Gold Ribbon Rescue Adoptables

RALI update January 2007

Remember Rali? He was our Extraordinary Golden Fund poster boy last summer. He arrived in care with horrific skin problems (his tail was almost hairless) and a back problem that required surgery to fix. Just look at him now! His dad says, "Remember how he was mostly hairless when he came in? Just to quantify things, I measured the width of the base of his tail and it's four inches wide! His coat is one of those that goes in one direction here, then another there. He is a super guy, happy all the time and I can't wait for the GRR picnic at Zilker this spring to show him off."

Rali... Gentle Rali (pronounced to rhyme with “Holly”) came to GRR this spring, when his loving owner could no longer care for him. She had found him wandering down a rural road a few years earlier, and though she posted signs and ran ads, nobody ever came looking. Hard to believe! – because Rali turned out to be one great dog. “He is smart, laid-back, a wonderful companion. He listens really well. He’s a gentleman—if you gave him a newspaper and a cigar I can just see him putting on his glasses and settling down in an armchair to read the financial news and have a smoke!"

Unfortunately, as 2006 began, Rali’s owner found herself facing some serious health troubles—just as Rali himself began to have real issues with skin allergies. Realizing she could not give her much-loved Golden the medical attention and care he needed, she contacted GRR.

When Rali arrived, our first order of business was to tackle those skin problems—as the owner had warned us, they were severe. Rali’s skin was bare, darkened, and thickened in places, and so itchy we worried he might have mange. His eyes were crusty and his tail looked almost like a possum’s. We got going with medicated shampoos two or three times a week, an oral anti-fungal to battle infection, and of course high-quality food and skin supplements. Several months on, we are happy to say that this boy is so much better, and achieving the good looks to match his A-plus personality!

One other problem won’t get better on its own, though, and that’s where we need your help. Rali’s foster dad noticed fairly soon that Rali had a hard time getting up and down from the floor, climbing up steps, and so on. He’d plop down instead of gradually lowering himself, and sometimes he was just reluctant to move at all. At first, we wondered if it was just typical older-dog arthritis, but it quickly became clear that something more serious was going on. It was back to the vet for X-rays and a closer look at his back and hips.

The diagnosis is lumbo-sacral disease. The area between two of the vertebrae in Rali’s lower back is unstable, and in response to that, the bones have thickened and the area around his spine has become inflamed—narrowing the spinal canal and putting pressure on the nerve roots. He has pinched nerves in his spine, and that produces pain comparable to sciatica in humans – ouch! He tries to avoid positions and movements that hurt, but the only real way to alleviate his pain is to perform a surgical decompression of the nerve roots by going in and relieving the pressure. Fortunately, this operation is successful about ninety percent of the time, and once the dog has recuperated, he’s pain-free at last!

So far, Rali’s medical care totals about $430.56; the cost of the surgery he needs will add $1,400 to the total. Can you help? The smallest donation will make a big difference to a wonderful dog. Please donate to the EGF Fund online with a check draft, Visa or MasterCard.

If you have a few extra dollars to give to our Extra-Ordinary Golden Fund (EGF), we'd love to be able to have the funds available to help another dog in the future, for our normal adoption fees and donations do not cover these extra-ordinary surgeries.

Rali is set for surgery at the surgery center on Wednesday, the 16th of this
month. He will go in early that Wednesday morning, get prepped, and then
have surgery in the afternoon. He will stay at the vet overnight, then
the doctor will check him the next morning, and hopefully he will
be ready to come home then. Rali wants to thank everyone who chipped in
to help him get well, and we hope you send good wishes on the 16th.

Just got a call from the vet. Rali's surgery went fine, and he is out of surgery and resting. One change in the original schedule is that he will be staying until Friday or Saturday, as they want to keep patients very still for several days after his type of surgery. I had thought he would be coming home after only one night.

Update, August 18:

Rali had his surgery on August 16 and came through with flying colors. He returned home to start his recuperation on August 18. His foster dad says, "Rali is in good spirits and would like to be up and around, but he has activity restrictions for a month. He'll go back to the clinic in 2 weeks to have his staples out, and then at 4 weeks for a reevaluation by his doctors. He is very happy to be home and would like to extend his personal thanks to everyone who has helped him through this difficult time. He looks forward to taking walks around the neighborhood and romping in the backyard not too long from now!"

Update 9/12/06

Once again, Rali would like to thank everyone who has helped him get well! He is doing super. He has another appointment with his surgeon on Wednesday 9/13, and he’s hoping to get the “all clear” for longer walks, swimming, etc. This will be his second post-op vet visit; the first was to remove the staples and make sure the incision was healing properly (it was!). Rali will still have a couple of months of restricted (but gradually increasing) activity, and with the weather finally cooling down, that looks like a good schedule. He has already started going up and down the back steps by himself—he no longer has to have his rear end hoisted by a helpful human to go outside or come back in.

After the staples came out, he started taking 5-minute walks, and he’s now up to 15 minutes at a time. I still crate him when I’m out of the house, and he is still on anti-inflammatories, but the dosage is half of what it was right after surgery—and we’ll be cutting it back even more to see if he can do entirely without the meds. He has been trying to get my other two dogs to play, with mixed results. He jumps and squeals when he sees the leash, and wags his tail so hard he knocks things over. To celebrate having his staples out and a good checkup, he got to go to Central Market and listen to some music the following weekend.

His skin condition has healed and his coat is growing out; his tail, hind legs, and stomach are no longer bare. Even the blackest, barest areas of skin, which were on his elbows, are partially covered with hair! (Of course, he still has a patch of short hair on his lower back at the surgery site, and one on his leg where the IV was, but the fur is growing back there, too. The scar is about 4 inches long, and only a tiny bit of scab remains; the rest is all healed and being covered up by fur.)

Rali is a happy, very sweet, and ever more energetic guy who loves to be scratched and petted, and most of all, to roll over on his back for a tummy rub. He sits quietly to be groomed and have his nails trimmed. He is thrilled to be feeling so good and thanks all of you from the bottom of his heart for being so caring!