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Posted over 9 years ago
| Updated over 9 years ago
I found a new home! Plenty of my friends are looking for one too. Check out other pets at this shelter, or start a new search.
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My basic info
Breed
Shar Pei/Australian Shepherd
Color
Brown/Chocolate - with Tan
Age
Adult
Size
Med. 26-60 lbs (12-27 kg) (when grown)
Weight
–
Sex
Female
Pet ID
–
My details
Not good with kids
Good with dogs
Good with cats
Shots current
Spayed / Neutered
Housetrained
Has special needs
My story
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Here's what the humans have to say about me:
Effie is a sweet little dog, who was found as a stray, and reportedly would eat only potato chips and table scraps in the 2 weeks the finder kept her. She had persistent, watery diarrhea, and (as you can see in the photos) was dreadfully underweight.
After several rounds of diagnostics including blood work at multiple laboratories, urinalysis, ultrasound, and fecal analysis, Ms. Effie has been diagnosed with inflammatory bowel syndrome. She was treated with several medications and special diet, and has now been weaned off all medications but remains on the prescription diet. She eats with gusto, and is up to a much healthier 40 pounds (she was 27 pounds in the first 2 pictures here). The 3rd picture is 2 months later, still lean but much less like a drying rack! 4th picture was after she spent an entire evening over-doing it playing on the ice with another dog, and had very sore paws the next day.
Long-term she should be able to have a pretty normal life as long as her diet is carefully controlled, but she may need low-dose or intermittent medication for flare-ups.
Personality-wise, Effie is pretty fabulous. She likes people and other dogs, gets along with cats and is a little nervous of horses. She does like to chase rabbits! She is well house-trained, and loves car rides. Despite her near-starvation, she has not been a garbage-raider or counter-surfer in foster care (though she's not immune to the lure of the cat food bowl).
She has recently started to show some of the typical Shar Pei territorialism - guarding the car and office from strangers. So far this has been confined to small areas in which she spends considerable time. This may make her unsuitable for a situation where there are frequently people coming and going from her area. We're working on mellowing this tendency by having approaching people wait for her to calm down, then rewarding the calm behavior, but it's slow going trying to overcome generations of bred-in tendency.
Because of the amount of testing and treatment Effie required, we are asking for a donation with adoption of at least $100 (we have spent nearly $1000 on her care).
If you would like to make a donation toward Effie's ongoing treatment, please contact Dr. Jes at docjesadams@gmail.com or 509-690-7343.
