Helping Pets Alive

THANK YOU BEST FRIENDS!

kerryclair1 — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 01:43:58 GMT

Best Friends Pulls Away!
Goodbye and Thank You!

We would like to thank Best Friends for the past nine months. As most of you know, Best Friends came to Pets Alive when we were in a desperate situation and they helped us in every way imaginable. They hired staff and taught us how to properly care for and house the animals. They helped us develop a network of volunteers and supporters, showed us better adoption practices, helped us train the animals (and the staff), and helped teach us how to stand on our own two feet. We're doing that now. Maybe a little wobbly in our new shoes but we are definitely on our own two feet. We are grateful.

Do you want to see Pets Alive continue as a no-kill shelter in this area? If so then we need your support. We need your donations, your volunteer time, and your assistance to make this happen. PLEASE CONSIDER MAKING A DONATION NOW to help Pets Alive stay afloat. We especially need help these first few months when times will be the most difficult, and before we can start fund raising. WILL YOU PLEASE LEND A HAND? If you can, then visit our website at http://www.petsalive.com and click the DONATE NOW button!
THANK YOU!

Rob and Marisol Thomas fans will be happy to know that they are very supportive and willing to do whatever it takes to see Pets Alive continue! They are planning a benefit for us in the fall and will continue to help us with their wonderful Sidewalk Angels Foundation. In addition, Marisol's Mom and Dad are moving into the area and are going to start coming by once a week as volunteers! Marisol's whole family are true animal lovers. We know where she got it from. We can't wait to put them to work.

We have started to take in animals again -- dogs only at this time as we still have too many cats and horses right now and are still looking for homes. So far we have brought in about 27 dogs and placed 21 of them. Not bad for three weeks! Tomorrow we will be taking in another 26 dogs. These dogs are coming in from all over and we are taking them in on a case by case basis. Some of these dogs are coming from local shelters that are full and are having to start to put dogs down. We're working to become a resource for area organizations so that these animals do not have to die needlessly.

We have taken in dogs from the south where the euthanasia rate is at about 85% in many of these shelters. Some shelters even closed down for the holidays, euthanized every animal and then they open back up and start taking in animals again! We saw pictures and pictures of beautiful, young, friendly dogs. Many were puppies! We started taking some in, but the cost makes this something we can continue to do. In this case we had sponsors that helped us -- Thanks Rose T. Each dog has to be spayed and neutered, chipped, vaccinated and transported.

CAN YOU HELP? Our spays and neuters are costing us $125, vaccinations and chipping $60, transport $85. Our adoption fees are $175 for these dogs. WILL YOU PLEASE HELP?

Our biggest need is for help with transporting these dogs and financial support for them. We can't stand to see them put down. Healthy, beautiful, YOUNG dogs euthanized when we are easily finding them homes here. We need your support, and your voices.

All the dogs pictured on this page were saved these past two weeks. Look at these faces. These are the nicest dogs you could ever meet. No aggression issues -- these are friendly, sweet, wonderful dogs that get along well with other animals and love people. They are so grateful for a look, a touch and a pat. They are the most amazing group of dogs we've ever worked with. Look at them. Then help us to help them! Many are still up for adoption. See one you like? Fill out our adoption application (at http://www.petsalive.com/adoptapp.htm) and we'll have you come down to met them!

Volunteers
Our volunteers continue to be amazing. We are extending our volunteer days. We'd love to have you at Pets Alive ANY day of the week (between 10-4). We need your help with some of the former staff tasks. Can you come one day a week or one day a month?

Can you clean litter pans, sweep floors, or clean dog food bowls? Can you brush cats and horses and load hay feeders for us? Are you a carpenter? Do you paint? Work with farm animals? Do data entry and are you familiar with Quickbooks? We need someone to enter in donations and enter dogs into our database. Are you an event planner? Please email jill@petsalive.com to let her know your skills and we may call on you for special jobs! We have so many duties and tasks that need to be done daily here.

We're also looking for some people that can do some WEEKLY or DAILY things for us. We need help with the daily laundry. can you come and do some loads of wash for us a few times a week (we have washers and dryers right here!).

We need someone to go weekly to pick up cat litter or dog food for us from a local provider. We need someone that can go each week and pick up any supplies we need from Wal-Mart or PetSmart or Home Depot. Can you commit to one day a week to running some errands for us? We need help with people dropping off animals at the vets for us in the morning, and picking them up again at night. Can you do a drop off or a pick up a few times a week or a few times a month for us? We need volunteers to help us clean up the puppy pens. We have puppies again and they need to be cleaned up after three and four times a day! We need people that can help with plowing our driveway when it snows. That is a SERIOUS consideration for us. If you are too busy WHEN it snows, how about the next day - can you plow a path to our manure pile? It would make life so much easier for our staff.

Please contact volunteer@petsalive.com if you can help with ANYTHING at all! Anything you can do, we can probably find a use for. We REALLY need community support now more than ever. Winter always has a drop off in volunteers and this is the time of year when we have the most to do. Please help and give back to your community and please help these dogs and cats and horses that currently have no homes. We're working to make their lives better every day and a big part of that is asking you to help us. If you have offered to help in the past and think we have all your contact information and know what you do, please don't believe that! We are building a whole new database and we need your information again.

We are also gearing up for our next fundraiser which will be a published cookbook made up of your recipes! Please send your favorite recipes to jill@petsalive.com (they don't have to be original recipes -- just your favorites) and you could have your name in the Pets Alive 2008 cookbook! You can find the form to fill out here: http://www.petsalive.com/cookbook.doc

Current Needs
We can't be coy. Our current needs are MONEY. Won't you please consider a donation or visit our sponsor page and sponsor an animal here every month. We also could use gift cards. Did you get some for the holidays that you could pass on to us? Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Lowes and any supermarket cards would be very helpful! We also need lumber and chicken wire. Have any laying around? Please let us know! Our sponsor page is found here: http://www.petsalive.com/sponsor.htm

Other News:
OK, so we've been talking a lot about the dogs...what about the rest of the animals here? Well we placed many of the farm animals and wild birds at Chenoa Manor. There they are in proper environments and are living with experienced farm and bird caretakers. Tusk and Bristle Pig Sanctuary also adopted our pigs into their wonderful pig program. That leaves us with dogs, horses and cats.

The cats are doing very well but we really need to get some of these wonderful felines into homes. We still have 75 cats on the property and so one of our focuses in the coming months will be to increase cat adoptions. Our volunteer group headed up by Joyce and Becky put together some GREAT cat flyers and are going out within an hour radius (and then some) and posting ADOPT ME flyers in windows and local veterinarians and local businesses. We are also going to do some cat adoption events at local pet places (PetSmart and Rusty's Place to name a few) to see if we can get some of them into good homes!

The good news is that Barclay, our three legged FIV cat that was fostered by Sandy, got a great home this week and so did staff favorite - Big Stuff. We're thrilled that these two found such wonderful homes. Good luck guys. On a sadder note, we lost October this month. She had been sick for some time and she finally succumbed to her illness. We are very sad to not see her in the window each morning, and her sponsors, Steve and Edie were heart broken at the loss of this sweet cat. Rest in peace, October.

The "other" news of the week

michaelm — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 22:43:01 GMT

Here’s the regular weekly update (on top of the 179 dogs we’re looking after from the big rescue).

By Kerry Clair, Best Friends manager at Pets Alive.

Well, by now you know that the sanctuary here was the recipient of 200 dogs this past Saturday night from the big Best Friends puppy mill rescue. First question here was: Where will we put so many dogs? Luckily, we’d just finished revamping the old kennel for the winter months, so we have some extra space temporarily.

We met the truck at 2 in the morning and got all the dogs settled, and we’ve had more than 1,000 adoption applications in three days. Of course, when people think of a “puppy mill”, they think of puppies. But most of the dogs are adults who were used for breeding. They’re all starved for attention and affection, and they all need really good homes! But please do not call us here at the shelter. We’ve had so many calls our phone system has been shutting down. If you are interested in adopting a dog fill out an application (click on the Adopt tab at the top of this page). And bear with us; it may take a couple of weeks before we can get back to you.

