Kenai

My last post of my night!

Our 12th Annual “JUST IN TIME FOR XMAS’ Online Auction is now closed. I have contacted all winners – posted on the auction items, so please do check the item(s) that you bid on to confirm if you did win.

Payment is expected within 72 hours and the payment details have also been posted in the winning thread posts. 

Final total shall be announced once all monies are collected yet, at this time looks like we are over $1,700 raised! WOW!

All money raised shall go towards helping BHRR’s Percival and this handsome young man, BHRR’s Kenai.

We know many have been wondering how things are going and we wish to thank all those that have remained patient, understanding that we are working hard 24/7 to ensure that the animals are done right by. Posting updates at the frequency that some may wish is not possible and while we are regretful that one or two find that upsetting, we cannot take time away from what the animals need, when they need us.

BHRR’s Kenai remains on Trazodone, Clomicalm and Gabapentin.

Gwennie Novel UPDATE:

1) He is not spinning as much – this tends to happen, along with the self-mutilating when he is overstimulated or anxious.

I have also noted when I am out preparing his food and I poke my head into the rec room quietly, that he will be laying down peacefully and as soon as he sees me, he will begin to spin, do that wonderful GS whine that us GS lovers know all too well and also grab at his tail, while all the time keeping his eyes on me. I passively ignore and he soon realises that ‘hey, this is not working and will stop and sulk and then wag his tail and sit calmly or walk around.’

2) He loves his crate – too much and working on him not wanting to spend so much time in there. The door remains open for him to go in and out at will and it is only closed for eating and bedtime.

Yes, it is his safe spot yet, we are very very very slowly introducing him to outside his now safe zone to small wondrous things the world has to offer.

He can go from zero to 100 very fast in the stimulation dept. and so very small on the scale, yet, as I have stated before, his inches are miles in the success dept.

3) We can now go for short walks and he is not constantly spinning, crying or trying to grab at his hind end or tail. He is chatty and talkative as we walk and I know his anxiety is a huge role in that and it is not all excitement about the walk. Inches….

4) He is loving the snow!

5) He sleeps wonderfully at night and I love how when I go to greet him at 5:00 AM, he is so happy to see me and gives me his happy GS whine. The more impatient ‘where is my breakfast Gwennie whine is not so loved by me!’ 

6) He can now focus and eat and drink from bowls all by himself. We had to hold the bowl for him to drink and handfeed him for awhile. He has been putting on much needed muscle mass, toning up and weight. He looks fabu!

7) He knows his name and knows to sit before eating and so, I KNOW he is in there somewhere…..deep inside that anxiety ridden traumatized mind and heart plus soul is that puppy I am working so hard to reach.

8) We now know that he suffers from IS. Epilepsy is so hard to diagnose in dogs and too many use that word when in fact it is Idiopathic seizures. We also know that with every seizure, it does affect the brain. We are equally working hard to control them. He has lesions in his brain that his neurologist believe are related to said seizures.

A lesion is an area of tissue that has been damaged through injury or disease. So a brain lesion is an area of injury or disease within the brain.

Yet, his Vet Team plus I and his neurologist also believe that stress is a big trigger for them too.

9) Those that know me, now that I rarely, say a dog is truly aggressive – in almost 30 years of doing this, yet, at this time this boy falls into that category.

For, as some may be aware, if a reactive dog crosses that threshold, they enter the aggression realm and this boy is there right now. This is caused by several factors – vulnerability, extreme fear, severe anxiety, lack of proper socialisation and training just to name a few.

He just sees ‘red’ when it comes to other dogs. He is beyond trying to communicate to humans as reactive dogs do that he is not trying to give us a hard time but in fact is having a hard time.

He is also resource guards at an intense level.

10) Leash manners are coming – he is in a martingale for safety and we have many wonderful moments of clarity in our short walks that he can focus, think and respond to what is being asked of him.

11) BHRR is the right organization for him, YET our home is not the right one for him as we are a multi dog home.

Therefore, over these past couple of weeks, thanks to an amazing approved experienced Volunteer of ours, we have been transitioning him from my home to theirs – inches….just inches. We work side by side with him to set him up for success.

They do not have other dogs in their home. It deeply assists him in so many ways…..BHRR’s Kenai bonded fierce and fast to me and we also need to make sure that his emotional needs and that building up of trust he has gifted me with is not broken….

Inches BHRR’s Kenai….it is all about inches that are miles for you.

We are not in a rush….one inch at a time!

12) He remains not housebroken and we continue to work with him on that. What used to be a 100% lack of housetraining is now about 75%…Those Inches!

This picture was taken today in our side yard as the light was fading fast…Sean is holding him as all he wanted to do is chase the softly falling snowflakes and Mason was trying to get a picture of his face for all of you to see!

This is who you are helping with your lifesaving donations….his bills are mounting fast – we are almost $4,000 between exams, diagnostics plus meds.

AND being only 6 months of age, he is worth every penny!

When he wags his tail and when he looks at me with total clarity, I see the dog he has the amazing potential to be…..

He will remain in our BHRR Haven Program for life and shall not be made available for adoption.

