Good evening all - this is my first post, forgive me for the length. Had to get it on paper in a place where folks would appreciate it. I hope you do.
Just dropped in to the forum - looking for some information...I'll get to that in a bit.
To start, my name's Dan - proud owner of 2 rescued GSP's...Some of the main activities I enjoy with my pups are:
4-wheeling in the desert (Jeep Wrangler)
Bicycling around the neighborhood (for MY benefit as much as theirs..)
Relaxing and retrieving at the lakes
Camping
Hiking
...etc
Tonka - ~2 years old, rescued at approx 6 mos old. Originally, the folks running the GSP rescue thought he was a pure-bred GSP, but as he's grown into himself, I believe him to be a mix of some sort, possibly with Pit (mainly due to the jaw line/snout/head structure), but who knows...
First Wheelin' Trip
Camping
Chloe - ~1.5 years old, rescued at (vet thinks) ~10mos old, and none too soon. Chloe was pregnant when I found her and another dog (mastiff/boxer mix-ish) cold, hungry, exhausted in Northern Arizona during the first weekend in December. The area in which I found her (just west of Strawberry, AZ, near Child's Hydro-electric station) was seeing single-digit night-time lows, barely reaching 35°F highs. When I found them, I was out with a friend for a fun / exploratory ride in the Jeep - they came running down the trail and wouldn't let me go by. Having not seen people for ~30miles, I opened the door - Chloe needed no second invitation, she jumped right in. Hooch (adopted by a close friend of mine) wanted in, but I think he was too tired to do it, so I loaded his 80lbs (emaciated 80lbs) into the Jeep and they curled up in the back - I turned on the heater and they slept the entire 2.5 hour ride home, bumps and all.
Chloe and Hooch - Riding home
Once I got home, I immediately had to find a foster home for Hooch, as he was unaltered, and I didn't want any challenges between he and Tonka, so he went to stay at a friend's house until I could find his owners.
Tonka, Chloe and I went for a long (6 miles, 1.5 hours) walk before she went in the house, and I believe that this, and this alone was the catalyst for their seemingly human-like brother/sister relationship (yeah, I know...they're dogs).
About 10 mins after getting home from that first walk, having dinner and sitting down to relax, it was clear that they would be fast forever friends.
The next day, I called every shelter I could find, humane society, rescue organization and let them know that I had found two dogs, approximate area, and gave my number for folks to call. I even drove back up to Strawberry to post fliers. All this with no response. Sadly, in hindsight, I believe the owners realized Chloe had gotten pregnant, and dumped them in the woods to fend for themselves.
The friend who had been fostering Hooch decided she would keep him, as he was VERY well adjusted, and got along great with the rest of her pets (including cats). Since Tonka and Chloe had taken so well to one another, and Chloe was so damn adorable, I decided that I'd keep her as well.
I took Chloe to the vet about 1 week before Christmas (2-3 weeks after I found her). She had been eating like a horse, and I'd allowed it, since she was SO skinny - unhealthily so. Well, she put on the right amount of weight, and then some, so I had started cutting her back to a more appropriate amount, and she was ALWAYS acting hungry. Lo and behold - the vet said she was pregnant - although he didn't know how far along. Tonka was fixed when I adopted him, so I knew HE couldn't be the culprit, and Chloe hadn't been around any other dogs except Hooch when I found her. Chloe is a smallish GSP (approx 40lbs, now at hunting weight). Hooch is a VERY large Boxer/Mastiff-ish mix (95lbs now, and lean as any boxer I've seen - with a GIGANTIC head). Not knowing the date of inception, I started planning for 63 days from the date that I found her, and started taking her temperature daily about 2 weeks before that date. By this time, she was HUGE - ready to pop...
(Not the chupacabra - I promise...)
On a Sunday night, her temp dropped down below 100°F, then was back to normal the following day - so, here it comes, right? Wrong. She was heavily nesting, doing all the right things, but nothing happened. On Thursday, I took her to the vet (once the temp drops, it's reliably predictable that she should go into labor within 24hrs and produce a pup within 36). Since that hadn't happened, my vet wanted to take some x-rays to check the size of the puppy's skulls, due to the disparity in size from the most likely father and the mother, coupled with how incredibly large Chloe was getting...
Vet counted 9 skulls and 10 spines - luckily, none were large enough to prove a problem with the pelvic bones, so he told me to just go home and wait longer...the following Sunday, about 9:30pm, Chloe was laying on the couch, when all of a sudden it sounded like she was drinking from a water dish...on my couch!
4 hours and 10 puppies later, it was all over. She needed no help from me, handled it like an old pro. One puppy was stillborn, and the runt didn't make it through the first night, but the remaining 8 were happy, healthy, and quiet...for about 3 weeks...
It was very cold outside at night, so I had set them up in a makeshift pen in my dining room, moved the table to the other side of the room, and life was good.
Then one Friday morning, about 3 weeks after the pups were born, Chloe woke me up at around 3:30am whining, so I went out to check on her and the pups. She was out of the pen, the pups were fine, if only a little chilly, so I got a couple of old rags to help that out, but Chloe had laid down on the floor in front of the couch and wouldn't move. I went over and sat with her for a bit, she was whining, real softly...took her to the vet when they opened (8am), and the vet said she would need emergency surgery for pyometra. So, he did the surgery, but the uterus was healthy - no signs of infection at all. Vet sent her home to rest, as she was acting very responsive, walking, etc a few hours after the surgery. That night, she went downhill fast, and I was back at the vet's office at 8am Saturday morning, carrying Chloe, almost in tears, b/c she was so weak, and it just seemed very, very bad.
Long story short(er), she needed another emergency surgery, as the right posterior mammary glands (2) were dying (cold, bruised look). When he performed the surgery, she had a clot in the mammary artery that supplies blood to these two glands. He decided to keep her Sunday for observation. Monday morning, I got a phone call - she would need another surgery to do the mirror procedure on the left side. Again, she had a clot in the mammary artery on the other side as well.
This type of thing would have been very difficult to deal with regardless of the situation, but remember, I had 8 hungry, and now outspoken 3-week old puppies at home. On top of it all, now I had a dog who had been cut up 3 times, and sewn back together, losing a significant amount of skin at the same time - the surgery wasn't clean (no fault of my vet), and she looked like Frankenstein. She also had a drain - which meant discharge - for about 2 weeks after the surgery.
Hyperlinked this one, not for the weak-stomached....
http://i596.photobucket.com/albums/t...9/DSCN0258.jpg
My friends thought this one was a little bit risque...didn't realize at the time...
Anyway, the pups got weaned REAL early, puppy food, blended with powdered dog milk and water, then just water, then just soaked in water...they were REALLY good pups.
Eventually, they got more rambunctious, Chloe got healthy, although she couldn't be a 'mom' anymore, so they grew up REAL quick - learned to fend for themselves, but we all got outside quite a bit, to make sure they were socialized well with Chloe and Tonka...
All this time, I had been talking up the pups, and reaching out to a bunch of people that I know, trying to find GOOD, STABLE forever homes for them. I'm happy to say that NONE of the pups went to a shelter (there are enough dogs there that need homes already). Every single one went to someone I know personally - and they're all doing extraordinarily well - even see a couple of them out on the trail from time to time while I'm 4-wheeling...
These days, Tonka and Chloe and I spend an hour or so every night riding the bike, much to their enjoyment. Chloe has no long-lasting physical or other symptoms of her journey, and is a VERY high-energy GSP, so the bike thing works out for the both of us. Tonka enjoys the rides too, but he would probably be happy with 30-40 mins, even though I push him for the last 15-20...
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