By the way, there’s full news of the puppy mill rescue at http://network.bestfriends.org/puppymillrescue/

Also, if you are a New York state vet and can help us with this, please contact me at info@petsalive.com

Other dog news: Additional good news is that ALL OF OUR GERIATRICS (except for one) have been adopted. This week we found homes for Mama Mia, Kita, Ginger, and Shaggy. That left only Hobbs and Mooch and we have a home for one (or the other) of them as well! The remaining geriatric dog will be going back to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary to be spoiled their geriatric rooms! Such lucky dogs. Thank you, adopters, for seeing the worth in these wonderful dogs!

Cats: M&M, our resident office cat (since Joey Bingers got adopted) has been a little put out since we moved our office upstairs. She simply does not like it and is demanding we move back DOWNSTAIRS. Every chance she gets she darts out and down the stairs and meows at our old office door. Sigh. Finally the cat staff set her up in that room with toys and litter and food and now she can come upstairs part of the day when she is feeling in need of our company and can go back down to her own room when she needs privacy or gets sick of us. She is very spoiled! When she is up here though it is very cute to see her playing with my dog Jasper (who often comes to work with me). M&M will hide on top of a box under a table and as Jasper goes by she reaches out a poor and THWAPS him. He spins around but sees nothing! It is a wonder we get ANYTHING done at all around here as the animal entertainment is so fascinating.

Birds: This week, Linda B came and took home Elliot and Turk, two of the last four birds here. We have been concerned to see if these two would be happy in a new environment as birds stress very easily. But Linda and already took two other birds from here as well and the latest is that all the birds were THRILLED to see each other and everyone is doing well.

Donations: This week I just MUST mention some really helpful donations we received.

Beth and Joanne donated all their mowing equipment. A gorgeous ride-on mower, a push mower, a weed whacker, a dumpster for the mower, some gas cans and more. We so appreciated this as we were weed whacking one of our lawns since our push mower died.

John S donated a dozen brand new walkie-talkies, battery chargers and rechargeable batteries for them. This was heaven sent as our old ones were barely functional.

Toni brought us a much needed computer monitor and some other computer equipment, as well as some cat towers!

Becky and George bring things every week and this week they helped us with a lot of puppy items. Thank you guys!

Lisa brought a Littman stethoscope – a handy item to have right now with all the newborns!

Rose T donated some much needed x-pens. The mamas and their brood have been living in ISO units and we really wanted to get them out of there. These x-pens will allow us to set up some spacious new “hotel” quarters for them.

We also had people donate washer and dryers, couches, stoves and other items we put on the wish list. Thank you all so much. We could not do this without you.

And special thanks to all the volunteers who have been down here every single day to help us out in our time of need. You are all so wonderful!

List of supplies needed -- updated Oct. 14

rebecca — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 13:09:16 GMT

Practical ways you can help the animals

A big thanks to all who have donated supplies, made items for the animals and given your time here at Pets Alive!

Many are asking what supplies we need, so here’s a wish list of items that would be a big help. We’ll update as the needs change.

Please mail packages to:

Pets Alive Sanctuary
Best Friends Wish List
363 Derby Road
Middletown, NY 10940
Phone: 845.386.9738

Most Needed for Cats
Animal Gauntlet Gloves Medium 23" from www.animal-care.com item #AGK-ML
Digital Baby Scale
Feral Cat & Small Mammal Den from www.animal-care.com item # M-FDGC
Bat-Bird-Mammal Net from www.animal-care.com item # 3543

Most Needed for Dogs
Mendota 6 Foot long (1/2 inch diameter) British Style Slip Leads (GDO-10242) from www.gundogsonline.com
Frontline 44 to 88 lb range and 89 to 132 lb range - a good buy at entirelypets.com
Skin-So-Soft (must be this brand) insect repellant
SWAT fly repellant - pink color please
Legend injectable - made for horses but is used for dogs as well

Most Needed at the Barn
Mendota 6 Foot long (1/2 inch diameter) British Style Slip Leads (GDO-10242) from www.gundogsonline.com
Frontline 44 to 88 lb range and 89 to 132 lb range - a good buy at entirelypets.com
Skin-So-Soft (must be this brand) insect repellant
SWAT fly repellant - pink color please
Legend injectable - made for horses but is used for dogs as well

Most Needed for the Parrots
PA0518 Krazy Klusters Medium: $11.95, Large: $24.95 from www.birdcages4less.com
PA0833 Braid E Bunch, Large: $18.95 from www.birdcages4less.com
PA0844 3 Tier Wood & Rope, Large $15.95 from www.birdcages4less.com
PA0847 Jubilee, $12.95 from www.birdcages4less.com

Most Needed in Medical
Gram Scale (postage scale)
Littman Master II Vet Stethoscope - www.allheart.com $77.99 or two for $154.98
Probios or Benebac (beneficial bacteria for intestinal upset)

Adoption
Modular stacking cages from www.petedge.com item #ZW52058
4 exercise pens (6 would be great). 48” high

Parrots
Rope perches (for medium and large birds)
Palm frond toys
Soft wood toys (for medium and large birds)
Nuts in the shells - Diamond Brand at Sam's Club
Parrot Play Stand
Wood Toys for Large & Midsize Parrots
Zupreem Fruit Blend or Natural Pellets for Large/Mid size Parrots
Organic Sprouting Mixes
Polly Perches (Cement) Wood Perches for Amazon Sized Parrots
Medium/Large Parrot Play Stands x 2

Cats
Swiss Mountain Cat Scratchers - Item # 9B-19972 on Dr Fosters and Smith On Sale for $8.99
Fish Frenzy Scratchers - Item # 9B-17897 on Dr Fosters and Smith On Sale for $9.29
Mouse Madness Scratchers - Item # 9B-17828 on Dr Foster and Smith On Sale for $7.59
10 Medium Cat Carriers
Outdoor cat houses for the cattery from www.outdoorpethouses.com
4 small CD Players
10 large littler pans
Love seat couch for cats in piano room (gently used)
Love seat – small wicker for skylight room (gently used)
2 small profile wicker chairs or small wicker love seat (gently used)

Dogs
Pet Mate Dog Crates - Large
Hoses - 100 Ft - Heavy Duty
Bungee Cords
Shade Cloth
Tarps
Treat Pouches (for carrying treats)
Jerk Chicken Treats
Easy Walk harnesses (at pet stores) sizes M, L, XL

Farm Animals / Horses
Harrow for horse and cow pastures http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?PGGUID=6d75cc6d-d27e-4532-8ed3-2b9fe3b18e10
Injectable ivermectin
Pro Bios
Oster Dipmaster Body Clippers
Cosequin
Joint supplement Hylagen-60 from http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?PGGUID=1ea39800-7b78-4f1a-96e6-b22623b73bc1
Vet Wap 4" wide
12 8-quart buckets for horse feeding and watering
ElderaidGM Suppliment for pigs from PAHeartland.com; 610-323-6372
Olive oil or wheat germ oil (pigs)
Frozen Vegetables for Pigs - Squash, Mixed Veggies
2 Grooming Totes (BJF01 at www.horse.com)
Fly Predators
Iodine based shampoos
Horse Treats
Horse Trailer
Mini Size Pleasure Harness
Easy Entry or Meadow brook Cart
Adequan - Horses
IV Legend Injection for Arthritic horses – NEED LOTS - www.allivet.com - Item # 10049 - $70.00/Vial

General
Plastic storage totes
Commercial OR industrial washer and dryer for cat and dog beds and blankets
gift cards-Home depot, Lowes, Walmart,Petsmart
Golf Cart
Frequent flyer miles
Bottled water
Paper towels
39 gallon heavy duty trash bags
13 gallon trash bags
Toilet paper
Laminating paper 8”x 11”
Laminating paper 4.37” x 6.06”
Laundry soap
White 12mm ½” M tape for label maker
HP OfficeJet 6310 all-in-on printer cartridges • 95 Tri-color & • 98 Black
Gas oven/stove (gently used)
Washing Machine (gently used)

Medical
Frontline (X-large breed dose is great once again) Priority
Panacur Dewormer (both powder and liquid)
Drontal (drontal plus feline, and regular small dog, and large dog)
Interceptor
Advantixx for dogs
Glucosamine supplements (such as cosequin, nurpo, glycoflex) Priority
Lysine-powder and or capsules (no tablets please)
Marin liver support
Denosyl or Zentonil liver supplement
Microscope slides. coverslips
Fecalyzer cups
Isopropyl alcohol
cotton-tipped applicators
gauze squares
Rolled gauze
Nutrical/ pet tinic
Vetropolycin ointment
Feeding & Dosing Needles from www.animal-care.com item # FNC-A

New digs for dogs

rebecca — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 03:27:26 GMT

And lots more in the weekly report, October 5, 2007

From Kerry Clair, Best Friends manager at Pets Alive

Dogs

It’s time to start getting ready for winter at Pets Alive. And that can be cold. The animals had had a really miserable winter when Best Friends came to Pets Alive in March this year, so we’re working to make sure this winter will be much better for them.

