Brinley has Pneumonia

Well, Brinley has been off antibiotics for 9 days now, and did ok for the first bit of that, but she now has pneumonia. She has lost 3lbs in the last 4 days and won't eat. She has been back to the vet, had a chest X-Ray and is now on antibiotics. Working hard to get her eating and fluids in her, she will go back to the vet in 5 days or sooner if nothing improves.

Fingers crossed for the little trooper.

Big News!

Big news, big news!!!! It is official Brinley is becoming a permanent family member. After spending the last few months together and missing having our own boxer we have decided that Miss Brinley will stay with us, we will be officially adopting her, and continue to deal with any of her outstanding medical problems.

Olly the Pug gave his paw of approval and is glad to have a new roommate even if he won't share the bed with her.

Brinley started dog school this week and was bumped right into the intermediate class,

Brinley will continue to blog for all her fans so you can keep up on all the exciting things that happen in the day to day life of the once furless Boxer.

A long weekend at the All About Pets Show

Brinley had to work really hard this long Easter weekend. She spent all day Friday and Saturday entertaining the crowds at the All About Pet Show, encouraging people to visit our booth and pay her with some tummy rubs.

The All About Pets Show is a pretty busy place with thousands of people coming through over the course of the weekend, but nothing phased Ms. B, she cuddled up on her mat and took it all in from a puppies view.

She was a gracious host to all who stopped to get to know her, providing an ever ready belly to rub to all, ever the tiniest of kids got a chance to give her a little tummy rub.

And of course she was paid with many belly rubs and compliments on how cute she is, but you can't take a dog to a show and not buy them some new toys! Brinley, who may be the most ball obsessed Boxer I have ever met.....much more like a Lab or a Retriever, got her very own CHUCK IT, and stock of tennis balls as well as a brand new squeaky ball that is big enough that it doesn't fit under the couch!

Now we have one very tired little pup on our hands!

It's hard being famous.....

A big week in the life of a little dog! Brinley did her tour of duty this week appearing on Animal House Calls with me on Tuesday, (will replay this Saturday March 27th @ 10am) She did a fantastic job, was super well behaved and calm, and made sure to put on her really cute face whenever the camera panned over her.

With her 2nd TV appearance in the last couple of weeks, she is now recognized at the dog park, people will ask "Did I see that dog on TV?" Of course she doesn't let her knew found fame go to her head, she's just glad that she is now a furry dog like the rest of them!

Back to the vet this week only to find out she has a staf infection, so new meds added to the Boxer Pharmacy......

Other than that she is still eating the vegetarian food, double what it recommends for her size and she has not gained an ounce, so she is still a whopping 38lbs.

On a good note the Puglet has lost weight through all the cardio he has been getting when he chases her at the park.

The trouble you can get into when you set your mind to it!

So as a puppy grows, they learn, they test the limits and they have lots of fun. As Brinley has gotten more comfortable we have been giving her some time out of the crate while we are out of the house. Generally if we are not going to be out more than an hour or hour and a half we will try her out of the crate. We do our best to "set her up to succeed" we ensure we don't leave tempting things out for her to get into, we put out a good supply of toys and bones, made sure all "potty duties" were completed outside before we left and off we went to leave the puppy monster to her own devices to see if she could handle some alone time free in the house with the puglet.

Now up until this point we had tried this several times, and generally if the time frame did not exceed an hour or so we came home to puppy slumber and no issues. So on this particular night we ran a bit behind and were out for close to 2 hours....and we did a very poor job on our "set her up to succeed mission." We had left a very tempting sample can of hair product on a table that was at easy nose height. My hair dresser had given me this great product to try, but apparently with her new furry self, Brinley thought that this would be a great product for her long locks. So she had a chew party with the can, which of course sprayed product all over the floor, all over her and anything else she directed it at.

Two hours later we returned home to a dog that was basically stuck to the hardwood floor (this is some sticky hair product when sprayed by a dog and likely licked to ensure it stuck well to the floor.) Brinley's feet were pretty much suctioned cupped to the floor, she had hair product on her face and particularly on her nose, which she obviously used in replacement of the thumb she is lacking, and then it seems that she took her sticky nose and rubbed it on her fluffy bed so that she had a nice array of fluff all over her nose. This was quite a site, but due to the floor situation I could not even get the camera to take a picture I had to get a bucket and start un-sticking the puppy monster from her predicament......and all the while she was as happy as can be stubby tail wagging the whole time and a bunch of kisses.

