Update on the Foster Poongsan

It's taken me longer to do a proper intro to the new foster than promised.  Things have been pretty hectic and tiring this past week.

The story behind this dog is that he and a Japanese Akita were kept in a small courtyard in an upscale neighborhood of Los Angeles called Silverlake.  Normally the two would be visible to passerbyers, but one day only the Japanese Akita was visible.  A dog lover who walks her dogs by the house noticed this and saw the Poongsan laying on the ground.  Upon closer examination, there was blood on his neck.

The owner of the house was approached and she claimed that her husband had gotten ill and could no longer care for the dogs.  The woman wanted nothing to do with handling the dogs and allowed them to become emaciated and covered in their own waste.   The Japanese Akita had swollen eyes due to untreated entropian (eyelashes rubbing against the cornea) and the Poongsan had an embedded flea collar under his regular collar.

The dogs were surrendered to rescue and hospitalized at Animal Rescue Center in south LA.  An email blast went out looking for a place for them.  The following are pictures from that initial email blast:

I received the email via my Akita friend Patty and considered long and hard about taking in the Poongsan.  Afterall, I had a Poongsan puppy that I really needed to concentrate on socializing before her window elapsed.  After meeting the dog on Saturday June 11 though, I decided to take him in.

Things weren't so smooth sailing though.

On Sunday, the Poongsan had started coughing.  Kennel cough, presumably.

On Monday, he vomitted and had diarrhea.  He had a persistant cough that would gag him and he would retch bile.  He stopped eating. 

On Tuesday, he continued to not eat and I took him to the vet.  He had a temperature of 104.7 degrees and weighed 48 lbs.  He received an antibiotic shot and several medicines to take home.  Once home, he still refused to eat.

On Wednesday, he continued to have the symptoms and resisted all attempts to be pilled.  I was probably becoming his least favorite person because of my clumsy attempts.  I started to worry that I had a dog with distemper on my hands.

On Thursday, I brought him back to the vet.  He received another antibiotic injection, an anti-nausea injection, and a cough suppressant injection.  His temperature was 102 and he weighed 46.5 lbs. 

On Friday, he finally ate!  Oh happy dance!

With him now eating, I can finally spike his food with medicine and stop being the 'bad guy' for trying to pill him.  That reduces stress for the both of us.  I think he's coughing less and less.  He still has diarrhea as of today, but now he's taking the full dose of the anti-diarrhea medicine as well as the two antibiotics. 

Here are some recent pics of him.  The body and neck shots are from today.  I think he's finally turned the corner and I can work on getting some weight back on him.

Calmer eyes.

Still very skinny.

At least the neck wound is healed.

Side view.