First, we’ll be sending over a dozen of the special needs dogs across the country to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, where they can get the extra care they need from the larger and more experienced staff. We are mostly talking about dogs that have some serious aggression issues, or are very feral and have made little progress coming of their tightly closed shells.

For the rest of the dogs, we have examined many options and finally decided to revamp the old kennel. Those of you who know the kennel here may be surprised, and I was against this plan myself originally. The thought of putting our dogs back in that horrible place made me ill. But then we began to see that the kennel itself was not really the problem. So we’ve done a major refurbishing: The ceiling has been fixed and painted a bright white, the kennels have all been cleaned and painted a sky blue, the lighting is being redone and it is shining off the new paint, creating a very well lit area. New doors are being hung separating the kennel sections and heaters are being installed in each section. Every kennel is being blown out to be three times the size they were, and the dogs will be paired just like they are outside and not living alone. We will leave our outside runs up and on nice days the dogs will be brought back outside to these runs or to the exercise yards. We will be relying on our volunteers now more than ever to help us get the dogs out for a nice long walk each day though so I hope that we can expand our volunteer group for the winter! Please contact us and come down to help exercise our dogs this winter!

I want to also add (although he won’t be happy that I did) that the cost of redoing the kennel, the ENTIRE cost, has been underwritten by our own Matt D. Matt and his wife, Ingrid, are covering the materials and the labor costs for this project. We can’t thank them enough for this. Matt is here almost every day working to make the changes possible down here, and this added contribution will enable our dogs to stay here, safe and warm this winter. How’s that for a donation of love!

Cats

Cat adoptions continue to do very well! We are really excited about the fact that we have found homes for cats every week for the past three weeks now.

We did have a scare with our little BARNey cat (the cat found in our Barn). He has been migrated to one of the cat rooms and was there at feeding in the morning but by early afternoon he was GONE! Staff was all called to order and a search party was set out…we could not imagine how he might have escaped. Well, he didn’t. We are just NOT used to kittens around here, and BARNey was found 10 minutes later curled up under a toy (fast asleep) that we didn’t think could fit him. Sheesh. Those youngsters sure do keep ya jumping. I would like to say kudos to our cat staff for noticing one cat missing among the 83 we have here!

Horses

Our horses are coming along so well, I can’t tell you enough how great they are all doing.
This week Rose T. also donated a HUGE batch of Legend to us (she donated the money for us to buy it). Legend is a medication that has worked wonders for the senior horses and dogs with hip problems. Not only are the horse now sporting shiny coats, bright eyes and are of good weight, they are also moving around better and much more comfortably. Our shyest horses are also doing really well. Marcos has once again stepped up to the plate and he has started hand feeding our most skittish horses here. They now come willing to you when they see you at the fence and are happily interacting with both staff and volunteers. What a long, long way they have come.

That said, they are now paying the price for that friendliness because this week the rest of the horses got their feet trimmed by the farrier and their teeth floated by the vet. This week we also found out that Heather, our little mini horse has Cushings disease (like Molly and Murphy). This means no grass and no sweet treats. Poor Heather. She misses her friend Shelley who used to take her for a walk every day and now she can’t even get treats. Awww. Is there another Shelley-ish person out there that might be willing to come down and take Heather for some walks to get some weight off her?

Possum

Does anyone remember our “Possum Burrito”? This was a tiny baby possum who was found on the side of the road, after her mother had been killed by a car. The possum had a leg that was gone and Janet (our vet liaison) found her, scooped her up and treated her at our clinic. We named her Kelly O’Possum (she was an Irish opossum, you see) and we called the wildlife rehabbers to come and take her. Well, not only did she survive, she thrived! She is now part of their education program and this is what they had to say about her recently when they sent us an update pic:

“Kelly O’Possum has completely healed and is currently employed as an animal ambassador for Everything Animals Resource Center, Inc., a humane education/animal welfare organization). Although she only has three legs, Kelly gets along fine and wins the admiration of all who meet her.”

Birds

There has been a change of plans as far as the birds. We originally started out with 7 birds here. Oliver, our macaw found a forever home, and Linda B our avian specialist took to her sanctuary, Ross (an amazon) and Handsome (a cockatoo). That has left us with four birds here and now Linda will take Turk and Elliot (amazons) to her sanctuary as well. This leaves us with Gumby and Olivia who have become our “office birds”. The birds love being in the office and interacting with us every day and they love the excitement and all the activity. I also confess that I have grown deeply attached to these birds and love to watch them and converse with them. I knew little about birds (still do, but I am reading all I can!) when I first came here, but now I find them just endlessly fascinating.

EVENTS:

Don’t forget our DogWalk and Fair in Grahamsville, NY, on October 13th. We still need volunteers to staff some of the booths. If you can help, please contact us from the petsalive website: http://petsalive.com/dogwalk.htm

We only have SIX tickets left for our Harvest of Hope dinner on October 20th. If you plan to come to the event, please be sure to buy your tickets now! You can do so on the Pets alive website: http://petsalive.com/harvest.htm

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Anonymous — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 03:18:38 GMT

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Anonymous — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 03:18:26 GMT

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Anonymous — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 03:18:11 GMT

Medically speaking

rebecca — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 02:09:26 GMT

This week’s health veterinary report from Pets Alive

From Janet Pirog

Cats:

GARRETT, the huge FIV positive brown tabby, gave us a run for the money while we were trying to catch him this morning. Garrett needs to receive monthly antibiotic treatment, and you cannot handle him. So he is placed in a tower and his meds are disguised in his food. But the deed is done, Garrett is in a cage, and NO ONE got hurt. He’ll be released after a week of antibiotics.

AVERY, the timid gray tabby, is finally back with his friends in the piano room. Poor Avery had a bad laceration on his leg, and he is also very difficult to handle, so treating his wound was not much fun. But after a two-week visit to the medical office, Avery looked wonderful and his leg was completely healed. He couldn’t wait to get away from me when I released him this morning. Who could blame him?

SUKI, who had been in growing distress, had to be euthanized this week. She had stopped eating and her breathing was extremely difficult, and it was very stressful for her to be given medication. Even getting the drops into her became a hazard to others as well as herself. The vet was incredibly kind and gentle and Suki went peacefully.

SEVEN-ELEVEN was diagnosed with renal failure several months ago. He is also very frightened of humans, so handling him is not an easy task. When he visits the vet he needs to be sedated in order to be examined. We’ve now decided to let Seven-Eleven live his life peacefully and to only perform treatments that would not stress him. Seven-Eleven has been doing great and had been eating like a champ, although his thinning frame was evidence that his disease was progressing. Over the last week, Seven-Eleven has shown less interest in food and is even weak enough to tolerate handling. He received sub-q fluids the last few days. Everyone is in agreement that it will be time to cease all efforts when he stops eating altogether. But in the meantime, he is still lounging on the windowsill and hanging out with his friends.

BO the toothless ol’ kitty is still in iso, but her eye is FINALLY looking better. An eye ointment helped to bring down the swelling to her face. She is eating well, but her feces became soft due to the antibiotics, so Bo is now on a prescription diet. Hopefully by the weekend, Bo will be able to get back to the wood’s room.

Dogs:

All the dogs on property were given their monthly flea/tick prevention and heartworm prevention this week.

SMOKEY the “bear” is a favorite amongst the volunteers here. His large eyes and flirtatious moves will melt any heart. But everyone needs to be a bit cautious with this big lug since he IS a caution dog (and has earned that reputation). One of the volunteers noticed a golf-ball sized lump on his ribs the other day. It was a bit tricky getting him into position to investigate it, but we did so very successfully. The lump appears to be fatty in nature, but we will have it looked at the next time he’s at the vet.