The Puglet on the other hand was mortified at this terrible behaviour and would not come anywhere near the sticky floor and spent the night glaring at Brinley with such disdain.

About an hour later and 16 floor washes on hands and knee's, and a full dog wash, floor is not sticky and dog is not as sticky, nose is still a bit tacky......

Lesson learned, as Foster Daddy says - all items to higher ground, or as I say, dog must go in the crate!

Brinley's beach day

In an effort to celebrate the lovely sunny day Brinley had her first day at the beach, well first trip to the beach. We were due to go to the vet, and since he is in that neighborhood we decided to have a run along the water first. Brinley was very curious about the water, but the waves lapping up against the shore scared the pants off the little monkey, and she began to leap in the air and bark at the water.

With some coaxing and throwing some rocks into the water, she finally got brave and ventured in to see if she could save the rocks. Once in she kept pawing at the water and trying to dig up the rocks.

After some beach fun we headed to the vet. So good news is the mites are totally gone, bad news is the bacterial infection seems to be getting worse and has also caused a secondary infection in her ear which is a total mess, (hence we went to the vet ahead of the regular schedule.) So new medication and a couple new tests to check some stuff out and we will see how things go.

Stayed tuned to this space for updates..............

She started out like a lamb....but now she is a full puppy, hear her roar!

Brinley is now the Queen of this castle, the Puglet's (Ayla our former foster puglet is in the picture with Brinley and Olly.) She has everyone human and canine companion alike bowing to her every need and being very tolerant of her puppy antics. Olly has even become tolerant of the "toy drop" this is a special move Brinley does when she wants Olly to play (which he rarely does.) When Olly won't engage in play she will pick up toys and proceed to drop them on him....his head, his back, whatever, and she doesn't stop at just one, she has been know to bury him in toys. Olly will refuse to engage in any play when she does this and instead he allows her to bury him in the toys, he will continue to lay there with his eyes closed.

Brinley's TV appearance on Friday was a great success, she charmed everyone along our walk on Queen Street and right through the TV Station, being the ever gentle puppy that would simply sit and wait to be pet. Brinley has excellent manners and is a great listener. She is fully house trained and goes to the door every time. She absolutely loves the ball and would fetch all day if she could. She reliably catches the ball and brings it right back to you so that you can do it again. At the park she is the biggest ball stealer going and will even try to put more than one in her mouth at a time. She plays very well with the other dogs, and will recall away from the group when I call her. She is by far the fastest dog in the park, tearing a brindley streak through the off leash with many dogs hot on her heels, but none that can actually catch her, (this of course makes her even happier, and she gets that really proud prance when they all give up!) Walking has become much easier and she actually gets pretty excited when the leash comes out, bouncy around, but as soon as the collar comes out she sits patiently and waits for the collar and leash to be put on.

Best of all she now has 95% of her fur back. It is a bit thin in spots, but every inch of her has some.

We had a small party at the house this weekend with about 35-40 people over at first she was super nervous and chose to go upstairs to one of the bedrooms and lie on the bed, but as more and more people visited with her she finally decided to come down.

Once downstairs she checked everyone out, but then curled up on the couch and snored the rest of the night, nothing could faze her.

Brinley's week with Foster "Dad" and her rise to Boxer Stardom

Well the little furless wonder is a whole new dog, she is furry and quickly embracing puppyhood.....very quickly. In my absence last week (I was traveling for work) foster "Dad" was in charge. A detailed protocol of foster puppy 101 was left. Feeding info, medication, bathing, topical sprays/creams, dog walker schedule, crating......very detailed. But those puppy dog eyes soon won foster "Dad" over and when it came time to crate the monkey he caved because she looked "so sad" and chose to leave her out to rule the roost with the Pug while he was at work.

So the first day our little puppy monster didn't really know what to do with herself and everything was generally left in tact. By day two she had cruised across the dining room table, eaten some candles and had a shoe party, but alas foster "Dad" still felt bad about crating her, so he opted for the "move things to higher ground" approach. All items that are not nailed down were put out of her reach, or at least what he thought was out of her reach.

