A new home for Coby! After a week and a half’s trial run, we have decided that we are keeping Coby! His health is satisfactory enough for being an old dog, and he has shown enough behavioral promise, that we think he will be a good fit here. I broke the news to his former owner yesterday, and he was relieved that Coby was back out in the country on a farm, just like he wanted. You may recall that Coby grew up on a hobby farm of the former owner’s family. When he moved to town, he took Coby with him. Coby spent the next 5 years as an outdoor dog in a pen. When he wasn’t working, his former owner would take Coby fishing, on walks, that kind of thing…but Coby is a people dog and longed for more attention. Then his former owner took a better job as a paramedic in the big city, 3 hours away. The new job requires 48 hours straight of working, followed by 96 hours off—not conducive to keeping a dog. So there Coby was, in his pen, for 6 months, being minimally cared for by the roommate. He wanted to find a new home for the old boy (6-8 years old), but word of mouth wasn’t getting results. His neighbor finally convinced him to let her advertise on one of the Facebook swap sites, and that’s where I came in. There were 3 people who initially were interested. One of them thought her father-in-law would want him, but he didn’t. The other one wasn’t quite a good fit. That left me. After two trips to the vet, we found that Coby is heartworm negative. This was my biggest concern since heartworm treatment is both expensive and risky. The treatment involves arsenic. The arsenic kills the worms, and the worms exit the dog’s body. The arsenic can kill the dog, or the movement of the worms as they exit can kill the dog. The dog must be kept in a small kennel for 6 weeks, only being led out to use the bathroom 2-3 times a day, to limit movement. Heartworm is no joke. Heartworm preventative medicine is necessary to avoid trouble further down the road. Coby did, however, have a lovely case of hookworms, which would explain his low weight. No biggie; thats easily being treated. When we got him, he weighed 77 pounds. In a week’s time, he put on 2 pounds. He should be about 90 pounds. He’s had his rabies and DHLPP shot, so he’s good to go there. No ear problems, which is a relief since dogs with hanging-down ears sometimes have horrible problems with ear infections since the air doesn’t get in there as it does in dogs with upright ears. He still has some work to do on coming when called, so for that reason he hasn’t been off leash on the farm yet, though we have been down to the family pond a few times so he can run to his heart’s content. Roscoe is learning not to be so scared of him since he is over twice as big. So, Coby returns to a farm at last. We hope to make his retirement a lovely adventure!
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 14:42:08 +0000
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