BINGO: As little and lovable as he is, it’s amazing no one has adopted him yet. But Bingo had been looking a bit thin lately, and his bloodwork showed that his neutrophils were high and he needed to be placed on antibiotics for the week. Then, while examining him the other day, we noticed a lump on the inner portion of his lower right eyelid. We were able to extract a large amount of debris and apply some ophthalmic ointment. Blood was drawn to recheck his values. Hopefully the pus-filled lump has receded altogether. The site is healing just fine. Bingo was placed into a run with April and the two are getting along very nicely.

TOBY: This little pineapple still has elevated liver enzyme levels. He already had an ultrasound and several other blood panels. Antibiotics did not help to bring down his values. Toby now needs to be placed on another course of amoxicillin, metronidazole, and liver supplementation. He is still on a restrictive calorie diet hoping to continue to decrease his body weight. His attitude is wonderful and he is more active than ever.

TYSON, the geriatric chow mix is extremely achy to the touch. He is aggressive to visitors and staff due to the level of pain experienced when handled. He is already on high doses of various pain meds. We are discussing what measures (if any) are available to make him more comfortable.

BARON (pictured above) the Rottie has been on ciprofloxacin for the week. After she had a bad bout of diarrhea, a full blood panel revealed that Baron may have an underlying tumor causing his symptoms. Baron has lots of health issues and we are not going to go overboard if this is indeed cancer. He is actually doing much better than anyone ever expected and thus we will just continue to make him comfortable and let him know just how loved he is.

MOOCH: This gorgeous old girl is also doing amazingly well for her state. Several months back, she was in such bad shape that we didn’t think she had much longer to go. But she has been on anti-emetics for geriatric vestibular disease and is so much improved.

APRIL. The volunteers noticed a lump on this hyperactive Dutch shepherd mix. She also had another case of diarrhea over the weekend – probably from those extra weekend treats! (It’s hard for the volunteers and staff to deny those loving eyes.) Her lump is fatty in nature and will simply need to be monitored.

Two dogs, Jazz and Peanut, were returned to Pets Alive. Jazz had some aggression issues, and Peanut has separation anxiety. Their new families had tried many different efforts but it wasn’t working for them. Jazz and Peanut look good medically and are re-adjusting to being back with us.

Weekly update, September 28th

rebecca — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 03:20:36 GMT

Adoptions picking up

From Kerry Clair, Best Friends manager at Pets Alive

Favorite dog adoptions: We had some wonderful adoptions this week. Blind Kuma, pictured, a favorite with staff and volunteers, found his forever home this week with a wonderful couple that fell deeply in love with him. Kelvin, Dewey, Archie, Chalupa (now named Lily - the Chihuahua who was abandoned here last week), and Bailey all left to their new homes this week! Good luck guys! We will miss you!

Linda’s vacation: Linda is a volunteer who has been coming here for the past six months that Best Friends has been at Pets Alive. She has her "regular" dogs that she cares for, one a very sick dog named Jude. Jude has a lot of medical problems but Linda helps him and bathes him a few times every week. She takes her responsibility very seriously and has not had a vacation in some time. Her children and grandchildren and husband have been pestering her to go on vacation and finally she agreed. Only after she persuaded Carmine (another regular volunteer here) to take over her dogs for the days she would not be here. Thanks Carmine and Linda - you two are the best!)

Sad dog story: We had a very old dog abandoned here at Pets Alive this week. A very sad case. Dr. Furman advised this Pomeranian was very elderly, maybe 15 or 16. The dog was blind, had terrible skin dermatitis, his teeth were rotten and his nails were curled up into his feet. We rushed him to the vet when we found him and they ran some tests but in the end the dog was so sick with some severe internal issues that we had to put him down. We named him Bear and we will make a rock for him and add it to our cemetery.

Issues like this are all the more reason why the new plan for Pets Alive is such a necessary facility in this area, and in any area. Did these people dump this dog because they could not afford medical care? Because they did not know how to deal with his blindness? Maybe if we had the new facility ready they could have walked in and talked to us and we could have helped them help their dog. Oh well. I hope that someone reading this will know that there are avenues available to help you with your sick or elderly dog. Please do not abandon your pet to strangers. We cared for this dog, but he never stopped searching for someone familiar.

Cat adoptions picking up: Mush and Josie were both adopted this week! We are starting to really pick up on our cat adoptions! We're thrilled with this new adoption trend and hope it continues. Good luck in your new homes, kitties! Behave and play nicely!

The feral cat house has been winterized. What started out as summer-izing has turned into winterizing as the weather begins to get colder. The inside is now all painted and sheet-rocked and insulated. We'll also move some heaters in there in the winter if it still gets too cold, but so far our kitties seem very happy!

Barclay’s foster home (with Roo!): Barclay is being fostered by a long time Pets Alive supporter. Some call him a special needs cat. He recently lost a back leg due to a deformity in his foot and he's FIV+. Certainly, having 3 legs is not holding him back. He's healed amazingly well and is already running laps around his foster home. Cats can and do live normal, healthy lives with FIV. His foster mom wanted to know if there was something that she could buy that would enable him to still climb, which he seems to love to do. Well we hooked her up with Roo's moms (remember Roo? the cat with NO front legs?) and they got together and now Barclay has some climbing toys and is sitting on window perches again. He still needs a forever home, though! Let us know if you are interested in adopting Barclay.

Pigging out on veggies: What a surprise this week when some people drove up and started unloading some wicker crates. I stopped them in the driveway to ask what they were doing and they smiled and said they had stopped by a few days before and had heard we needed fresh veggies for the pigs! Well, they have some excess farm produce and decided to stop by and donate it -- three huge baskets of fresh vegetables and some fruits too. Wow! Thanks so much for this great donation. The pigs were thrilled not to have to wait for their veggies to defrost!

Ducks, meet geese! This week we experimented, under the guidance of our favorite avian specialist, Linda B, with putting our geese and ducks together. They were already living in the same enclosure and could see each other through the fence, but now we wanted them to cohabitate. So far so good. We started with monitored visits, then went to checking in on them, but separating them at night and now they are fully living together, happily. Now those of you that who Pixie and Dixie know that nothing goes smoothly with them. This was no exception. They had to be told “NO” a couple of times by the larger geese but after the second time, they started to understand the meaning. This is better for them all as they now share much larger living quarters.

Trimming those hooves: Half of the horses got their feet trimmed and cared for this week (the others get done next week). All got a great review for standing politely and courteously. This is a far cry from the first time a farrier came and could only get one horse done!

Maureen up and about: Many of you know Maureen, the horse who was getting cast? Then her blood work came back badly and she also appears to have cancer. It looked bad for Maureen. When she falls or lies down on her bad side, she cannot get up on her own. Well, staff and farriers have been working to build up strength in her bad leg and they also changed her shoes this week to create a lift in her foot. The lift immediately had her walking straighter and this morning when the barn staff arrived she was lying down on her bad side. Uh oh. Another casting situation? No. When she heard her feed bucket she got right back up on her own. That's never happened before today. She's never had the strength or the balance. Nice job, Sally, Marcos and Stu (the farrier). Thanks for caring about her enough, even though her days are numbered, to want her as happy and comfortable as she can possibly be.

Our horses are also so much happier now that they have been grouped together, which leaves empty pastures for rotation! They now can graze on grass almost full time.

The “Bikers for Best Friends” motorbike ride was held in New Rochelle, NY and we took 10 dogs and four cats to the adoption the bikers put on. Bailey the dog got adopted and we had some interest in two others. The event was a lot of fun as well. Some Pets Alive staff (myself and Matt) also rode in the event! It poured rain through part of it, but the dogs and the bikers did not seem to mind. The cats on the other hand demanded to be brought inside.

And a local radio station held a “Poochapalooza” at a new dog park in town. We gathered up some dogs and got a booth, spreading the good word about Best Friends. We were able to let people know about us and hand out flyers and information packs to other dog people and families.