Day 3 puppy monster blew through some credit cards by chewing them to bits, she has expensive taste, she chose the Gold Card, and gave it a real run for its money.

Still on day 4 foster day still couldn't bear to crate her (now if I had know what was going on, I may have crated foster "Dad" for his bad behaviour, but I was oblivious.) Day 4 was umbrella day, and puppy monster spent the day dismantling an umbrella and shredding it to bits.

Day 5 - light bulb moment - foster "Dad" crated Puppy Monster!

Once I was back Brinley went back to the vet and had a check up, she is still struggling with some type of bacterial infection, her lymph nodes are inflamed and her blood work is off, so we will continue the antibiotics and see where that leads.

She is furrier, and furrier each day, and getting to be a fairly confident little thing.

She has made fast friends with the Pug (who is not too easy to win over,) and he now lays on her or rests his chin on her when he sleeps.

She will be featured in the Beaches newspaper shortly and she will be on the CP24 morning show this Friday between 8:45am - 9am.

Snowy days!

As long as you have her bundled up in her coat Brinley loves the snow. She loves to run, chase snow balls and dig in the snow to find the kong. She had a great time today playing for hours with the kong and all her new friends at the off leash dog park. I dress in my snowboard clothes just so I can stay as long as she wants to without freezing! Every now and then her feet get too cold and she will jump into my arms to be held, she is no sooner up in my arms than she is all warm again and is wiggling to get down and run around.

She loves all dogs and people she comes across and is finally showing enough confidence to let new people pet her without scampering away.

She is doing great with her commands, she knew quite a few when she got here and she will now, sit, lie down, off (of whatever she is on and needs to get off of) and come when she is called 9x out of 10.....every now and then there is something just way too interesting to convince her to come when I call her.

She has been spending about 2 hours in the crate everyday when I am out for work, and still really doesn't like it. So far when left out of the crate she is fine, so we have been leaving her out any of the other times we are out.

I am leaving tomorrow and will be out of town for a week for work, so Foster "Dad" is in charge, I will update everyone in a week on how she did with the change in routine. She has the dog walker coming 2x a day and will be crated until the first walk and then out with the Pug for the rest of the day.

Foster "Dad" is now in charge of the baths, skin creams and spraying when needed, he knows the expectation is that there is more fur when I get home.....oooh the pressure!

Well if that picture isn't the cutest little mug then I don't know what is! Miss Brinley has really started to charm all that she meets. She is now pretty comfortable in the neighborhood and the neighborhood kids have brought her some presents and "Get Well" cards to help her to grow her fur back.

She is a regular at the dog park now and has some new friends. She particularly enjoys the company of the Doberman puppy Damon who loves to chase her, and she loves to run. She is well comfortable with the dog walker now and will walk to the park with her, so every day just gets better and better.

Olly the pudgy pug has lost a pound in his pursuit of her and nipping the backs of her legs when she is running and having too much fun.

We went to the vet today and great news - the mites are dead!!! No more mange, there is still a leftover infection and her lymph nodes are still enlarged, but she is heading in the right direction.

She will be featured in the Beaches Local Newspaper in a couple of weeks and you will likely see her on TV in March.

The simple things in life make you the happiest....

I am sure this has happened to most pet owner's, you buy the coolest toy at the pet store for your dog, usually they are kinda pricey and do all sorts of cool things, and you think "Wow, my dog is going to love this!" Then you get it home, and they like it, but they don't loooove it the way you thought they would. A short time later you bring home a tennis ball or a $2 frisbee and this is true love, the dog goes nuts for this!

Low and behold Brinley takes great pleasure in the simple things in life, totally thrilled with a tennis ball or a frisbee, all of them far surpass any of the cool expensive toys that reside in the toy box at our house. Hours and hours can be passed with the tennis ball or the frisbee, but only moments with the other fancier toys until she has moved back to her true favorites.

Brinley has been getting into a regular routine, she has made some friends at the off leash dog park and takes great joy in running as fast as she can in the confined fence area's showing just how fast she can go, which is generally faster than all the other dogs at the park, meaning at times she must jump over their backs or crash into them because she can't stop in time.

She now gets excited when she sees her coat and leash come out and starts to prance around in preparation for the big "walk" or "park" event. She has even inspired Olly the pudgy Pug into a regular chasing routine when at the park. He will participate until his sides are huffing and puffing and he has to have a rest.

