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Welcome to Rescue Beagle USA.

This blog is dedicated to Lucky, my sweet little girl who passed away in her sleep peacefully on 12-14-12. Lucky was a lemon beagle and came to us as a "rescue" when she was about 3-years old. While she was initially scared, the poor thing was all of 20-lbs (and for her size that was severely under weight) with lots of love and snacks she became the best friend a person could ever have - please give a rescue beagle a second change!

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Caring for Your Senior Dog

I read this post on LinkedIn today and wanted to share it here as it provides excellent advice when caring for a senior dog.


Don't make the mistake I did. Protect your senior dog.

My thirteen going on fourteen year old lab mix was really doing pretty good except for arthritis. I took her to our life-long vet for an assessment and he suggested “vetprofen.” We started her on it with no lab work. He did tell me that periodic lab work should be done to see if her liver was OK from the drug. I trusted him and I didn’t know better. He called on the tenth day to see how it was working out and I have to admit, she had a new spring in her step. On the 18th day, my sweet Kola, threw up and started bleeding out, slowly at first. I wondered if at first if she developed a bladder infection. Within 2 hours she was bleeding heavily and was lost a lot of blood. It was a Sunday, and I took her to an emergency facility where she died. Since, I’ve learned how important an initial lab test is before starting the drug. It can cause kidney failure. At age 14, I didn’t expect her to last years but I never expected that Kola and I would have to go through such trauma because I didn’t know or ask about lab work. Even if it's a doctor you have known a long time..........ask more questions.

 

************** Before giving your dog ANY medications, please make sure the necessary blood work is done. Also consider Holistic options!**********

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