It’s like General Hospital!

rebecca — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 03:14:18 GMT

Weekly medical update from Pets Alive, September 28th

From Janet Pirog

MITSY: After a week of not being able to walk, all the staff members came to the conclusion that the only kind thing to do was to put Mitsy to sleep. This old girl had definitely been showing the signs of age, but she managed to hang on for all this time. Last week, poor little Mitsy just couldn’t get up. The vet suspected that her symptoms were related to a brain tumor. We tried a few different meds to alleviate some of her symptoms, but by Friday, everyone was agreed that Mitsy could no longer linger like this. She lay in our arms as she passed on. Mitsy truly was a quiet soul, content to just lay by your feet all day. And although she is already missed, we all knew it was the right thing to do.

BARON: This sweet guy will just melt your heart. After being diagnosed with a torn cruciate ligament (on top of horrible hip dysplasia and cardiac problems), Baron went to live with the Kerry Clair household. It was supposedly only a matter of time before he would need to be euthanized. But Baron has shocked everyone. Not only has he almost taken over Kerry’s home, but you can even find Baron running (not walking) up her driveway or out to the horse paddock. But now, Baron has been developing some digestive symptoms, and we’re discovering that he also has cancer. He is on different meds for a week, at which point we will recheck all his blood values. If things are still suspicious, radiographs will be the next step. On a brighter side, Baron’s stomach has settled and he’s eating like a champ. He is running around with his brothers and sister and enjoying each and every day with his family.

DORA, the giant sweet love, has been recuperating very well from her surgery last week. Her biopsy results have come back and although one was a benign lipoma, the other mass did turn out to be a mammary gland adenocarcinoma. These types of masses are malignant, yet are considered relatively less malignant in behavior than the corresponding lesions in cats. Dora already falls in the category of geriatric and has other breed related issues such as hip dysplasia. Our plan at this point is to monitor for any additional masses and to spoil the heck out of this beautiful girl. She is snoring like a log as this report is being typed.

MAMA-MIA, our other lovely Dogo Argentino, went to an adoption event this past weekend. Unfortunately, with such bad hips, even a short ride in the truck (up front in the cab versus the back) really took a toll on her. She was really sore later that day. Mama Mia received a few additional meds and a legend injection. We stay on top of Mama Mia ears to help keep them under control. She also had a nail trim and overall once-over. She has been doing superbly with all her new friends in the geriatric ward.

TOBY: This chubby little beagle was visiting this week for one of his little outings. A couple months back, our vet diagnosed Toby with an enlarged liver. He has since been on meds (some specifically for his arthritis). He had blood drawn to recheck his liver values and his nails were trimmed. As small as this guy is, he has no problem striking fear into the heart of man. We are awaiting his bloodwork results but he obviously wasn’t too upset seeing as he eagerly wanted to come to work again this morning!

CHARLENE: Several weeks now after her amputation surgery, Charlene is doing great. Although her ears require routine maintenance, we were cautious to handle her too much, seeing as it is such a stressful event each time. But we caught her up this week not only to examine her incision site again, but to check her ears. As suspected, her ears were a mess. We trimmed all excess hair and did a deep cleaning. We have since been applying meds everyday and even though treatment is not entirely complete, they are very much improved already. Luckily, through all this time, we have developed a technique to minimize the handling needed each time. Charlene is healing from her surgery very nicely.

AVERY: This timid feline is doing rather well in iso. Still a quiet soul, he prefers not to be handled, yet has been well behaved when needing to be. The laceration on his leg has been healing very nicely due to the warm compresses to the site. His appetite is great. Although we would like to monitor him further, we are expecting to be able to release him back with other cats within the next week.

SUKI: This sad little torti/tabby had another visit to the vet. When caretakers came in on Saturday morning, her eye appeared swollen, and the vet says she will need to receive eye/nose drops for the rest of her life in order to breathe even moderately well. This leaves her in a horrible predicament since everyone agreed that it is not fair to make Suki live in a tiny cage for the rest of her life, yet if she was released into a room, she would not be able to receive her drops on a routine basis. For the time being, Suki is back on her drops and is fairly stable although her nose is still raw and inflamed.

JAY-JAY: This bratty little tuxedo kitty is the life of the iso ward. He may not be thrilled to be down here, but he definitely is not too stressed. He’ll just call for assistance when he needs something. After spending the week, Jay-Jay did have another incident of a small amount of blood from his rectum. A full blood panel and fecal was run. The vet would like him on metronidazole for the week. He is eating well and is in great spirits.

ELIZABETH, one of our most difficult cats to catch, has been having diarrhea for a while. She was finally able to be moved down to iso for monitoring and treatment. She is not pleased being in a small cage, but she is not too stressed if you move slowly and deliberately.

OCTOBER: This feisty little calico has finally finished all her azithromycin medication to treat her Bartonella infection. She resists being handled, and is now on to the fact that the cat staff was trying to trick her into consuming her meds in her food. She looks great though and was released earlier this week. I’m sure she couldn’t wait to groom her buddy Ringtail.

MIMI: This big chubby girl is back in the library room. She’s been doing great and her rear end is healing very nicely. Even though she is free once again, she is still laying around sleeping all day. No wonder she’s such a chubby kitty….very sweet, but very chubby!

Weekly update, September 21

michaelm — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 01:41:58 GMT

Two kitties and beloved blind Kuma find forever homes.

From Kerry Clair, Best Friends manager at Pets Alive.

Dogs: Our beloved blind Akita, Kuma, is going to a new home! Everyone loved Kuma since the day Best Friends arrived at Pets Alive. Well finally someone fell in love with him and this week they took him on an overnight outing. Everything worked out fine, they loved him, we love them, and he'll be officially going home on Monday! Good luck Kuma, we are so very happy for you! Also going home this week are Archie, Chalupa (our abandoned Chihuahua), and Mickey Moose! Good luck everyone! We will miss you all but are so very happy for you.

Some of the less adoptable dogs are going across the country to Best Friends Animal Society. We never intended to run a forever sanctuary here -- we have one of those already! So some of our more serious medical cases, or more aggressive (or very feral) dogs may be going back to Utah so that they can be worked on more consistently one-on-one. This will free up space here so that we can start operating a bit more as a shelter and get more dogs into good homes. We'll let you know in the coming weeks which dogs, if any, do wind up going to Utah so that our volunteers and staff can say goodbye to these friends!

Cats: We had two kitties adopted this week Sebastian and Raven! This is great for us as we’ve been doing much better with dog adoptions, and not so well with cats. So anyway, two cats in a week is great and we've already checked on them and they are doing just wonderfully in their new homes! Gives us a lot of hope that we'll be able to place more cats in the coming months.

Horses: The horses have come such a long way. I can't thank our barn staff and medical team enough. When we first got here, so many had severe skin issues, rain rot, teeth problems -- they were a mess. Now all have shiny coats (except Kingfish who still has one small patch of hair needing to be worked with), are of good weight and are social! So many horses could not be handled, walked, led or dealt with on a normal basis. The staff and our volunteers have REALLY been working with them a lot though, and now they are all able to be handled so nicely and even come to you when they see you at the fence. It's a nice change and makes things easier when we have the vet or the farrier out. Our volunteers go in and work with them each week, picking up their feet, petting and grooming them. This makes SUCH a difference in horses as they learn to like and trust people.

This week our barn manager also made so much progress with Foxy, that she rode her bare back. Foxy accepted this with no problem and seemed to like moving around. Sally found out she had amazing training, could back, side pass and do all sorts of dressage steps. Wow! Who knew! If we continue to work with Foxy, it may be that she can one day also go to a loving home as a ridable horse (much easier to place!) I'll be doing a blog on this later this in the week so be sure to check out the full story. Foxy's history is really rather amazing and it's a great story to tell. I'll be telling it soon!

Volunteer Appreciation Day. We had a vegetarian cookout and camp-out. It was a lot of fun, with more than 25 volunteers showing up for it. They all camped out, told ghost stories, laughed a lot, and had a great time. We could not do this work without all our volunteers. Thank you all so much for your continued support, dedication and hard work. We...and the animals...appreciate it and appreciate YOU. Becky made the FUNNIEST cake. It was made in a litter pan with a litter scoop as the knife. It looked exactly like ... well, you get the general idea. It tasted delicious!

