We have at last made a true breakthrough with our little Snowy! From advice from our dog-lover friends and the rescuer (who called me on Tue concerned about how we are taking to the dog) we have reduced our can food to 1 large tablespoon plus his usual dry dog food. I think the dry food reduces Snowy urge to go to the toilet. He did so 3 x on Tue. But after we reduced his intake of can food to just 1 - 2 tablespoons, he needs to go for his walks 2x. You should see his urgency on Tue! Early in the morning, he was whining to go. Then when I came back with Tiff from school at 3.30pm, he was whining and going in circles and almost pee on my door! We quickly took him downstairs to do his business.
Now we have more or less established a routine for him quite similar to his rescuer's.
Snowy's quite a smart dog. He can eat his food and leave out his itchy tablet! So I now pinch a lump of can food and wrap the meat around his tiny tablet and place it on my flat palm for him to eat just before he has his dinner. We then squirt his liquid antibotics on his can food and then mix his dry food very thoroughly with the can food so that every piece of dry food is covered with can food. He would eat EVERYTHING off his dish now!
With his 2x daily medicine of itchy tablet and antibotics plus his daily jojoba oil massage and daily grooming of his coat and occasional rash powder, I am proud to say his coat is growing back little by little. He still wears his cone collar otherwise he will bite his itchy parts like his tail and 2 hind paws.
Today, we gave him his first bath since seeing the vet. The vet said our daily bath with hairdrying make his skin too dry. We have now changed to the vet's shampoo (with steroids) and are supposed to bathe him once to at most 2x at week and only towel dry...no hairdryer allowed.
The lysine stain (which is yellow in colour) on his ears and around his mouth and now gone with his bath. He now lives up to his name of Snowy again! We discovered that his 4 legs fur may have tinges of dark fur rather than white. He is starting to have some baby fur growing on the tips of his formally bare tail. We can now see a glimpse of what a handsome dog he used to be. He has a bushy tail in the past and some appearance of it is slowly coming back. His tuft of curly fur on his head shows that he may have some poodle blood in him. We strongly suspect he could be a mix between a poodle and a maltese. He still is a chilli-padi....small (5.9kg) and fierce, taking on bigger dogs and humans alike!
He hardly drinks water, so we resort to having him run along the carpark or grass patches with us during his walks, especially in the evening when there's lesser people and the air is cooler. We don't think he's a young dog nor is he an old dog. He loves the run and is very curious, but tires easily.
At home, when he hears noises downstairs, he would stand and try to peek over the window. So I carry him up so that he could see the workman clearing the dustbins and recycle bins. Yes, he is THAT kaypoh!!
When we return home, he would wag his tail and stand up and lick our hands from his enclosure. We have temporarily ceased letting him out in the hall since his coat is covered with jojoba oil...when he lies down, he leaves lots of oil patches on the floor. The rescuer recommends we restrict his movement to his enclosure otherwise it'll be lots of work for us. He also recommends only 2 daily walks otherwise we can't do anything else!
So far, Snowy and us have fallen more or less into a routine. I guess we are now more relaxed in handling Snowy now that he is eating well and taking his medicine regularly. The pride comes when we see Snowy improving physically...he's less skinny (in fact he's getting a little tummy now!) and his fur seems to be growing too!!
He's such a delightful dog. He poos outside the house, doesn't bark and goes to sleep by himself in the dark. Don't know why the previous owner abandon him. Well, his lost is our gain.
Love Theresa
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