Fur and skin look better and better and we will see the vet on Friday to test again and see what the next steps are.

I am becoming a furry boxer puppy!

The pictures say it all! Brinley has quite a bit more fur than she did a week ago. We have been spraying her every 2 hours with the Buro-sol Solution to keep the itching and inflammation down. She has been having the prescription shampoo baths every 2 days, and in addition to the meds she is getting the EFA Supplement and the Immuno Support Supplement. She is on a new Hypo-Allergenic diet, and a probiotic and everything seems to be coming together. She is gaining weight, fur is growing and she is no longer itching.

She will have a re-check with the vet on Friday and we can see if we have conquered the mites. If we have been successful and won the battle then she should be well on her way to being a furry boxer puppy.

With each passing day she is getting braver, and braver. She is still pretty nervous when something is new, she generally just lacks confidence. But she now walks to the park, and knows the way we will go. On the weekend she went to the fenced off leash and had a good boxer burn with another boxer, and played and played until I thought she might be too tired to walk home.

Olly has accepted that she is going to be here for a bit and the two of them will actually play sometimes. They had a great time running and chasing each other in the snow tonight, and chasing the kong.

Crate time is getting a bit easier for her, we have been feeding her in the crate, so she is not as reluctant to go in, still shakes a lot when you first get her in, but the drooling and blanket shredding has subsided.

A day at the park

Brinley has finally made it all the way to the park! Today was the first day that we could get that far on our walk without her turning around and bolting for home. I had the kong in my pocket and when we got there she was thrilled to chase it to the end of the leash and bring it back to me. She has gotten very playful in the last few days, and even convinced Olly to chase her around the coffee table a couple of times. This is a big deal for the pudgy pug.

She has pretty much stopped scratching, and you can see a lot more fur coming in, especially on her head and neck and hind end.

So many of the things that scared her at first, opening a cupboard door, turning on a light, turning the water on, putting the dishes away are not a big deal anymore. I guess just given the time to get comfortable (she likely hasn't had a chance to do that much yet with 4 homes in 9 months) she won't be as nervous.

She will go out with the dog walker again this week and we will see if she can make it past the end of the street.

Is that a silly puppy emerging out of that patchy furry, nervous shell?

With each passing day we gradually see the puppy that is living inside this patchy fur, nervous shell start to come out. Brinley is gradually becoming comfortable in the house and is showing a lot more confidence. She can play for hours on her own with any of the toys throwing them across the room with her mouth and running after them only to do it all over again. She particularly likes the noisy toys, especially if you are on the phone or trying to have a conversation or listen to something on TV.

Outside of the house she is still very nervous, she will follow Olly on a walk, but still cowers when cars pass or there are load noises outside. We have been taking the same route on each walk, and on certain parts she is getting a bit more comfortable, finally moving away from my leg a bit and sniffing things.

We have met several other dogs on our walks, and she is very submissive with all of them.

Olly is finally starting to let her sit a bit closer to him and has played with her for a couple seconds here and there.

Her skin seems less itchy and tomorrow she is due for her special bath to keep her skin on the road to recovery. I think she is getting a bit more fur, but she is also shedding!

Brinley's Family Day

Brinley had a relaxing Family Day she was up bright and early this morning and was intent on playing fetch. We played for about 2 hours and thankfully she tired herself out.

We tried crating her again today while we were out. Again as soon as she saw us putting on our shoes she would not even go into the room that the crate was in. I carried her into the crate, gave her a new bone and tried to make it a positive experience. When we came back about an hour later she was sitting in the exact same position shaking a little bit. We will keep practicing each day and try and make her a bit more comfortable with it.

We went for a long walk, she is very, very nervous out on the street, pancakes to the sidewalk when a car goes by, not sure how many walks she has been on before this. She was too nervous to run around at the fenced park so we went home and she ran around in the backyard, even tried to see if she could fly, leaping through the air.

Our neighbors came over to meet her today and she hid behind my legs, hopefully with each new day and more new things she will get more confident and comfortable.

We are spraying her with the Buro-sol throughout the day and the itching is getting better and better, so hopefully we will see some new hair soon.

She is flaked out in front of the fire snoring away, big day!