Don't forget our two upcoming events. We have the Dog Walk and Country Fair on October 13th. Please come and walk your dog, or consider walking one of OUR dogs and getting sponsored! (http://petsalive.com/dogwalk.htm).
Also don't forget our Harvest of Hope Dinner on October 20th. We only have 50 seats for the dinner and have already sold 30, so if you want to go, please do buy your tickets now! http://petsalive.com/harvest.htm

Weekly Update, September 14th

michaelm — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 19:18:30 GMT

Birds pack their bags, Marvin the cat invites Janet to tea, and the latest adoption day.

From Kerry Clair

The birds have packed their bags and are excitedly looking out the window for their transportation to arrive so they can begin their journey to their spacious new home. Dr. Aldo was diverted to Peru to help Best Friends with the earthquake crisis there (he’s actually from Peru), so his participation has been delayed.

Horses: Frances, who has chronic foot and hoof problems, has finally recovered enough to be walking around without wrapping. Should he need to be wrapped again, Sally the barn manager has done a great job putting together medical packs for leg wraps and foot wraps, so that every time we need to wrap a leg or a foot we don't have to drag out the big medical kit. Leg wrap packs include a prep pad, cotton wrap, vet wrap, 3 x 3's and a wound cleaning sponge. Foot wrap packs include a diaper, epsom salts, vet wrap, hand towels, gloves and 3 x 3's.

Blackie has had chronic eye infections since we landed here. His eyes are finally clearing up and looking great.

The last of the occupied run in sheds have been matted. We're hoping to raise money (hint hint, see donation tab above on this page!) to buy mats for the rest of the sheds. Prior to that, the stalls were just dirt and would get flooded and muddy. Now we have graveled them and covered them with horse mats so the horses always have a clean dry place, no matter what the weather.

Cats: Early one morning this week, Marcos was hard at work in the barn when he came across a cat who had been “dropped off” there. Janet checked him out, ran some tests, and chipped him. Since he was found in the barn, we’ve named him Barney, and while he was initially skittish toward people has become much friendlier. He will be going to a cat adoption event this Saturday (since he had to be neutered first) at The Cat's Cradle (a local cat boarding facility).

Suki the tabby is really warming up to people. She has chronic respiratory problems and is semi-feral, so it’s been difficult to treat her and give her all her much-needed medications. But she’s become a lot friendlier, even affectionate, and her medical issues have improved.

Marvin the cat sent an e-mail to Janet, our medical liaison, this week from his new home:

[blockquote]Hi Janet! It's Marvin, the kitty, here. Remember me? I know you are unbelievably busy taking care of my buddies at Best Friends, but I was wondering....my nails have grown very long, especially on my back feet, and I'm walking a bit funny now. I was wondering if you might make house calls to trim nails? Mom (ie Wendy) doesn't know how to do that, and doesn't have any clippers. And if she takes me to Dr. Furman's, I will just throw up as usual in the car because I HATE the car and it stresses me out to go to the vet...even though he's a nice man. SO, mom said to tell you that she'd be happy to pay you for the service AND include dinner or "tea", whichever you like! And she'll learn from you how to do it for next time. [/blockquote]

Janet is scheduling a time for Marvin as I write this.

Pigs: We like to think of feeding time for our pigs as another evening of serving dinner at a fine restaurant, where every patron is encouraged to eat like a pig. Yvonne, the pig specialist from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, and Sally our pig manager here came up with a new menu for our hungry patrons. Like any good restaurant, though, the preparation is as important as the ingredients, as is evidenced by the new instructions: Think of building a salad. Start by putting one layer of lettuce in each bowl. On top of that add one layer of pellets. Then add some veggies (approximately one cup). Next add any kind of nut that we may have and top it off with oil. Can you imagine how great that looks? After all, the eyes feast before the mouth. Pig salad. Yum.

Dogs: Janet, our medical liaison, was leaving at 7:00 p.m. the other day, when she came across a little Chihuahua tied with old twine to the front gate. Janet grabbed her and took her to the kennel. She was very fearful (and aggressive) at first, but quickly warmed up and became a staff favorite. Her unofficial name is Chalupa, and she is getting spayed this week and then will be fostered by one of our volunteers until she is adopted or will be going to another shelter in Connecticut for placement after her spay.

Our super adoption was a lot of fun! A local radio station, Thunder Country, broadcast live from our adoption center, telling people to come on down and see the animals! It was a fun atmosphere and the music was great. Families came down with their kids to visit the animals and you could see a lot of smiles everywhere. Furry four legs and people alike!

Some of the dogs went to new homes and some more may be after we complete our reference checks Some cats are also possibly looking at new homes! One of our staffers, Ann, made up a big batch of lasagna, eggplant, and salad and so we even had some good food to go around.

No luck for the cows, though! We tried to explain that they love to watch TV and drink soda, but no one thought they had a couch large enough to fit them in! We're still looking.

Two more events are coming up, and we hope to see you there:

Our Harvest of Hope dinner in Nyack, NY, on Saturday, October 20th, is selling out fast. Only 50 tickets are available for this dinner and silent auction, so please visit http://petsalive.com/harvest.htm to purchase tickets if you were planning on attending!

We also have our Howl-O-Ween Dog Walk and County Fair on Saturday October 13th. You can find more information here at http://petsalive.com/dogwalk.htm

Our list of needs -- updated Sept.10

rebecca — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 22:37:51 GMT

Practical ways you can help the animals

A big thanks to all who have donated supplies, made items for the animals and given your time here at Pets Alive!

Many are asking what supplies we need, so here’s a wish list of items that would be a big help. We’ll update as the needs change.

Please mail packages to:

Pets Alive Sanctuary
Best Friends Wish List
363 Derby Road
Middletown, NY 10940
Phone: 845.386.9738

Most Needed for Cats
Swiss Mountain Cat Scratchers - Item # 9B-19972 on Dr Fosters and Smith On Sale for $8.99
Fish Frenzy Scratchers - Item # 9B-17897 on Dr Fosters and Smith On Sale for $9.29
Mouse Madness Scratchers - Item # 9B-17828 on Dr Foster and Smith On Sale for $7.59

Most Needed for Dogs
Mendota 6 Foot long (1/2 inch diameter) British Style Slip Leads (GDO-10242) from www.gundogsonline.com
Frontline 44 to 88 lb range and 89 to 132 lb range - a good buy at entirelypets.com
Skin-So-Soft (must be this brand) insect repellant
SWAT fly repellant - pink color please
Legend injectable - made for horses but is used for dogs as well

Most Needed at the Barn
Hoof Testers
Muck Buckets
SWAT / Corona Ointment / Horseman's Dream Cream
Credit at Heritage Feed & Supply (845-361-4081) or Pine Bush Equine (845-361-4917)
Frozen Veggies for pigs - peas, green beans, squash, rubard, broccoli, turnips, cauliflower

Most Needed for the Parrots
2 Birdcages -from www.birdcages4less.com - on sale now & free shipping: Item PA5727, The Koloa Kavern (32x23x64)--Color: Platinum
PA0518 Krazy Klusters Medium: $11.95, Large: $24.95 from www.birdcages4less.com
PA0833 Braid E Bunch, Large: $18.95 from www.birdcages4less.com
PA0844 3 Tier Wood & Rope, Large $15.95 from www.birdcages4less.com
PA0847 Jubilee, $12.95 from www.birdcages4less.com

Most Needed in Medical
Gram Scale (postage scale)
Digital Baby Scale
Littman Master II Vet Stethoscope - www.allheart.com $77.99 or two for $154.98
Probios or Benebac (beneficial bacteria for intestinal upset)
Animal Gauntlet Gloves Medium 23" from www.animal-care.com item #AGK-ML

Adoption
Modular stacking cages from www.petedge.com item #ZW52058
4 exercise pens (6 would be great). 48” high

Parrots
Rope perches (for medium and large birds)
Palm frond toys
Soft wood toys (for medium and large birds)
Nuts (Almonds and Walnuts-in shell)
Parrot Play Stand
Wood Toys for Large & Midsize Parrots
Zupreem Fruit Blend or Natural Pellets for Large/Mid size Parrots
Organic Sprouting Mixes
Polly Perches (Cement) Wood Perches for Amazon Sized Parrots
Medium/Large Parrot Play Stands x 2

