: THANKS A MILLION TIMES to all of you amazing and wonderful people who have made it possible for me to get some expensive tests done and buy all those medications for Matty, and everyone who has spread the word about him on the internet!!! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Matty went to visit Sherri Franklin of Muttville (senior dog adoption services in San Francisco) today, and she has decided to list him on her site, so we are currently his "foster home" for Muttville, and will be taking care of him at least until some time in Sept. She (and we!) would like him to get dental work, and she has a few vets who do services for her organization at a discount.
Currently the Paypal "donate" button that was below has been suspended for the moment, as it is possible (*crosses fingers*) that his foster care medical needs might from now be all or at least partly covered by the Muttville organization (I need to get specific information from Sherri; which vet(s) to see, etc.) Don't know if this will include already-scheduled followups and the radiologist. However, I don't want to ask people for more donations if there will be a way he could be covered! I will find out what the situation will be, and THANK YOU all again!!!
Sherri also gave me a proper dog bed for Matty from one of her large pile of donated beds in her basement.
Dental & more medical work - the horrible state of his teeth/gums may be the cause of his systemic infection and heart murmur (Everyone who has dogs, please feed them dry food and brush their teeth regularly!) Hopefully he might also be able to see a radiologist about the heart murmur as well. Also we really would like to get X-rays done to check if there may be more evil foxtail seeds under his skin that might be removable surgically.
Home? - Thanks to word of mouth/internet, it looks like we have TWO good leads on a possible home for this little guy, so am crossing my fingers! ♥ I am taking care of him and his current medical schedule for the time being (I hope to have his ear infection, UTI and such cleared up before he goes elsewhere.)
EDIT 08/15/09: Matty must have had a dog bed at some point in his life. He was trying to climb into boxes, so I found a bin and lined it with towels, and when he wants a nap and no one is around to lie next to, he goes and sleeps in it. It's in my daughter's room, by her bed - he likes to sleep there at night.
EDIT 08/14/09: You people are so super amazing, and I can't begin to thank you enough. I'm touched to tears. Thanks to your help, Matty was able to go back to the vet today, and they ran the tests on his ears and eyes, and gave him prescription medications for them.
He will need to take "dry eye" ointment for life (not a big surprise, Cockers are prone to dry eye, unfortunately), but the other ointment is to heal the ulcers he has in his eyes so he won't have that bothering him anymore. He also has prescription ear wash and ear ointment to take care of his ear infection (2x/day).
They worked on his paw; it's looking better, but if it swells up again, they will check for a foreign body. For now they say "wait and see" and keep him from licking it. If he seems to be trying to do that a lot, I'll have to get him an e-collar (known to viewers of the movie "Up" as a "cone of shame". :p)
He also got a pricey but very informative blood panel done, which shows that although he has a system-wide infection and urinary tract infection, his organs all appear to be healthy and functioning properly (meaning he's got a good chance at remaining alive!) When he sees the vet for his follow-up next week, I know she will want to discuss getting him to a radiologist to check on his heart murmur. I'll see by then what we can do!
The vets staff has also remarked on how nice his temperament is and how he won't even growl or snap when anyone does anything that hurts him. He's so darned sweet. It's so very upsetting how he was so apparently neglected and dumped. :(
I'm passing his story and my contact to everyone I meet who has any rescue connections, in hopes someone knows someone who can give him a home, too.
More pics:
All his medications / Matty about to get an ear bath (the ear wash smells like apple!)
EDIT 08/13/09: He initially went to a groomer on Thursday, because I do not have the tools in my house to trim the rest of his matted fur properly. Turns out there were a lot of foxtail-caused oozing sores under that fur, so the groomer couldn't work on him and he had to go instead back to the vet (immediately!), where he is being shaved and his skin issues treated.
EDIT back from the vet on 08/13: They gave us 2 full vials of foxtails they removed from his skin, but warned us there were some that were so far in the skin had already closed over them, so "don't be surprised if one day they show up coming out the other side of the dog". :( Foxtail grass seeds are NASTY. (link about dangers of foxtail grass to dogs) I hope he won't have serious repercussions down the road from the rest of the seeds. :( Whoever neglected and abandoned him to this is really EVIL. >.<
This is getting up to about $500-600 of care now, which is really squeezing us. I am still turning down diagnostic tests on his ears and eyes (he has dry eye and definitely has some sort of ear infection), because I can't afford them (card maxed out). I am hoping to get some general ear meds from the Muttsville Senior Dog rescue lady in San Francisco on Sunday, which at least would be free.
[donation request currently suspended - see EDIT 08/16/09 above]
(Photos link to larger versions)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sunday night (08/09/09), after our Taiko concert in Concord, I took a detour from my regular route home and wound up rescuing a sad little abandoned dog. I am fostering him for the moment, but he needs a home soon...
