Cachexia. Which is muscle wasting, advanced starvation, weakness. And a bit of broken spirit. That’s it. NO heartworms. No worms in the poop loop.
Thank you for all your positive energy.
The vet says that with refeeding and weight gain, Ivan should make a big turn around in terms of strength. She said, as many of you have said, that this boy needs to know compassion, what it feels like to sleep inside, have regular meals, follow a pack leader, and be loved.
She was also suspicious of the photos of the cut off paw. She said that it takes a lot for an animal to chew off his own foot, and if it were caught in a chain, it would be more likely to have lost fur higher up as well as losing the foot. She felt that he was either caught in a snare trap, or someone cut the paw off. More likely that someone cut the paw off, since someone did a home job of hacking his ears off. WHY is a question that will probably never be answered.
Thank you Thank you Thank you!
Next, we will search for a harness. In the meantime, there’s 15 pounds to be gained!
No heartworms is good news. Ivan caught a break. He needs some good groceries packed with nutrition and a lot of sleep. If he sleeps all day without waking, I’d count that as a very good thing.
As for the harness, this is the one I mentioned earlier: http://helpemup.com/ If you decide to get one new, please go to the shopping link here and search for it. Tripawds also has an Amazon link in case you do some shopping there. You can search for one used, too, of course. Maybe eBay.
Thanks for the update, and thanks again for not trusting your instincts and ignoring the fishy story and loading the slobber monster into your car.
(And when you catch your breath, do check out the Henry and Mudge books in the kids’ section of your library or bookstore. Mudge is the most awesome, slobbery mastiff ever, and no childhood is complete without his stories.)
Shari
This is wonderful news. I can’t believe someone has cut his ears off. I missed that before. !@#$$??
I have a helpemup harness but it is medium size. I am guessing that Ivan is going to need a bigger one.
Thank YOU! I watched the video of the HelpEmUp Harness, but does it slip on the side of the amputation? In the video it only shows a 4 legged dog using it.
Thank you!
Hi, Magnum was a rear leg amputee (I can’t remember which one Ivan is missing). It did tend to slip on her back end a bit. It was good for a few stairs and the car. Not sure how it would be for more stairs.
Glad to hear there is no heartworm! Very thankful that you loaded him in your car and got him out of there. Someone cut off his ears?!? Who does that?!?
Jenna and Spirit Chili Dawgs pack
I suppose the same kind of person who would let this guy hobble the streets of Atlanta, on the bones of a missing paw. 🙁
great news that ivan is not infected with heartworms. he is such a sweet boy – the picture you posted is just so heartwarming. you two are made for each other.
charon & spirit gayle
oh, and we used a ruffwear harness for gayle (right front amp) and that type slipped about a little too, but it still was a great tool for us in getting in and out of vehicles, stairs, etc. don’t fret the ‘slipping’ it’s minimal, and a harness, especially once ivan is starting to be more mobile, will be a big help for you.
What kind words! That really makes me feel like we [my seven year old and I] did something good. I have always loved Mastiffs. When I was small my father had a Mastiff, and I loved her, she was my mother. But he was very sick and he trained her in some kind of protection way, to guard the house. We lived in a very remote area, and there was little chance that someone would come out there, but he was paranoid, and he would make my siblings and I put on Halloween masks and go to the door and pretens to be intruders and encourage her to attack. He let her get to drag one of us to the floor and then released us. [Before the ‘exercise’ he would make us go rub pine needles on ourselves so we smelled different]. But when that wasn’t going on, she was catching my tears with her velvet ears and taught me kindness and love. She suffered, being forced to be a beast of aggression, when she didn’t really have it in her.
I have to stop now because I’m starting to cry.
But thank you for the kind words.
I am so super relieved that it isn’t heartworms, I was worried that Ivan was too weak to overcome that one.
I can’t believe someone did that to his leg, his ears. Who would do that?! Ugh.
We had a great harness too, I think it was a variation of the helpem up harness. My boy was a front amp and it worked really well. He was 100+ lbs.
I’m so glad you listened to your heart, bless you, bless Ivan 🙂 .
Elizabeth
Thank you…Your well wishes are SO appreciated! Yes, I think some people do an ear crop to make them look fierce, but his ears are pretty much gone. The right one has virtually nothing left and the other is a small triangle. The foster mom said “Oh This is a good crop , you can tell a vet definitely did it!” NOT.
What did the vet say about Ivan’s mouth? You said a chew treat had a lot of blood on it and he is protecting his mouth. What’s going on in there?
We have a few people here who’ve used the Help ’em Up Harness but I think they’ve been rear amps. I thought of it because of the struggles you’re having grabbing at both ends. I saw you were asking about the regular Ruffwear on the angel exchange. At this point, any help is lots of help. That’s what we use and Dakota’s a left front amp and it works very well. I can lift him with that single handle if I had to (don’t want to but it’s made for it).
So…about the mouth…
Shari
Shari, The vet said he’s anemic, but no visible sore were in his mouth. She said that most likely, the chewie is too rough for his mucosal tissue …and that there is no telling what the foster mom might have been giving him in the cattle dose of heartworm medicine, that she could have well been killing Ivan with it. She said that his mouth is likely just tender as the rest of him from malnourishment and that is also probably why he refused kibble chunks although he was hungry, but accepted the soft chicken and rice. When he is a little stronger we’ll try to look in there again and see if he is still tender.
How heavy is Dakota? Yes, that was very good thinking about the helpEmUp harness. Do you know if it strains the hips? At the energency vet, a friend who helped me get him there was foolishly sitting behind Ivan and he didn’t mean any harm, but he thought he was stronger than he is, and he playfully pulled Ivan’s foot. Ivan reared up and made a point that that was NOT COOL. He did not break any skin, but it was a fierce display of “Don’t mess with pulling my feet out from behind me” and he clamped on my friends arm and once Ivan vetoed the action he released him. My point being, I don’t know if Ivan’s hips have an issue. My friend thoght it was his feet, but Ivan allows me to gently handle his feet.
Wow. Ivan has shown what a gentle giant he is to give your friend nothing more than a friendly warning. That was a good impromptu test of his beautiful character. He may also be very wary of having his feet touched by others given what has happened to him (it may be that he is OK with you because he is beginning to trust you and/or it may have been the way your friend pulled his foot that brought back bad memories??
Magnum’s cancer had spread to her hip and she was in a lot of pain in that area, she didn’t want to put any weight on her back leg. But with the Help ’em Up Harness I was able to get her up and help her in and out of the car without aggravating her hip area.
Princess, I’m sorry to hear that Magnum had that much pain. Is that icon photo of her?
I’m going to make another post regarding the foot incident and ask for some opinions, although I think you are probably right.
Hi, yes that icon is Magnum. Bone mets started to impact her during the last couple of months. It was progressive and got to the stage in the last week where she didn’t want to put any weight on her 1 remaining leg. I only got the harness in her last week and I am so glad I did (and wished I had it sooner).
That is a gorgeous photo of Magnum and it sounds like you did a fine job of caring for her. I love the name, too. If I had thought of it earlier, I might have borrowed it for Ivan! Does Magnum’s breed have susceptibility to that type of cancer?