Cats
10 Medium Cat Carriers
Outdoor cat houses for the cattery from www.outdoorpethouses.com
4 small CD Players
10 large littler pans
Love seat couch for cats in piano room (gently used)
Love seat – small wicker for skylight room (gently used)
2 small profile wicker chairs or small wicker love seat (gently used)

Dogs
Pet Mate Dog Crates - Large
Hoses - 100 Ft - Heavy Duty
Bungee Cords
Shade Cloth
Tarps
Treat Pouches (for carrying treats)
Jerk Chicken Treats
Easy Walk harnesses (at pet stores) sizes M, L, XL

Farm Animals / Horses
Harrow for horse and cow pastures http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?PGGUID=6d75cc6d-d27e-4532-8ed3-2b9fe3b18e10
Injectable ivermectin
Pro Bios
Oster Dipmaster Body Clippers
Cosequin
Joint supplement Hylagen-60 from http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?PGGUID=1ea39800-7b78-4f1a-96e6-b22623b73bc1
30 Rubber horse mats for run-in sheds
12 8-quart buckets for horse feeding and watering
ElderaidGM Suppliment for pigs from PAHeartland.com; 610-323-6372
Olive oil or wheat germ oil (pigs)
Frozen Vegetables for Pigs - Squash, Mixed Veggies
Littmann Master II Vet Stethoscope (2), Vet Tech (1), Large Animal (1) www.allheart.com Sale $77.99 or 2 for $154.98
2 Grooming Totes (BJF01 at www.horse.com)
Fly Predators
2 Bot Egg Scrapers
Iodine based shampoos
Horse Treats
Horse Trailer
Lunge Line
Mini Size Pleasure Harness
Easy Entry or Meadow brook Cart
Adequan - Horses
Small office refrigerator for meds
Cross Ties – 2 sets (Horses) www.farmvet.com Cross Ties Safety by Jack’s Manufacturing, Inc. 7’x1” $17.99
IV Legend Injection for Arthritic horses – NEED LOTS - www.allivet.com - Item # 10049 - $70.00/Vial

General
Walkie-talkies
plastic storage totes
Commercial OR industrial washer and dryer for cat and dog beds and blankets
gift cards-Home depot, Lowes, Walmart,Petsmart
Golf Cart
Window Air Conditioners
Frequent flyer miles
Bottled water
Paper towels
39 gallon heavy duty trash bags
13 gallon trash bags
Toilet paper
Laminating paper 8”x 11”
Laminating paper 4.37” x 6.06”
Laundry soap
White 12mm ½” M tape for label maker
HP OfficeJet 6310 all-in-on printer cartridges • 95 Tri-color & • 98 Black
Gas oven/stove (gently used)
Washing Machine (gently used)

Medical
Frontline (X-large breed dose is great once again) Priority
Panacur Dewormer (both powder and liquid)
Drontal (drontal plus feline, and regular small dog, and large dog)
Interceptor
Advantixx for dogs
Glucosamine supplements (such as cosequin, nurpo, glycoflex) Priority
Lysine-powder and or capsules (no tablets please)
Marin liver support
Denosyl or Zentonil liver supplement
Microscope slides. coverslips
Fecalyzer cups
Isopropyl alcohol
cotton-tipped applicators
gauze squares
Rolled gauze
Nutrical/ pet tinic
Vetropolycin ointment
Feral Cat & Small Mammal Den from www.animal-care.com item # M-FDGC
Feeding & Dosing Needles from www.animal-care.com item # FNC-A
Bat-Bird-Mammal Net from www.animal-care.com item # 3543

Medical update, Sept 7th

michaelm — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 21:22:16 GMT

Special care for special animals.

From Janet Pirog

DAISY: this docile Australian shepherd mix is having more skin-related problems. She is being fostered by our very own Mary Myers, but since she has been on hefty doses of steroids, Mary needs to bring her to work due to the increased frequency of urination. Daisy then flared up with another hot-spot two days ago. We clipped the area and cleaned it well. She was also in need of a good eye cleaning and anal glad expression. Under our vets’ recommendation, we have restarted her on antibiotics. For the last several weeks Daisy has been receiving prednisone due to autoimmune disease. But while the steroids help to send her symptoms into a state of remission, her lowered immunity apparently has caused minor skin infections to set in. Hopefully she will respond to the antibiotic regime as she has in the past. Other than that, she seems extremely content and loves coming to work with her new mom.

CHARLENE: This wiggly little feral spaniel mix had a vet visit yesterday. Charlene has a chronic front leg limp that was radiographed several months back. The x-ray did not show any obvious fractures or prior injury. She was then placed on pain meds and anti-inflammatories but with little pain relief evident. Dr. Furman was concerned when he watched Charlene walk. The way she places her leg and bears weight leads him to believe that she is indeed in constant discomfort. Removing the leg is the only way that he feels she will have a good quality of life. She is scheduled for surgery this Friday.

JOELLE: This happy border collie mix had radiographs last week to check for possible stones in her bladder. Her x-rays revealed that her bladder was free from uroliths. Bloodwork was then sent out to check for any underlying problems such as kidney failure. Results from her bloodwork came back completely normal. She is finishing her present course of antibiotics and is being monitored extremely closely. Joelle is known to ‘mark her territory’ every few feet while being leash walked. It is quite possible that at this point her marking behavior could possibly be confused with medical problems. She does not seem the least bit uncomfortable and her appetite is excellent.

DORA: one of the three beautiful Dogo Argentinos at Pets Alive, Dora was limping the other morning. Dora has a history of hind end weakness, but her front leg seemed to be the culprit this time. We brought her into our office where we noticed that the pad on her front left paw was torn and she was licking at it. Being the wonderful dog that she is, Dora responds when told to stop gnawing at her wound. We soaked her paw in betadyne, cleaned her ears (which are a chronic issue) and made her the office dog so that she can be spoiled. Dora definitely seems to be enjoying life indoors lounging on a large comforter. She has an appointment tomorrow morning with our veterinarian to examine a small lump that we noticed last week in her mammary region.

KELVIN: this adorably sweet chow mix had surgery yesterday. He needed to be anesthetized for a dental and so his lump (which is suspected to be benign) was removed at the same time. He came home last night and was feeling a bit under the weather from his long day. Today, he is upbeat and alert. We are keeping him isolated from other dogs for a few days to allow his incision to start to heal and to prevent him from licking at it.

HUDSON: this timid old shepherd mix lives in the geriatric room, but tends to be picked on by one of the other cranky ol’ men. Hudson tested heartworm positive when Best Friends arrived on the scene in March. He was too old and feeble to undergo immiticide injections in order to kill the adult worms. He is receiving once a month heartworm prevention in order to prevent any larvae worms from hatching into adults. With this approach, the adult heartworms will eventually die off and seeing as there aren’t any larvae available to replace them, the dog will be heartworm free. Hudson is in need of a dental, but our concern is whether or not he will handle the anesthesia well especially with his medical history. He is scheduled for a full medical work-up tomorrow morning to decide what the best approach is. Even better news is that a wonderful couple who volunteers regularly, Carmine and his wife Lucia has decided to adopt Hudson. They brought their lovely, active 16 year-old shepherd mix to meet him yesterday. The encounter was extremely smooth and so they came to Pets Alive with one dog, but left with two.

GARRETT: is an obese feisty FIV-positive cat whose fur was covered in mats. Being so large, he was unable to groom himself probably. He was caught-up and brought to our vet for a shave down and exam (since he was going to be sedated). Our vet noticed a rancid odor emanating from his mouth. Normal dental disease was not the issue in this case. He recommended trying pulse therapy with a strong antibiotic. For one week out of each month, Garrett will be treated with antibiotics to control any possible infection. He just finished his first course and is able to hang out with all the rest of the FIV gang!

SUKI: this strong-willed tabby has been doing great. Although she is still quite difficult to get your hands on, we have been extremely successful with dosing her with steroid drops in her nose and eyes (in addition to oral medications taken in her food). The swelling and rawness of her nose is also starting to heal. We are planning on continuing with all meds to see if her health continues to progress. At that point we will decide the best way to re-introduce her to the piano room, while still having the ability to treat her if necessary. But in the meantime, all the staff members are delighted over how wonderful she looks.