Here's info about the little boy we are calling "Matty Groves" (named after the mats in his fur, extrapolated to a full name from a traditional song sung best by the late Leigh Ann Hussey.)
Breed: Cocker Spaniel
Size: Small
Gender: Male
Neutered: Yes
Bio:
"Matty Groves, a sweet little 24 pound Cocker Spaniel boy, estimated by a vet friend of ours at perhaps 10-11 years old, was found on Aug. 9 wandering alone and collarless by a busy street in a south bay city. His filthy and matted fur was full of fleas and foxtails, but he has now had a few baths, a trim, a visit to a vet for a checkup and a rabies shot.
As of 4 days from the day he was found, Matty is still suffering from a sore paw, dry eyes, an ear infection and a urinary tract infection; he is currently being treated with antibiotics and topical remedies.
The local shelter has no reports of a lost Cocker Spaniel, and they think it's likely he was "dumped". (As he appears to have been previously well fed and possibly loved, a friend suggests perhaps he was owned by an elderly person who died, and the heir(s) dumped him.) The shelter also considers an elderly dog with typical possible elderly-dog health issues to be un-adoptable (and therefore slated for euthanasia after the 7-day "reclaimable by owner" period), so we have not turned him over to them.
Matty is very sweet, gentle and affectionate, does not bite even in pain, and gets along very well with other dogs. The family who rescued him (us) already has two dogs, including one with an expensive chronic medical condition (Addison's Disease), and in our current economy-caused financial situation we simply cannot afford another dog or his vet bills at this time. ;_;
Matty is house-trained and quiet, and he wags his little tail (a LOT!) at any sign of attention. He likes to follow people around, and his dearest wish is simply to be loved and stay near his people."
Additional:
Matty has tested heartworm free and internal-parasite free. The vet would like to check his sore paw for a foreign body, and she says she also recommends that his eyes be tested for glaucoma due to his age and breed, and his ears tested for the possible causes of his ear infection. We can't afford to do all these procedures at the current time, but we are hoping the antibiotics he is currently taking will at least help.
Matty also has a small lump on one side, and I am wondering if a foxtail grass barb has worked its way into his skin. (My daughter removed 3 on his belly that had already gotten in halfway.) He also has a bit of a heart murmur, which the vet thinks might be related to his ear infections, so we won't know if it's chronic until his infections are cleared up. He still smells a bit, which could be related to his ear infection or to the remainder of the matted fur which we hope to have removed soon..
Currently we are moisturizing his eyes with saline, flushing his ears with an ear cleaner, and keeping his ears taped above his head to let them dry out properly. We are also bathing his poor little foot in an iodine solution twice a day.
He has a lot of tartar on his teeth, but seems to have no problems at all eating the dry food my own dogs get, or a "test piece" of a large hard teeth-cleaning treat at the vet's.
The senior dog adoption service I contacted has no space in its foster homes, so we are fostering him. If you know anyone who might be willing to give a really sweet little old Cocker boy a loving home in return for all his generous love and very gentle kisses, please contact me...
How Matty looked the night I rescued him (after his first bath!):
.
I hope he gets the abscess on his heel seen to soon, and the two oozy spots on his belly by his leg, and perhaps eventually gets to a radiologist if there are questions about his heart murmur. I have been assured these will happen.
I have to say this is hard on me, as I could not help bonding with him even though I had always planned to try to place him, and I love him to pieces too. A day or 2 more, and I think I might not have been able to let him go at all. One cannot find a dog with a sweeter, more gentle, more loving temperament. So many kisses on top of his little soft furry head... ;_; Lots of crying here...
EDIT 09/08/09: More pics of Matty!
Tomorrow we shall see if Matty may have a new home! I hope it's one where he'll get lots of love, cuddles and kisses! He still needs to see a vet again about his right heel - he has an abscess, and there may be a foxtail inside, so it will require probing. Muttville will help out with that, whether he is here or at his new place.
EDIT 09/07/09: Yes, it's been a while since I updated; mostly I've just been treating Matty with his meds and dealing with my busy life... About a week ago, Matty went to a vet up in Oakland courtesy of Muttville and got dental work done for probably the first time in his poor little life! (They removed 12 teeth!) He still has enough teeth to eat with, though, and now his breath smells GREAT. Dr. Yang also fixed his "cherry eye", and removed more embedded and covered-over Foxtails from his belly.
Also, Dr. Yang estimates him at only 10 years old - and many Cockers have been known to live to 16, 17... so, Matty may have quite a bit of life left! :)
We had a party at our house this past weekend, and he seems to have enjoyed all the people coming by and saying "hi" to him. :)
This little guy is just looking better and better and better. We thought Matty was fairly deaf, but it could also have been due to the antibiotic medicine clogging up his ears every day. Today he got stuck in a room where I was napping, nosed at the door to try to get back out, and I asked "Matty, what are you doing?" and he immediately turned around and noticed me there! So, it looks like he might not have the best hearing, but he CAN hear!
