Hallie has had and recovered from her entropion surgery, and holy cow do her eyes look fantastic! She has grown back in almost all of her hair and her spirits are higher than they’ve ever been. The best part? HALLIE HAS BEEN CLEARED FOR ADOPTION! This is such exciting news, especially considering that just 7 short weeks ago, Hallie was mostly hairless and nearly blind from all the mucus in her eyes. Look at her now!
Update 6-23-12: Hallie has been adopted! 
Hallie is continuing to improve! She is slowly growing back hair and her happiness and comfort levels are increasing. Unfortunately Hallie has entropion, so her eyes will not be completely better until they are surgically corrected. Once Hallie’s immune system is strong enough to handle it, we’ll schedule her for surgery.
Please donate towards her surgery if you can! Every penny helps!
I can’t even begin to express how amazing Hallie is. After all she has been through she still sees the good in everyone and makes friends with everyone she meets.
Once she is completely healthy, she’ll be ready to take her Canine Good Citizen test. In fact, I think she would make a fantastic competition obedience or rally dog. She LOVES to please! Even in a highly distracting environment she keeps perfect focus and performs each cue with amazing enthusiasm. It’s quite a sight to see and she impresses everyone everywhere she goes.
She is totally head over heels for her foster brother Bruschi and follows him around wherever he goes. She took to him instantly from their very first walk together. She thoroughly enjoys having another dog to play with.
Today we had our second appointment with Dr. Gerald Johnson at Silverthorn Animal Clinic. Hallie was SO excited to see Dr. Johnson again and showered him with hugs and kisses! He was happy to see that Hallie had already gained three pounds and grown some hair!
He did a test to make sure Hallie is producing enough tears. To do the test, he put a paper strip in her lower eyelid and had to hold it there for a full minute. Hallie was such a good girl for this awkward and uncomfortable procedure. Thankfully the test revealed that Hallie is producing plenty of tears. Her eyes look a TON better, but unfortunately, Hallie does have entropion and will need surgery. Because it is incredibly risky to put a dog with a compromised immune system under anesthesia, we are going to wait to do the surgery until she is healthy.
Dr. Johnson ran an ear cytology that showed us that Hallie has some bacteria and yeast buildup in her ears, so he gave her a homeopathic ear pack.
Her skin is still warm to the touch and dandruffy, so he prescribed a bath with Zymox
Dr. Johnson prescribed a probiotic to help ensure Hallie has plenty of good bacteria in her system.
The good news is that none of Hallie’s conditions are contagious, so we can start integrating her with the rest of the family. Tonight we took her on a group walk. It went really well and we’ll be taking her for several group walks per day over the next couple weeks before fully integrating her with the rest of the family.
Our next appointment is in two weeks on May 8th. If you can spare even just a dollar or two, it would help Hallie tremendously!
Thanks to the diet recommendations, medications, and homeopathic remedies Dr. Johnson at Silverthorn Animal Clinic prescribed, Hallie is feeling a lot better already! Her spirits are up and she has a ton more energy than when she first got here. Her eyes are already clearing up! And for more amazing news… Hallie’s 4Dx test (which tests for heartworm, lyme, ehrlichia, and anaplasmosis) came back NEGATIVE! Woohoo!!!
When we first received a plea to help Hallie, we were completely out of room to take in any more dogs. And then…we saw Hallie’s photos and knew there was no way we could turn her away.
Because Hallie was almost two hours away, we agreed to meet the owners halfway which meant an hour’s drive for each of us. Little did we know what that meant for Hallie. The halfway point was a Racetrac gas station just off the highway. We pulled in at noon, and a few minutes later a gray pickup truck with a crate and a dog in the bed of the truck pulled up behind us. I was nearly in tears as I whispered to Dan, “She’s been in the bed of the truck for at least an hour on the highway. She must be terrified!”
I ran to the bed of the truck to let Hallie out of the crate. It took everything I had not to bust into tears right then and there. She couldn’t even see through all the mucus in her eyes, and she had almost no hair on her body. I could see the fleas crawling all over her skin that was scratched completely raw. I replaced the rusty, one pound chain she was wearing with a new, soft cloth collar, wiped her eyes clean, and helped her into the back seat of our car.
The owner handed us a bag of food that was labeled “Vegetarian Dog Food – Great for Skin and Coat.” I waited until he left and threw the bag of food right into the trash. Dogs are carnivores. Depriving a carnivore of any species appropriate nutrition for years and years would certainly make any dog sick.
We made the trek home and got Hallie immediately into the tub for a therapeutic bath. I gently massaged her raw skin with Earthbath
In the hour it took us to get home, her eyes had built up enough mucus that she could barely see again. I cleaned her eyes out again and was able to examine them further. Her top eyelashes were stuck to her eyeballs with mucus, and when she blinked, her top eyelashes were underneath her bottom eyelids! Because no one but Dan was around, I allowed myself to cry. It hurt my heart to see how much pain Hallie was in, and to think of how long she has been like this. I am stunned at how loving and sweet Hallie is despite all the pain she is feeling.
I patted her dry with a fresh, soft, warm towel, and made her a comfortable bed in a crate in our isolation room with a fresh bowl of water. Since it was Sunday, our veterinarian wasn’t open. I woke up first thing on Monday and called Dr. Gerald Johnson at Silverthorn Veterinary Clinic and took the first available appointment the following morning.
When we got to the clinic, Dr. Gerald Johnson and his staff examined Hallie. They asked about the limited history we knew of, did a fecal, skin scrape, and a 4Dx test (which tests for heartworm, lyme, ehrlichia and anaplasmosis).
The fecal came back positive for hookworms, so Hallie was prescribed Panacur. While Dr. Johnson agrees that diatomaceous earth is typically fantastic as a general dewormer, in Hallie’s severe case we want to rid her of the worms as soon as possible so she can start healing from the inside out. With as heavy of a load that Hallie has and because of the life cycle of hookworms, diatomaceous earth would take a considerably longer amount of time to rid her of the hookworms than Panacur will. He did recommend that we use diatomaceous earth after the Panacur as a maintenance wormer and to kill any worms that the Panacur might have missed.
Hallie’s skin scrape came back negative for mange, thank goodness! Dr. Johnson believes the hair loss is due to the completely species inappropriate vegetarian diet she had been eating her whole life. He prescribed a homeopathic remedy to help bring her body into balance and aid her skin in healing. He recommended we feed her a raw diet and add fish oil and coconut oil.
Dr. Johnson is hopeful that her eyelashes are only turned in on her eyeballs due to the inflammation and mucus in her eyes, and not due to entropion. We have another appointment in a week to see how she is progressing and what her eyes are looking like. We should know by then whether or not surgery will be necessary for her eyes. Until then, he told us to rinse her eyes with saline three times a day, wait 15 minutes, and apply an antibiotic ointment, Gentamicin Sulfate. Dr. Johnson said he doesn’t usually resort to antibiotics, but in a case as severe as Hallie’s the use is warranted.
He prescribed an all natural supplement vetri-liquid DMG to help support and boost Hallie’s immune system.
We will receive the results of the 4Dx test tomorrow.
Our next appointment is April 24th. If you’d like to donate to help pay for Hallie’s medical bills, please click the donate button below to donate safely and securely via PayPal.
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