Bailey’s Going Home

Bailey will be going to her new home today. There’s been a family waiting for her for a couple of weeks who will welcome her into their family later today. They’re getting an incredibly friendly, playful little girl who’s a real joy to be around. There’s a lot of positive things to say about Bailey. We like her a lot.

In the three weeks we’ve had Bailey she’s gained seven pounds. She’s made progress on almost every major issue, though she still has a long way to go. Her new family will have to closely monitor her weight, letting her gain more weight without letting her go too far and getting heavy. The Champaign County Humane Society has arranged with a local veterinarian to remover her extra canine tooth, but that surgery will have to wait for a couple of months until she gains more weight to make the anesthesia safer. And finally, there’s an ongoing, unresolved issue of why she drinks twice as much water as a dog of her size should. It’s impossible to know if there are any “hidden” problems. Malnutrition can cause damage that won’t be apparent for some time.

I thought it would be interesting to look at before and after pictures so we did a set of photos to match the ones from my first blog post about Bailey. The pictures on the left show Bailey on the day she arrived here, the ones on the right are from this morning.

Bailey has gained seven pounds in the last three weeks. Her score on the body condition scale has gone from a 1.5/9 to about a 3/9. Her ribs are still visible, but much less so.
We were worried about Bailey’s feet. They were splayed out from lack of exercise. Notice how her toes are now together rather than spread out.
Check out those knuckles! She had flat feet from lack of muscle tone, but not any more! Instead of hearing her feet slapping on the floor we now hear a nice pit-pat noise of a normal dog.
The infected wounds on her legs and feet are either healed or healing.
The infection on her spay surgery site has healed leaving her with a smooth, pink belly.
An arrangement has been made for a local veterinarian to remove Bailey’s extra canine tooth, but look at how much cleaner her teeth are. That’s from eating dry food and chewing on bones and other toys.