Thanks to Muttville's posting, Matty might have found a new home! *crosses fingers* A college student (who lives at home with parents & grandfather) is coming to visit him on Wednesday. I hope it works out. He's adorable, he's snuggley, he loves to follow people around and lie down near them when they are sitting, and we're all going to miss him when he leaves....
Here is is on our deck today, after another bath (especially to wash off the sticky ear-cleaner residue from his ears and neck). Apologies that he still looks like he needs to see a groomer, as I haven't got the proper tools to give him a nice spiffy trim.:
EDIT 08/21/09: Matty got a refill on his ear meds yesterday, otherwise not much to report except that he's still cute, his eyes are doing better, we pulled some foxtails out of his body (that were travelling through his skin in an outwardly direction), and he is still getting comprehensive medical tending-to every day. I look forward to when his issues are all much improved, which I'd like to see before we place him. I have more pics, but need to be on a different computer to post them - probably more updates when that happens (Tuesday, perhaps?)
Home leads not panning out. Maybe we'll hear from Muttville?
EDIT 08/17/09: "Silly pup tricks": the following is a photo of an apparently very comfortable SLEEPING dog:
I added all this li'l guys vet bills so far up tonight, and it's pretty scary (quite a bit over 1k), and it's not over yet... :/ He was obviously loved and wanted before in his life, and then subjected to awful neglect before being "dumped". I am so angry at whoever neglected him so much to need all this "fix it" care.
EDIT 08/16/09: THANKS A MILLION TIMES to all of you amazing and wonderful people who have made it possible for me to get some expensive tests done and buy all those medications for Matty, and everyone who has spread the word about him on the internet!!! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Matty went to visit Sherri Franklin of Muttville (senior dog adoption services in San Francisco) today, and she has decided to list him on her site, so we are currently his "foster home" for Muttville, and will be taking care of him at least until some time in Sept. She (and we!) would like him to get dental work, and she has a few vets who do services for her organization at a discount.
Currently the Paypal "donate" button that was below has been suspended for the moment, as it is possible (*crosses fingers*) that his foster care medical needs might from now be all or at least partly covered by the Muttville organization (I need to get specific information from Sherri; which vet(s) to see, etc.) Don't know if this will include already-scheduled followups and the radiologist. However, I don't want to ask people for more donations if there will be a way he could be covered! I will find out what the situation will be, and THANK YOU all again!!!
Sherri also gave me a proper dog bed for Matty from one of her large pile of donated beds in her basement.
Dental & more medical work - the horrible state of his teeth/gums may be the cause of his systemic infection and heart murmur (Everyone who has dogs, please feed them dry food and brush their teeth regularly!) Hopefully he might also be able to see a radiologist about the heart murmur as well. Also we really would like to get X-rays done to check if there may be more evil foxtail seeds under his skin that might be removable surgically.
Home? - Thanks to word of mouth/internet, it looks like we have TWO good leads on a possible home for this little guy, so am crossing my fingers! ♥ I am taking care of him and his current medical schedule for the time being (I hope to have his ear infection, UTI and such cleared up before he goes elsewhere.)
EDIT 08/15/09: Matty must have had a dog bed at some point in his life. He was trying to climb into boxes, so I found a bin and lined it with towels, and when he wants a nap and no one is around to lie next to, he goes and sleeps in it. It's in my daughter's room, by her bed - he likes to sleep there at night.
EDIT 08/14/09: You people are so super amazing, and I can't begin to thank you enough. I'm touched to tears. Thanks to your help, Matty was able to go back to the vet today, and they ran the tests on his ears and eyes, and gave him prescription medications for them.
He will need to take "dry eye" ointment for life (not a big surprise, Cockers are prone to dry eye, unfortunately), but the other ointment is to heal the ulcers he has in his eyes so he won't have that bothering him anymore. He also has prescription ear wash and ear ointment to take care of his ear infection (2x/day).
They worked on his paw; it's looking better, but if it swells up again, they will check for a foreign body. For now they say "wait and see" and keep him from licking it. If he seems to be trying to do that a lot, I'll have to get him an e-collar (known to viewers of the movie "Up" as a "cone of shame". :p)
He also got a pricey but very informative blood panel done, which shows that although he has a system-wide infection and urinary tract infection, his organs all appear to be healthy and functioning properly (meaning he's got a good chance at remaining alive!) When he sees the vet for his follow-up next week, I know she will want to discuss getting him to a radiologist to check on his heart murmur. I'll see by then what we can do!
