To all of our supporters, our blog now has a new home on a new and improved website! Head over to www.housewithaheart.com to visit our new site, and peruse our “Latest News” for updated blog posts. All future updates and posts will be at the new address. Thanks for your support!
Filed under Our pups
Friends, we’d like you to meet our newest Buster’s Buddies foster dog, Monroe. He is looking for his new forever home, so please spread the word about this precious pup!
House with a Heart is fostering Monroe through Buster’s Buddies, a program in which our Sanctuary fosters special dogs whose medical needs are too extensive for their current rescue. While the rescue continues to look for a forever home, HWAH supplies their daily needs of food, shelter, and love. We also assist the rescue in promoting them for adoption. Monroe is being fostered in collaboration with Dogs Deserve Better.
Monroe has had a tough life so far. From what we know, he was turned into a shelter in Baltimore as a stray. He is only about six months old, but he came in so debilitated that he could hardly eat. He was skin and bones and could barely walk. He weighed about 5 pounds when he got to us. When he came to the Sanctuary, he seemed to improve a little bit every day, but he was too weak to perform basic tasks. He went to the neurologist last week for an evaluation and for an MRI. The neurologist felt that someone may have choked Monroe, causing him to be oxygen deprived. Since he is getting better over time, the neurologist thinks that he may be rebuilding pathways in his brain, allowing him to learn all the things he needs to know in order to be a dog.
Two weeks ago Monroe could barely eat out of a dish; he simply did not know what to do with food. Now he gobbles up his food, runs all over the house, and has figured out the pet door! Click here to see a video of Monroe playing happily with a toy:
Monroe is looking for his forever home, so if you are interested in meeting this special pup, please contact Rebecca with Dogs Deserve Better at rwarwick@nbm.org.
If you’d like more information about our Buster’s Buddies program, or if you would like to donate to help with the costs of Monroe’s medical care, visit here.
Filed under Our pups
Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks
Old dogs can (and should!) learn new tricks! As our pups slow physically with age, we may assume that their mental faculties follow suit- but this doesn’t have to be the case. Old dogs need continued mental stimulation, but the strategies for providing this may be different than what worked when they were younger. Here are some tips to help keep your dog sharp.
Cole, one of our first Buster’s Buddies pups
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1. Buy toys that are specifically made for senior dogs. Kong, a popular dog toy company, makes a toy specifically for seniors which is made of softer rubber. Your pup’s aging teeth and jaws may not be able to handle the hard materials of toys made for younger dogs.
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2. All dogs benefit from experiencing new sights and sounds. Letting your older dog sniff in a new place or play with a new dog will help keep his or her brain sharp. Going for walks in new parks or on new streets is a good way to do this.
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3. Teach your dog to find his dinner in your yard. Many groups recommend this exercise because it taps into a dogs’ natural instinct to search for food. Start by putting a small amount of food in an obvious place in your yard. Then start spreading the food out into smaller piles spaced further apart. When your dog catches on, throw handfuls of kibble out into the yard and let him or her find the bounty. Note that this may not work if your dog has a decreased sense of smell, so test him out a few times before throwing kibble all over your yard!
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4. Be patient. Your dog may not want to play or to walk as much as before- let your pup’s behavior guide your play. If he suddenly becomes lethargic or apathetic, though, it’s best to check with a vet and make sure everything is okay.
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5. Make sure you speak loud enough that your dog can hear you! Many dogs experience decreased hearing with age, so if he seems to be ignoring you when you talk, make sure he is hearing what you say.
Filed under The sanctuary
Do you have a senior pet with incontinence issues? Our volunteer coordinator Martine shares her thoughts on the issue from personal experience with a senior pet.
With old age sometimes comes incontinence. Luckily we have doggie diapers and male belly bands to help with this issue. Personally I favor Deeogee’s Pet Store’s comfortable and form-fitting bands for my boys.
Here are some pictures of doggie diapers and belly bands in use on some of our Sanctuary residents.
A few tips when using doggie diapers:
1) Insert a Poise pad or half a Poise pad into the diaper and change the pad every 3-5 hours to avoid occurrence of UTIs.
2) When changing the Poise pad, wipe down the private area with a baby wipe.
3) Adding a little bit of baby powder to the pad can help avert a rash.
If dehydration is a source of UTIs in your pet I find that adding just a little bit (1 tsp or 1 tbs) of sodium-free chicken or beef broth encourages drinking by giving the water an appealing taste.
There are also dietary supplements you can give your dog or cat to decrease the chance of your pet developing a UTI such as non-prescription cranberry supplements- NaturVet’s Cranberry Relief powder or cranberry plus Echinacea soft chews; Nutramax’s Crananidin. Non-prescription probiotics such as Nutramax’s Proviable may help as well.
If you suspect your dog or cat may have developed a UTI- symptoms are frequent urination, poor or weak urinary flow, strong urine odor, increased water consumption or bloody or cloudy urine- take your pet to the veterinarian immediately. Frequent UTIs may lead to bladder stones which are painful and dangerous to your pet.
If you have discovered ‘tricks’ that work particularly well in maintaining your pet’s urinary health please feel to share them with Sher next time you visit the Sanctuary.
Thank you to Martine for sharing her thoughts on this important issue!
Filed under The sanctuary
We at House with a Heart are so grateful to our team of wonderful counselors. These volunteers help those who reach out to us for help with their pets if they can no longer care for them. It is a big job that our counselors handle with efficiency and with love.
Within the past year, the counseling team was asked to help an ailing senior gentleman with two elderly cats. He was concerned about what would happen to them when he could no longer care for them himself. The counselors found a senior cat rescue in Rockville called Seniors for Seniors (S4S), and after much coordination, the group agreed to take the kitties. When it was time for the cats to leave their owner, our amazing counselor Nancy picked them up and brought them to Seniors for Seniors. In order to help with expenses for the kitties, House with a Heart gave a grant to the rescue to cover the cost of their entry medical exams. S4S fostered the cats until they found their forever home with a family in Frederick. Their previous owner wanted them to be adopted together, so S4S waited until the right family came along, and they finally did!
This coordinated effort on the part of the HWAH counselors and S4S truly demonstrated the old adage, “It takes a village”. The coordination behind this move took several months and there were a lot of emotional moments for the owner, the Counselors, and the staff at Seniors for Seniors. House with a Heart was able to provide a grant to the rescue because of the generosity of our supporters and friends with donations made to Faith’s Fund. We are so grateful that we were able to find a happy new home for these kitties because of the efforts of so many wonderful and caring individuals.
If you would like to know more about S4S, please visit their website at http://www.s4s-usa.org.
If you’d like to donate to Faith’s Fund to help support our work, please visit Faith’s Fund at House with a Heart.
Filed under The sanctuary
The Heartbeat! 