As I am heading out of the country tomorrow, follow-ups on auction items, collection of payments etc. will not be as quick as they were tonight!

From our home to all of our friends, family and supporters, warmest good night wishes are being sent! 

 
 
 

**UPDATE: $955 DONATED TO DATE**

NOTE: Let us make it clear that he is in excellent, highly experienced plus qualified hands via our Vet Team including Specialists and BHRR.

All posts not related to well wishes, support etc., will be removed. We remain operating with a zero tolerance policy.

As always, people are most welcome to their own opinions yet, our page will not be utilised as an open forum for that kind of negativity.

Our page was to be unpublished as of Sunday yet, will leave up until later today!

This is a Video of Kenai at EVC after we gave him some sedation. This is him after he settled down a LOT from the high level of arousal he was at upon arrival.

Since this video/arrival, he is getting plenty of exercise, no pressure is being placed upon him, his nights are great now, his days are very very very slowly – his inches are miles in improvement – settling into the routine of consistency, lots of passively ignoring and he is now drinking plus eating all on his own.

When he first arrived, his anxiety and stress level were so high, he could literally not focus on anything. His eyes were just not seeing or processing anything. We had to handfeed him and that meant making meatball size morsels and putting it right up to his nose as he was spinning around and around trying to self-mutilate.

Being painfully thin to begin with getting him to eat and drink on his own was a big priority.

He also now has giant size stimulation toys with treats in them to help him ‘let go’ of so much tension and anxiety. They get him to stop and focus on the task in front of him and rewards him.

He started the Clomicalm yesterday too and that will additionally assist him at this time.

Just a small update to say that your donations make a difference! AND they are helping us give him what he needs. 

UPDATE: $810 Donated To Date

This is 5 month old Kenai. He is an extremely special needs German Shepherd.

He is who we have been working behind the scenes to help.

Thank you to all that did bring him to our attention and to the OHS who did reach out to us and I picked him up on Thursday.

He has severe OCD & Separation Anxiety, is self-mutilating plus has resource and leash reactivity. He was being kept heavily sedated at the OHS.

We reviewed all of the medical records on him and the x-rays done and our own Vet Team including specialists have agreed that nothing deeply abnormal was found. Neuro exam has also not presented with anything alarming.

A MRI and/or CT scan were recommended as next steps as possible trauma was also on the table.

AND of course behavioural was very much being considered.

I watched several videos plus the reports and clearly his condition was deteriorating from when he first entered the shelter to when I picked him up.

My pick up of him could have gone more smoothly as he has not been given any afternoon meds and one person told me that the Trazodone and Gabapentin being given to him does not work. I stated that giving him something was better than nothing as now as a stranger I am taking out this puppy who has stimulation issues, reactivity, anxiety issues etc., into a car in bright sunshine, in rush hour traffic across town. Someone went to get some meds for him. The shelter also had him on ACE, which my Vet team took him off of as it is such a short acting med.

I also asked for a cone as he did not have one and was attacking his tail and I was told that it only exacerbated the issue. I stated that by not providing one that his tail would be a wreck by time I got him to work as he was attacking it viciously. I was still denied a cone for him and yes, by the time I got him to work, his tail was wounded further, raw and bleeding profusely.

I then struggled to put my leash on him – for he was constantly spinning, inflicting self-harm on himself – as the harness he was wearing was almost completely chewed through in two spots – one spot can be seen in the posted picture – and also enabled him open access to his back legs and tail. I was informed by the same individual that he walks fine on the harness and I explained why I was also hooking him up on my own leash to his collar. I wanted safety for him. Having control over his head also enabled me to reduce how much he was attacking/biting his hind end and tail.

As he was in a quick release collar, he easily broke it off and one handed I had to work to get it back on and him leashed.

In almost 24 years of picking up a dog, I have never had this level of difficulty and it was a lesson for me that not only shall I come with my own leash to pick up a dog yet, always a martingale(had one in the car) but also a cone and a basket muzzle. I had neither a cone or a basket muzzle to prevent him further self mutilating on the whole drive to work.

I am truly so grateful to the OHS for responding to my email of concern over how rough this pick up was on him. They were quick to respond and to revise pick up protocols on dogs like him moving forward!  THANK YOU!

At EVC, we immediately gave him sedation – I have videos of how he is even after sedation – and put a basket muzzle on him. The basket muzzle prevented him from actually causing more damage to his body. Once he had quiet time in a lights off run to de-compress, we examined him.

Poor boy was so scared he even had peed himself. 

I want to extend a huge thank you to the Vets and team that were there and to the Specialists that have stepped up to see him.

We cannot rule out trauma. There is believed to not be any brain or spinal tumours – rare in puppies, and x-rays taken are normal. His does not have any broken tail or pelvis and his hips are good. He has some mild sacrum displacement yet, should not be this level of alarming. Spine looks ok in x-rays also and therefore we need the MRI and/or CT scan to help provide more information to help put his story together.

The move forward plan is to keep him on 150 mg Trazodone and increase to three times daily.

He will remain on Gabapentin 300 mg and increase to three times daily.

