Planet Dog Blog

How Much is Too Much?

A few months ago, my 4-year old terrier mix, Roxie, began showing signs of back pain. She became limpy, lethargic, and lazy. We tried steroids. We tried muscle relaxants. We tried acupuncture. Nothing helped.

Within a few weeks, she appeared to shrink- her back half withered and atrophied. She could barely walk, she cried out when she was touched, and she stopped eating. She could not lift her head and she trembled non-stop.

She was clearly suffering, and it would not be healing itself. Finally, the vet told me I had a choice- spend $3,500 for surgery to repair her severly herniated disk, or spend $150 to put her to sleep.

He gave a very optimistic long term prognosis, but was clear that there was no guarantee that this wouldn't happen again on a different vertebrae at some point in the future.

It was just before Christmas. I had gifts to buy, and a nearly empty heating oil tank. I had already spent several hundred dollars on her diagnosis and treatment. I didn't have any money saved. I couldn't justify spending so much on a pet, right?

But, she's only 4 years old, I thought. I have a lot of blankets, I thought. I had just enough room on my credit card.  I thought about how lucky I was to even have credit, and the option of charging it and paying for it later. I thought, it's only money! I work at Planet Dog!

But mostly I thought about how much I loved her and wanted her to feel better. I thought how unfair it would be to rescue her from death row at an Arkansas shelter, give her a short taste of a really good life, and then let her die in so much pain.

I explained to my family that I didn't want any gifts for Christmas, and would only be giving to the children. I maxed out my credit card. I turned down the heat. She had the surgery. I don't eat out much these days.

If she had been 14 years old, I would have likely made a different decision, but I am very hopeful that I will enjoy another decade with this dog. That's only $350/year - it's practically a bargain! I hope that karma will appreciate the investment I have made in her and keep the rest of her spine healthy.

She has healed beautifully. She still has a funny looking patch on her back where the hair hasn't grown back in, but she is more agile, more energetic and more adorable than ever before.

Every time she lifts her head to look at me, I just know that she is saying thank you. And that she'll keep me warm when the heating oil is gone.

How much have you spent on a pet's health? What do you consider too much? How do you decide?

Thanks to the Therapy Dogs at Maine Med

As we closed out 2011, we awarded nearly $70,000 in grants to 10 organizations that utilize dogs in some capacity to help people in need. One of those grantees is the Therapy Dog Program at Maine Medical Center, based right here with us in Portland, ME.

Over our holiday break, a good friend of Planet Dog found herself on the receiving end of one of our grants, and she wrote us this note to share her story.

We are grateful to the amazing volunteers involved in the program and thank them for the furry love given to our friend Rachel, and to all of the patients and staff at the hospital.

"Let me set the scene. It's Christmas Eve, around 10 pm, and my stomach is starting to hurt.  Four hours later, the pain is worse, and I go to the Emergency Room.  Well, turns out my gall bladder has taken all the gall it can handle from me and has to come out. I have to wait in the hospital until after the holiday for the surgery. They send me home, but I have to return just days later- you guessed it - on New Year's Eve.  Again, I have to wait until after the holiday for the next surgery. It's the holidays, I am in pain, rest doesn't come easily, and as I'm sure you can imagine, my self pity meter is off the charts.

Imagine now, it's my 8th day in the hospital, and suddenly a big, lumbering black lab comes into my room.  An older dog, he has grey around his mouth and he's sporting an adorable bandana.  As a lifelong dog-lover, it's always a fun surprise to see a dog when you're not expecting to. To see a dog that day, after being in so much pain for so long, was emotionally overwhelming.  

Amos the black lab leans into me and I scratch his rear while soaking in all the love and energy he had to give. I am crying with gratitude- a gentle face, a soft coat, a loving friend.  In the hall I see a French Bulldog, and as a Boston Terrier lover, I have a soft spot for those pushed in faces.  I don't want to be selfish, because Amos was being fantastic, but I was so happy when ANOTHER volunteer came into my room. Eloise Violet jumped right onto the bed, and all of the trauma of the previous week melted away while she snorted away in my lap.

