Blogging Miz Daisy: Start of the year

Well that was a rapid fire 2 (3) months. Shortly after we got back from Hawaii we did the crazy thing of adopting a PUPPY (January 12th)! At our week check up with the rescue for his booster shots we discovered he had ringworm (which was already healing at that point but still launched us in to a miserable protocol treatment, thankfully the cost of it all was covered by the rescue vet but still devoured all my time, energy, and attention for the next 6 weeks). Miserable is really all I can use to describe it... the good from it all? Well it forced me to rely on God, it was Him calling me back to Him reminding me I can't do this life thing alone, as much as I try I will fail. He is my source of strength and peace.

His adoption photo:

He came up in a van of dogs, which was 6-8 litter mates and a couple other dogs. He was fostered by a gal and the night we met him we also met two of the girls from that same litter who were fostered by another family. We choose Oakley (adoption name Rawlins) because he was one of the smaller ones and he was fluffier. Of the three we picked him because he was very playful the night we met him. His foster had given him a bath, we were leaning toward a boy because the whole girl spaying scares me, and we didn't want to split up the girls siblings.

Oakley did get to say hello to his sisters. Oh we named him Oakley because he was born in Oklahoma - he was an oops litter on a farm born to a yellow lab mom and 98% sure it was an Australian Shepard dad.

The first week home.

The kids are good at wearing him out.

It was a Sunday night when the vet tech called me from his Friday PCR sample showing ringworm. Lots of tears as we talked about giving him back, however the rescue couldn't find anyone to foster him during treatment.... so it landed on us. He was quarantined to our back hallway. I spent the next week deep cleaning and sanitizing the house where he had been. Thankfully we had only kept him to a small area of the house because we were also trying to house train him.

Here's the spot you can barely see at this point.

Quarentine! He had the whole back hallway but twice a week I would deep clean it and shorten his area while I cleaned. The shorten zone is the below pic.

Twice a week I had to drive him 30 minutes to the rescue vet clinic for his sulfur-lime 'dips'. They don't actually DIP him in liquid but more of a mist/spray that covers him all over and is SMELLY! It would only take about 10 minutes to do but they kept him for an hour to allow time to dry, he had to drip dry.

Here we are headed to the very first dip. After I dropped him off I went to a car wash to throughly vacuum out the van and then clean it with the spray they provided me. Good thing he is cute (and a really good boy)

On the way home they gave us a crate to transport him in from now on. They'd carry him out in it and put him in the back of the van. That first ride home he CRIED the entire 30 minute drive, it was pretty miserable. But he did so good the following trips, getting the hang of it.

I borrowed got some PPE gowns which we would wear to give him love. You might be wondering what the heck all this for ringworm? Ringworm is a fungus and yes humans can get it, wrestlers do all the time. For human protocol you simply slap some anti-fungal cream on it and you're not contagious within 48 hours. For dogs and cats it's not the same story, their fur can carry spores which they can reinvest themselves or others... so that is why the cleaning is such a hassle. Cats is even worse I hear.

Cleaning day, shorted zone. Hands and knees wiping the floor and baseboards with bleach. The vet gave me some cleaning spray which I'd use but it was starting to smell bad so we switched to bleach a few times. I don't mind the smell of bleach.

This all forced us to stick with our crate training schedule. 1 hour out - 2 hours in. It was really good for him because that 1 hour out he got total attention, we did 10 minutes or so of training every time and snuggles.

Back in the day he could fit all the way in my lap, lol.

Thankfully it was warm outside - crazy for end of January.

Isaac was very helpful with him and would run around outside. The girls loved to snuggle him and would get their protective gear on to do so. Thomas wanted nothing with him until the ringworm was gone.

Entering into February: Look at that sunshine!

Discovered his love of soccer balls.

After his 5th dip, the vet noticed his belly was very irritated, so gave us a cone to prevent him licking as well as a cream to heal any open sores.

Let me back up a minute in the story... so at his 2nd dip the vet tech informed me the culture for the cats they were doing came back negative when the PCR was positive. We never did an initial culture on Oakley, just a PCR... not saying he didn't have it because it looked like it when we got him, but I think it was probably healing on his own. So at our 1 week mark I requested they do a culture. The cultures take 3 weeks to read (time to allow any fungus to grow) to be cleared of ringworm you have to have 2 negative cultures 2 weeks a part. They usually don't do the first culture until 4 weeks into treatment.

This just keeps getting funner and funner.... life with the cone for 2 weeks.

I started to get a little lax with PPE at this point because I didn't think he was carrying the fungus any more. Still kept him quarantined and kept up with the cleaning.

Losing those baby teeth!!

At our four week dip #7, his belly was just not getting better so they moved us to home baths with a milder shampoo. They also got the 2nd culture at this point - first one was not showing signs of ringworm.

He did finally get a larger crate to transport him in, but we only needed to use it once.

So close to getting out of this routine and he was getting big the entire time!

He out grew his crate. Or I should say he outgrew Harpo's crate. So we ordered another one, the size the internet suggested for his predicted adult size (which is still kind of unknown at this time. we are thinking he'll be in the 50 lb range). It arrived and it was HUGE! Way bigger than we think we'll need. At least for now, we couldn't even fit it in the back hallway. Here is Mary in the big one - we returned it.

Adult teeth growing in.

Got the next size down and it's much better. He loves the added space, especially with that damn cone on.

With the 1st culture negative and 2nd culture not showing any growth we started to widen the quarantine one and let him into the kitchen area. He loved the added space and being able to follow me closely.

We starting taking walks! The cone has crunched his ear up... but thankfully back to normal now.

He loves sticks.

After all the pulling on our walks we brought out Harpo's old gentle leader. Solved the pulling problem... but Oakley hates it.

Loves his woof ball that we fill with pupcicles. I do greek yogurt + banana + peanut butter = mix in blender then put in the woof tray to freeze. The ball screws open and we add in the puck. He LOVES it! The ones we buy from them can last 45 minutes! That's the longest thing we've found to occupy him.