Daisy's Foster Buddies:

• Doris Drewett
• Andrea Wall
• Helen Dennis
• Amanda Hogan

Just wanted to give you a Daisy update. She is doing really well. We go for lots of walks everyday, and between the three of us, she is getting a lot of love. She sleeps in mine and Steve's room at night at the end of our bed. She's pretty good at staying put until I get up in the morning to let her out. Her house training is going okay. We had a couple of accidents the first few days, but none recently.

UPDATE: Great news for Daisy! We just wanted to let you know that we got Daisy's latest blood test results tonight and they are very good. Her protein and albumin levels are absolutely normal now. It's official she is now totally healthy. The vet said her results are the same as a 1 year old puppy.

Daisy is the happiest dog that I have ever met. She wants nothing more than to be treated kindly and to love her people. As a result of her past she is always worried that new people will be mean to her. She loves to play with her stuffed animals but is also happy to just hang out with you on the couch. She is very quiet in the house (unless it is feeding time). She will not bark when people come to the door unless she has encouragement. She currently has encouragement from our own pug so she likes to join in.

Daisy loves to meet new people and animals but because of her previous history she is initially nervous. She does however come around very quickly. When she is very afraid, she will bark but as long as people are patient with her she comes around very very quickly. She gets better with this all the time. She is an absolute dream to walk on a leash.

Daisy is not totally house broken but she will use papers inside the house if they are put down for her. She does not like the cold so she is fun to chase around in the morning right now when we are trying to get her to go outside. Her house-training has come a long way but she does need someone who can help her to finish her training.

Daisy would like to sleep on a bed with her people but she is also just as happy to sleep on the floor beside the bed.

Daisy's health issue requires that someone will watch her for changes in appetite and stool quality. She is currently on a low dose of prednisone and Azathioprine. These medications are inexpensive and are ones that she will hopefully be able to go off of at some point. Currently, the vet is recommending that she has her blood-work re-done every 3-4 months but again at some point that will probably go to two times per year.

Though Daisy has some challenges, she is well worth the effort and she pays you back in pug kisses ten times over.

It's all good news for Daisy right now. She had her bloodwork re-done mid-January and her protein levels are now almost normal. She needs to be checked again mid March. At that point we are expecting that it will be totally normal.

The other good news for Miss Daisy is that she no longer just looks like giant eyeballs and bones...she has actually started to finally put some weight on. We can't see her ribs anymore when looking at her. I would say that she is now within 1-2 lbs of her normal weight.

The last good news piece about Daisy is that she does not have accidents in her crate or out of her crate through the night anymore. She is however still having about one accident a day. I'm not certain if she is trained or we are though.

She continues to get better with her house-training and continues to be a very joyful little pug.

Just before Christmas we finally got the definitive diagnosis on what is wrong with Daisy. She has a form of PLE (protein losing enteropathy). This is not a curable condition but it is treatable and manageable. From all indications on how Daisy is doing we think that her particular case will fall in to the treatable category.

We changed all of her medications as well as her diet before Christmas and she has done very well with all of it. We will be getting her bloodwork done in the next few days to confirm this. In addition, she has made great strides with her housetraining as well.

Daisy had a very good Christmas and she very much enjoyed her gifts as well as constant time at home with all of her people. I have included some pictures with one of her new Christmas sweaters. She is somewhat difficult to get a picture of as she always walks straight to the camera.

As well, Daisy continues to be an absolute doll to have around as well as the easiest dog to walk on a leash that I have ever encountered.

Foster Update, November 26, 2009

She is continuing to be an absolute doll to have around. It appears to me that she is feeling a lot better as she is playing a lot more and starting to steal my daughters stuffed animals that are left lying around. When she gets ahold of one of their toys we just tell her to drop it and she does. She also appears to have gained some weight as we can no longer see her ribs all the time. The other sign that she is feeling better is that she was chasing her tail last night and was very funny while doing it. She is also really enjoying her new food and we had very few challenges with moving her over to the food...it was just done very slowly.