I have spent many years working with dogs, and never thought I would be on the receiving end of a therapy dog. The love of those dogs and the kindness of their handlers literally gave me the strength I needed to get through the next few days in the hospital, and on the road to healing."

A huge thank you to Rachel for sharing her story, and to Amos and Eloise Violet for brightening her day during an extremely unpleasant time. We are incredibly honored to support their work. Have you had a therapy dog visit that changed your outlook? Brightened your day? Got you on the mend?

 

Working Hard for the Kibble

It is grant season again at the Planet Dog Foundation. Every year, we receive hundreds of proposals from organizations seeking financial support for the programs they conduct, helping people by using specially trained dogs. As always, the range of programs that are using dogs is inspiring.

Let's start with just the sniffing dogs. Dogs are being trained to sniff out early warnings of bladder, lung and ovarian cancers. They can alert a diabetic to a subtle shift in blood sugar levels, long before available glucose monitors can. They can locate the scat of endangered animal species to help conservation efforts to protect ever-shifting habitats. They can find drugs, bombs, carbon dioxide leaks, termites, bedbugs, missing people, or the tennis ball that rolled under the dresser 3 years ago.

Then there is the comforting dog. Dogs are brought in to disaster situations to help calm and console survivors. They visit hospitals and rehabilitation centers to soothe patients and their worried families, or to encourage someone to continue doing painful and frustrating exercises to rebuild strength and capacity.  They can help at-risk youth learn compassion for the first time, and even the most hardened inmates shed tears when pups they raise in prison move on to more formalized training. They can calm an autistic child, a veteran suffering from PTSD, or a person struggling to learn how to read.

And of course, there are assistance dogs helping people with a wide range of needs. They can open doors, and pay for goods in a store. They can alert a hard-of-hearing person when the smoke detector goes off, and retrieve the telephone when someone falls. They can lead a visually impaired person through the busiest intersection, or pull off someone's socks and place them in the washing machine.

It is the highlight of our year to read more about the variety of programs that are harnessing a dog's natural capacity for smell, for pleasing people, and for unconditional love. It is an honor to provide our modest support to some of these groundbreaking organizations. Stay tuned to learn more about the programs we will fund this fall- it truly will warm you heart.

Tick Season is Upon Us!

Welcome back, faithful readers! Please excuse the hiatus from the PDOG Blog- we are back, and moving forward better than ever! Please enjoy this week's post from the Planet Dog Company Store Manager, Jim Williams.

I don’t know anybody that likes ticks. This is the time of year when we, at The Planet Dog Company Store, get lots of questions about ticks and Lyme disease. This year is no different. Some have described this year as an epidemic year - not only does it seem there are more ticks, but they seem more resistant to the traditional tick prevention products.

There is a great debate about which flea and tick prevention is preferable- chemical or natural? We carry Frontline and a range of herbal and all natural tick control and prevention products at our store. Our goal is to educate ourselves about the options so that we can educate our customers. We want our customers to make an informed choice about what might work best for their pets. 

A couple of years ago I started using an herbal wellness formula for my dog, Pirate, and I have had some good success with it. Over the course of those two years, I have found maybe 3 or 4 ticks on Pirate, which is actually a lot fewer than when I was using the more traditional topicals. This particular formula, Canine Wellness Blend, is something we carry at The Planet Dog Company Store and we get it from Joyce Belcher, an herbalist from York, Maine, who has a company called Herbs for Life.  All of her herb-based products are designed to keep pets’ immune system healthy and balanced. 

Joyce does a lot of research and work with holistic veterinarians in developing her products. She recently came to educate the store staff to understand how herbs like Spirulina, Bee Pollen, Hemp Hearts and Neem impact the overall body systems. Additionally, Joyce introduced us to her latest product, a tincture designed to actually prevent Lyme disease in both dogs and humans. 

We all learned so much from Joyce, that we invited her to present a broader seminar for our local community. She  will join us for our next “Yappy Hour” on June 23^rd at 5:30 pm. Like all of our Yappy Hour events, it is free and we will provide some yummy snacks for people and pets.If you are reading this and can be in Portland, ME, please come join us. I promise it will be informative.

What have you used for flea and tick prevention? Has it worked for you? Have you noticed any differences in efficacy in the past few years?