Update on Reba, the lab with the broken leg and hip

Apr 12, 2010

Update 5/20: Reba, now named Pearl, has turned a corner! Her foster reports that her seizures are almost gone and she's almost back to her pre-illness personality. One of her eyes has gotten better and we think she'll have vision out of it. She still cannot use her back legs, though. Her foster is learning t-touch to help stimulate her back legs.

Update 5/8: Reba has had a couple of days where she seems a little bit better. For awhile, her prognosis was very bleak. Finally, the decision had been made to euthanize her last week because she was in so much agony. But then she started to eat a lot, so they put it off by a day. She continued to eat well and started having less seizures, so they kept putting off euthanizing. It's too soon to say that she's turned the corner - she's had a couple of bad days in there too. We're taking it day by day. She still cannot use her back legs and has to be carried by her foster

Update 4/24:  Reba took a turn for the worse and has started to have more seizures.  She is now on anti-seizure medication.

Update 4/22:  Reba had the experimental treatment on 4/19.  She is doing better, but we think she may be blind, a side-effect of this disease.

Update 4/18 9pm: Reba has been diagnosed with distemper.  It can take 4 weeks before signs of distemper show up after a dog is exposed to the virus.  We were hoping it was just kennel cough, but she progressed into seizures and neurological symptoms today.  Tomorrow, we are taking her to a vet clinic that has an experimental procedure to treat dogs with distemper that has shown really amazing results so far, but the treatment will cost $400.  We're updating the amount we need to raise for her to $1,400.

Update 4/12, 6:40pm: Just received a note from Reba's foster:

Dr. Lewis did repair her leg--here are the notes: "splinted right tibia fracture. Was overriding and very unstable. Medial approach to tibia. Had to remove bone edges proximal and distal because of overriding and inability to align. Placed plate with screws and 2 screws at splint sites. Very stable and well aligned now."

He also did her FHO.

She has an appointment next Monday at 11 and I'll send another update then (and sooner, if anything changes).

Reba, the lab who had a broken leg and hip, a bad infection and very high temperature, and had bladder problems from trying to hold her urine for 4 days when she couldn't get up, is doing GREAT. So great, that she's having her surgery today to fix her hip and possibly leg.

We've raised $500 for her so far. We need to raise another $200 to cover her medications and hip surgery. If the surgeon determines today that she does need leg surgery, we'll need to raise another $800.

Here's some more info from her foster.

She is the BEST dog--here is an update (4/12):

Reba spent her first five days as a foster pretty sick. She was incontinent and needed to be carried in and out of the house. Still, even feeling bad, she was always excited to be around people, especially children.

Then she turned a corner and started feeling much better. Although her leg has been in a splint, she hasn't let that slow her down! She has figured out how to sit, squat, run on three legs, and even go up and down stairs and hills! She gets friskier every day as she feels better but is not a big barker. Her incontinence is gone.

She loves people and gets very excited to make new friends and see old ones. She likes to lean on her human friends (whether they are sitting or standing) and loves to be petted. She likes other dogs a lot, especially medium and large ones. She also enjoys the company of free-roaming chickens and has learned to tolerate friendly felines. Kids are her preferred company.

When outside, she is fond of lying down in the tallest grass she can find. She has been known to open unlocked screen doors and wooden gates in order to find her human friends. As she feels better physically, she is getting more independent and happy to be alone outside or in her crate.