The vets staff has also remarked on how nice his temperament is and how he won't even growl or snap when anyone does anything that hurts him. He's so darned sweet. It's so very upsetting how he was so apparently neglected and dumped. :(
I'm passing his story and my contact to everyone I meet who has any rescue connections, in hopes someone knows someone who can give him a home, too.
More pics:
All his medications / Matty about to get an ear bath (the ear wash smells like apple!)
EDIT 08/13/09: He initially went to a groomer on Thursday, because I do not have the tools in my house to trim the rest of his matted fur properly. Turns out there were a lot of foxtail-caused oozing sores under that fur, so the groomer couldn't work on him and he had to go instead back to the vet (immediately!), where he is being shaved and his skin issues treated.
EDIT back from the vet on 08/13: They gave us 2 full vials of foxtails they removed from his skin, but warned us there were some that were so far in the skin had already closed over them, so "don't be surprised if one day they show up coming out the other side of the dog". :( Foxtail grass seeds are NASTY. (link about dangers of foxtail grass to dogs) I hope he won't have serious repercussions down the road from the rest of the seeds. :( Whoever neglected and abandoned him to this is really EVIL. >.<
This is getting up to about $500-600 of care now, which is really squeezing us. I am still turning down diagnostic tests on his ears and eyes (he has dry eye and definitely has some sort of ear infection), because I can't afford them (card maxed out). I am hoping to get some general ear meds from the Muttsville Senior Dog rescue lady in San Francisco on Sunday, which at least would be free.
[donation request currently suspended - see EDIT 08/16/09 above]
(Photos link to larger versions)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sunday night (08/09/09), after our Taiko concert in Concord, I took a detour from my regular route home and wound up rescuing a sad little abandoned dog. I am fostering him for the moment, but he needs a home soon...
Here's info about the little boy we are calling "Matty Groves" (named after the mats in his fur, extrapolated to a full name from a traditional song sung best by the late Leigh Ann Hussey.)
Breed: Cocker Spaniel
Size: Small
Gender: Male
Neutered: Yes
Bio:
"Matty Groves, a sweet little 24 pound Cocker Spaniel boy, estimated by a vet friend of ours at perhaps 10-11 years old, was found on Aug. 9 wandering alone and collarless by a busy street in a south bay city. His filthy and matted fur was full of fleas and foxtails, but he has now had a few baths, a trim, a visit to a vet for a checkup and a rabies shot.
As of 4 days from the day he was found, Matty is still suffering from a sore paw, dry eyes, an ear infection and a urinary tract infection; he is currently being treated with antibiotics and topical remedies.
The local shelter has no reports of a lost Cocker Spaniel, and they think it's likely he was "dumped". (As he appears to have been previously well fed and possibly loved, a friend suggests perhaps he was owned by an elderly person who died, and the heir(s) dumped him.) The shelter also considers an elderly dog with typical possible elderly-dog health issues to be un-adoptable (and therefore slated for euthanasia after the 7-day "reclaimable by owner" period), so we have not turned him over to them.
Matty is very sweet, gentle and affectionate, does not bite even in pain, and gets along very well with other dogs. The family who rescued him (us) already has two dogs, including one with an expensive chronic medical condition (Addison's Disease), and in our current economy-caused financial situation we simply cannot afford another dog or his vet bills at this time. ;_;
Matty is house-trained and quiet, and he wags his little tail (a LOT!) at any sign of attention. He likes to follow people around, and his dearest wish is simply to be loved and stay near his people."
Additional:
Matty has tested heartworm free and internal-parasite free. The vet would like to check his sore paw for a foreign body, and she says she also recommends that his eyes be tested for glaucoma due to his age and breed, and his ears tested for the possible causes of his ear infection. We can't afford to do all these procedures at the current time, but we are hoping the antibiotics he is currently taking will at least help.
Matty also has a small lump on one side, and I am wondering if a foxtail grass barb has worked its way into his skin. (My daughter removed 3 on his belly that had already gotten in halfway.) He also has a bit of a heart murmur, which the vet thinks might be related to his ear infections, so we won't know if it's chronic until his infections are cleared up. He still smells a bit, which could be related to his ear infection or to the remainder of the matted fur which we hope to have removed soon..
Currently we are moisturizing his eyes with saline, flushing his ears with an ear cleaner, and keeping his ears taped above his head to let them dry out properly. We are also bathing his poor little foot in an iodine solution twice a day.
He has a lot of tartar on his teeth, but seems to have no problems at all eating the dry food my own dogs get, or a "test piece" of a large hard teeth-cleaning treat at the vet's.
The senior dog adoption service I contacted has no space in its foster homes, so we are fostering him. If you know anyone who might be willing to give a really sweet little old Cocker boy a loving home in return for all his generous love and very gentle kisses, please contact me...
How Matty looked the night I rescued him (after his first bath!):
.