AND we will be putting him on a 80 mg of Clomicalm daily. If he responds really well, reduce to 40 mg daily. This medication has to be special ordered and will not be in until next week.

We are going to focus on the behaviours as a priority too, get him settled in – he has had so many people and changes of hands(we know of at least four homes prior to our rescue) and then he ended up at the OHS and now us. No wonder he is a neurotic hot mess.

He needs to have stability and consistency and patience and a home and he needs to have time….He has had so much sensory overload that he needs peace and quiet for now. He needs time…..time to be able to get him to de-escalate of this emotional high level he is on, to begin to come back to the land of the living, to re-focus and gain some self-control.

We will move towards a MRI and/or a CT and rule out congenital and/or trauma.

His eye exam was normal – he menaces, he reacts to light, he can track things. However, unless you are right in his face, close up, he is so stressed that he really is not seeing what is there.

When I say that this puppy is hurting emotionally, he is. His mental pain is devastating. Just heartbreaking and as I always state, feeling sorry for him is the worst thing we can do. That is not going to help him. Yet, your heart feels very heavy for what this 5 month old puppy has gone through to date and has endured…..

Have we rehabilitated much worse, yes. However, his situation is high with level of severity. As stated to the OHS, we are not miracle workers and we do not put any pressure on him or our rescue as to making him ‘normal’. What we can and have promised is to give him everything and work to give him a quality of life that is his normal.

We never will see any animal suffer and we know that the OHS informed us that euthanisa was one of the options being considered for him and as told them, I trust that they would do best and remain beyond grateful that we have this opportunity to assist him.

Already, we have glimpses of improvement – inches are like miles for him right now in rehab – and per a previous post, we know he has been a high profile dog to many and ask that for anyone that is considering helping us raise money for his cause – trust me he is so so so worthy! – please donate direct to:

PayPal: gwen@birchhaven.org
Email Transfer: contactbhrr@gmail.com

OR direct to Eagleson Veterinary Clinic 613-383-8381 – he has an account there

Please do not donate to any independent fundraisers that we are not sharing on our page for we cannot guarantee or warrant that those funds will be sent for his care. If something is not posted here on our page, it is not SANCTIONED by BHRR. Once again, we do not want to see anyone’s generosity and caring hearts taken advantage of.

He has an ever increasing team of Vets and Specialists stepping up and examining him and reviewing all of his records and assisting with where to go from here medically.

All of them are 100% in agreement with myself in respect to his behavioural program.

His Bills To Date: $1,989.78

A CT scan is almost $2,500
A MRI is almost $3,000

We thank all of you for your patience as we waited to post about this gorgeous boy for we needed to know what we were looking at for him to then post what his needs are…..

Our mandate is to be here for dogs like him – horses too. We do not do it for exposure, pats on the back etc. We do it as this is what we do, 24/7, every day of the year and we sincerely hope that his BHRR village will surround him with all that he is going to need. I am hunkered down for the not days yet weeks and possibly many many many months as with our July rescue intake BHRR’s Lily’s own self mutilation, SA plus OCD to be there for him. The sleepless nights and the one small step forward to only then take three backwards. I am committed and this is what we do and please keep him in your best thoughts…..he needs your well wishes as much as he needs your financial consideration! 

When was driving to EVC, I was already putting a custom plan in place for him and we will share his journey with all of you….

Please do consider donating even $5 to him…..thank you in advance for reading my Gwennie Novel.

I am feeling so blessed tonight!

These gorgeous Wiggle Bumz collars came in from their plus Cassy’s incredible generosity!!! Thank you both!!! 

AND for anyone that are Secret Santa angels to any of the BHRR doggies, for collar businesses to support, Wiggle Bumz is amazing!

We deeply also love onepawtwopaw as they support our rescue efforts with every collar bought, they donate one to our cause!

We do have TWO more BHRR doggies still dreaming of a special Secret Santa of their very own:

BHRR’s Burst
BHRR’s Glacier

http://www.birchhaven.org/fundraising-20…/2009-secret-santas

AND on another note, I did pick up BHRR’s Kenai late this afternoon and spent almost 4 hours at the Vet Hospital with them.

Will post more re: this canine shortly yet, we do remain asking people to let this be our news to impart and not to breach confidentiality.

We have been working hard behind the scenes and now that we have a much better plan of a move forward action, we can post said plan shortly……

We hate high profile animal rescue situations for every 1000 people that ‘get things’, there is always 1 or two fanatics that feel that they know best yet, the reality is that they do not.

AND for those bringing to our attention independents that are fundraising on their own for this specific canine, please do know before contributing to anyone’s fundraiser that unless you see it posted here re: this specific canine, it is not SANCTIONED by BHRR. We cannot guarantee or warrant that said funds being raised by said parties will be donated to this specific canine’s cause. 

We ask people to please try to be patient, that we know how many have big beautiful caring hearts and wish to help yet, we do not want anyone taken advantage of.

We needed to know first what we were looking at prior to posting re: financial needs for this canine…..and, we promise to post when the time is right…..

On that note, from our home to all of our friends, family and supporters, the warmest and most humblest of good night wishes are being sent!