She is continuing to work on her house-training. We have to crate her at the moment when we are not home and she never has accidents in her crate. When we are home she can go wherever she wants and she seems to be getting better with this as well...during the night she is generally down to one accident per night (on her pee pad) and never poops in the house anymore.

I am trying to get her in to the vet in the next 2-3 days to get her protein levels re-checked and we are hoping that these results will show that she is on the road to recovery.

Foster Update, November 4, 2009

Daisy continues to be a doll to have around. She is a dream dog to walk on a leash and loves to greet new people and other pets at the park.

Daisy has had major issues with her stomach and is now on a special diet and medication. We are hopeful that now that the issue has been identified and seems to be getting better and that she will have better blood test results in the next month. At this point physically she is still very thin. She is however enjoying all of the special attention that she gets from us and the nice people at the vet's office. She now feels very at home there and runs to the back to greet the grumpy cat that lives at the vet.

Daisy has also made a lot of improvements on the house-training front. She no longer has accidents throughout the day and has approximately two accidents through the night. We put down a pee pad for her for that and she always makes it to the pad.

Lastly, Miss Daisy continues to be the happiest animal I have ever encountered which is quite amazing considering all the challenges she has faced in her little life.

Foster Update, October 10, 2009

Daisy is continuing to have challenges with her stomach and IBD like symptoms. At this point we are trying to get it under control with both a change in diet and through medication. She has had this challenge for a while and it appears as though we may be making some progress albeit pricey progress. For the next week Daisy will be on a new antibiotic and remaining on the probiotic that she has been on for a while.

On the good news front Daisy has been making some pretty good progress on the housetraining front. She has only had a couple of accidents this week and never has accidents when she is in her crate any more (we only crate her when we will be out of the house).

In addition Daisy continues to come out of her shell and is now the resident greeter in our house (she's faster than Jaden and the kids at getting to the door).

Foster Update, September 26, 2009

She continues to be an absolute doll to have around.  She is very loving and is a dream to walk on a leash.  She also continues to be the happiest dog I have ever met.  Every morning when we get up she is just so happy to start her day it's contagious.  She does however continue to have some challenges with her house-training.  She is getting much better but it will still be a while before she is trained.

Daisy has also been having some trouble with an upset stomach.  My vet is doing another fecal test as well, we have her on antibiotics again.  If this doesn't work we will start looking at whether Miss Daisy may have irritable bowel disease.....if she does it is not curable but totally manageable.

Foster Update, August 17, 2009

Daisy has now been spayed and had her teeth cleaned. She came through it all with flying colours. The antibiotics she has been on since she arrived have really helped. Her gingivitis has really cleared up and her mouth is no longer infected. During her cleaning yesterday they only removed 3 teeth. One molar (a broken nub of a tooth) and 2 more teeth that were crowded. All in all her teeth are now in good condition.

There are only 2 things left to work on for Daisy:

1. She still needs to gain some weight as she is still a few pounds underweight. This is quite a novelty in our house, we've never had a pug that needed to gain weight before.
2. Lastly, for Miss Daisy is her housebreaking. She is coming along quite nicely though and now understands that outside is the place to go. Over the past weekend there were only a couple of accidents.

Now that we can get her in to a harness, she is a dream to walk on a leash (my 1 year old could probably walk her). Once her staples are removed (from her spaying) we can resume her walks again. Also, she continues to be the happiest dog I've ever met. She is just so excited every morning when it is time to start her day.

Introduction, July 20, 2009

Daisy is a former puppy mill breeder and is going to learn about life outside of a cage. Her age is estimated at between 5 and 7 years. She's a bit timid, but warming up quickly under the care of her foster family. She has been very good with the resident dogs and enjoys the company of the human 4 year old. She's not so sure about the 1 year old however.

She will need to work on her house training, but that's not unusual in a former breeding dog. She will be spayed, but has just gone into heat so that will wait for a while. She will also need some dental work done and may have a UTI. She was an excellent patient at the vets and shows every sign of being a very good girl once she gets more stable and confident.