Valentine's Day in the life of a fur challenged puppy

Well what can I say, things are ticking along like Brinley has been here all along. After a long day yesterday with her early morning drive into rescue, a visit to the vet, tour of the neighborhood, and a test run of every toy in the toy box, Brinley was out like a light when it was time for bed. She cuddle right up into the tiniest little ball on the doggie bed in our bedroom. She looked so tiny and so cold with no fur that I put one of the blankets from her crate over her. She slept like that straight through the night, I actually woke her just before 9am. By the look of her she didn't budge once.

After a good stretch, some breakfast, medication and a quick backyard tour, I set about applying the Buro-sol Solution to her skin and soaking her feet for a bit. You can see by the picture attached her feet are pretty irritated, red and inflamed. She is a little trooper and very tolerant. The solution likely feels good when I put it on her body, as it reduces the itching, but she also let me put each of her feet into a bowl of it for about 5 minutes each and just sat there waiting patiently.

I re-applied the Buro-sol about every 3-4 hours today and it seemed to help a lot as she did not itch at all. I am going to try and do her feet again before bed.

We did a test run of the crate today, leaving Brinley crated for 2 hours while we were out. It was really tough to get her in the crate, no amount of peanut butter kongs, bones or any treats could convince her that going in there was a good idea. She trembled and backed away from us. Eventually I picked her up and put her in. Her owner had said she often tore up the blankets when crated, but we came back to find her just sitting there quietly, blankets in tact.

It was a big Valentine's Day for this little peanut, we had 7 people over for dinner, which at first was a bit nerve racking for her. She cowered and shook each time a new person came into the house, but by the time the last person arrived she was leaping over the pug to get to the door. Ayla our friends pug also came over and she is much more playful than Olly so they got to have a bit of a romp around together.

She showed off her great personality and surprisingly good manners for such a young dog all night, by sitting nicely and waiting to be pet and every now and then playing silly games with the toys.

Olly doesn't like her much more today than he did yesterday, and they had a small disagreement tonight, but in the end everyone retreated to their corners with a sharp "no."

Big day for the little furless wonder, and once again showed that she can adapt pretty well to all the changes and new situations once she is over her initial nerves.

Brinley the Boxer

Sometimes in life we need some help, and we depend on others to help us. Volunteering in rescue you see this all the time. And sometimes even when a dog has been lucky enough to catch a break, and be lucky enough to have many angels cross their path to help them on their way to a second chance they still need the help of Rescue.

Yesterday, on the 11th Anniversary of the day that I brought home my first boxer Tallie, who sadly left us 41 days ago, I brought home a foster for Boxer Rescue who needed just a bit more help.

Brandi, renamed Brinley has had a rough time in her short life of 9 months. Last fall she ended up in Animal Control as a stray with no one looking for her. That is when she met her first angel, someone came in and adopted her. Unfortunately Brinley had some medical concerns that quickly became financially overwhelming for her new owner, and that's when he made the tough decision to ask for help for her.

Brinley has a condition called Generalized Demodex Mange. Demodectic Mange is a skin disease caused by a dog mite known as Demodex. The Demodex dog mite lives in the hair follicle within the dog's skin

There are two types of Demodectic Mange, localized and generalized mange.

Localized demodectic mange results in small circular areas of hair loss. There may be only one area affected or there may be several bald spots on the dog's skin. These areas of hair loss are generally not itchy for the dog affected with demodectic mange unless they have become infected with bacteria.

Generalized demodectic mange is a more wide-spread skin disease, often with lesions covering most of the body. Usually, secondary bacterial infection is present as well, resulting in a dog who is very itchy and uncomfortable. A dog infected with generalized demodectic mange may have a discharge which is bloody or pus-like coming from parts of the infected skin. The skin coat is usually brittle, dry and full of crusts and scabs.

Unfortunately for Brinley she has Generalized Demodectic Mange and a bacterial infection. This is not contagious, but does cause her to be quite itchy and uncomfortable.

Brinley will have a long road to recovery with a number of vet visits and treatments. But in time we hope to have a fuzzy little puppy back on our hands and she will be ready for adoption.

For now, what she lacks in fur she makes up for in personality.

If you would like to support Brinley on her road to recovery please visit:

http://www.canadahelps.org/GivingPages/GivingPage.aspx?gpID=6672

With some love, some medical care and your support Brinley will be well on her way to recovery and a second chance.