BO: this sweet old feline has finished her meds for a runny eye and sneezing. She responded fairly well to antibiotics, with only a slight side effect of loose stool (which cleared up when we put her on a gut-friendly diet). Although her eye has improved greatly, there was still a slight amount of clear ocular discharge that is characteristic of prior herpes virus exposure. She will be under close observation to make sure her symptoms won’t flare up after returning to the wood’s room.

OCTOBER: the specialist has called regarding more bloodwork results for this poor little calico kitty. Unfortunately, she has also tested positive for bartonella (also known as cat scratch fever). Being that this disease is bacterial in nature and not viral, it can indeed be treated with a specific antibiotic. It would have been encouraging if October had tested positive ONLY for bartonella (since it does respond to medications). Sadly, this is just one of many issues poor little October has tested positive for. Hopefully after undergoing this three-week regime, some of her symptoms will be alleviated.

Other treatments: This week all the dogs were dewormed with Panacur (five consecutive days) to rid them of intestinal parasites. Also a round of Frontline and Heartgard was administered.

Weekly Update, Sept 7th

michaelm — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 21:05:20 GMT

Getting ready for our next big adoption day.

From Kerry Clair, manager at Pets Alive

Dogs: We’re working with the dogs one-on-one to give them a better chance of adoption this weekend. The dogs are all getting handled every single day and the ferals and aggressive ones are being worked with daily by both staff and volunteers. They are getting exercise and play and are being introduced to other animals and to the inside of houses.

Kuma, the blind huge Akita (photo above), spent a night in the staff house. He was a little concerned about the noises in the house at first, but once everyone settled down for the night so did he, sleeping soundly, having NO accidents and being very well behaved. Kuma is a great dog and we've been surprised this special guy has not found a home. He also refused to get up on furniture, even when invited! What a perfect dog for a home and a family. We're hoping that the adoption this weekend will find this special guy a forever home.

Cats: Victor continues to work on the feral cat house, insulating it and finishing the inside. The Urban Cat League volunteers have also completed the outside with indoor/outdoor carpeting and adding some finishing touches there and inside and now Victor is completing the main insulation and sheet rock inside. So far, so good, but we have to do it in small stages so as not to frighten the cats too much with banging and a lot of activity.

A little kitten was found in the barn wandering around. We immediately looked for a mother or more kittens and none could be found. The kitten either wandered here on his own or was abandoned here by someone meaning well but not understanding how dangerous that is. We've isolated the kitten and will get him neutered. Hopefully he will find a home at the adoption this weekend.

Birds: We now have the four remaining birds in large, spacious cages. When Best Friends first came here they introduced the birds to toys and a variety of perches and better food in their cages, and the birds adapted well but the cages were still too small and very rusted, a potential health hazard for birds. Moving them was another matter as we were only comfortable handling two of the four (and Linda the bird expert volunteer was not available). We learned enough to manage ok though, and after a day of sitting the cages side by side with the doors open into the new ones, we successfully had an avian migration!

Horses: Maureen is back to being able to graze again. She has been getting stronger and has expressed an interest in grass, so we’re letting her out in the daytime to graze and then putting her back into a stall at night to protect her from her falling and getting cast. Maureen has other issues though, and unfortunately we don't think she will survive the winter due to those conditions but we are making her just as happy as we can in the meantime and staff and volunteers are doting on her.

Cows, pigs, waterfowl, chickens: We are still trying very hard to find placement for the cows, pigs, waterfowl and chickens. Best Friends is working with another sanctuary to hopefully take these animals for us before winter, as we don't feel that we have the proper winter facilities for them. If we do not get them places however, rest assured we will prepare winter facilities for them. We are hoping however to put them in a sanctuary that has theses species there already, know how to care for them and have the proper environment for them. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime we are still fielding and reviewing applications for these types of animals and are still calling other local farm sanctuaries to help us with these placements.

Pig story: One interesting event with our pigs this week is that little Tinkerbell had a bad skin condition. Staff did scrapings and sent away to dermatologists and had been treating medically with little relief for her and little solution. Our barn manager e-mailed Yvonne, the pig specialist at Best Friends Animal sanctuary, Yvonne and asked her for some advice.

Meanwhile, Marcos, who looks after the pigs here at Pets Alive, called home to his father in Mexico, and later we found him rubbing oil on little Tinkerbell. We'd just come into the barn with a printout from Yvonne suggesting the very same thing! I'm so impressed that Marcos saw a problem and took it upon himself to try to find a solution for this sweet little pig. That solution turned out to be the same one Yvonne thought would help as well! Just goes to show you that sometimes a little home remedy can help where meds may not be doing the full job! Thanks, Marcos and Yvonne.

P.S. Both Marcos's father and Yvonne warned us about rubbing oil into the skin during the daylight hours, of course! Good call. Don't want the sound of sizzling to be heard anywhere near our sweet pigs!

Weekly update, August 31

michaelm — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 01:15:06 GMT

Dogs get ready for adoption day, birds prepare for take-off, lots more.

Birds: The few birds we still have here are going back to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary which has wonderful facilities for birds.

Oliver the macaw has a new home, and our avian staffer, Linda B, decided to take Handsome the cockatoo and Ross, who’s a 70-year-old sick bird, to her own sanctuary. That leaves us just four Amazons, who are the ones going to Best Friends to be cared for by people who know and understand these wild-caught birds. Dr. Aldo will be coming here soon to assess the birds and arrange transportation.

Horses: Maureen continues to improve. She has not gotten cast again and her medical issues have stabilized enough that we let her out on grass this week to try to alleviate her boredom and to also help stimulate her appetite as she has not been finishing all her grain each day. Maureen will probably not make it to the winter; she is very old with a series of ailments, but we are making her very comfortable and she is getting very spoiled by our staff in the time that she does have left.

The other horses continue to do well and indeed to thrive here, and we are starting to have enough room available to rotate pastures and get everyone on grass, which is really healthy for a horse. We also continue to get all the run-in sheds matted so that they will be dry in the spring and provide a safer shaded area for our equine friends.

Francis, a retired carriage horse from New York City, is having serious problems with his two hind feet. We have had various vets look at him, and the farrier is coming back out early this week. If Francis does not have enough foot to shoe, we will try glue on shoes to help him.

Goats: The goats have all been re-homed! Sunny, as you know from last week, went to a good local home, and Woodstock Farm Sanctuary helped us place the two pygmy goats in a home about an hour from here. They are doing very well, and have three large pastures and a new family that spoils them terribly! Just what they always wanted.

Cats: A semi-emergency this week. It hit 95 degrees and the feral cat house was not staying cool enough. We moved some portable AC units into the cat house to cool it down some more, and now Victor, our maintenance guy, is installing permanent air conditioners and insulating the unit to help keep it cool. (We needed to do the insulation anyway before winter to help keep it warm then, so it is good to be getting it done and making our cats more comfortable.

Dogs: Pat Whitacre is back here from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, helping get the dogs looking and behaving right for our upcoming adoption day, September 8-9th. Many of these dogs had been locked in isolation cages for years when Best Friends arrived, and the staff is working with Pat and the dogs to help them overcome their fears and be more sociable. They have been making AMAZING progress, and many of the smaller dogs are coming out of their shell.

Rory and Peanut have gone to a sanctuary that specializes in dogs like these two cuties but naughties! They originally were only taking Peanut but their hearts went out to Rory as well when they heard the two liked each other so much and thought the transition might be easier for them both if they got to stay together. Thank you, Family Dogs New Life, for helping with these two. We miss them, but are hoping they will have a better chance at a home and a family with some specialized training and one-on-one daily care.

By Kerry Clair

Mark your calendars: Pets Alive Open House Super Adoption

debbies — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 01:10:30 GMT

Best Friends Animal Society will be hosting a Pets Alive Super Adoption event Saturday & Sunday, September 8 & 9.

We cordially invite you to come out and take one of us home. Bring your friends and family to this adoption and we guarantee, you'll fall in love with someone!

WHAT: Open House Super Adoption
WHERE: 363 Derby Road, Middletown New York, 10940
WHEN:10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
For more information call: 845-386-9738

Weekly update -- August 24

rebecca — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:23:39 GMT

Report from Kerry Clair, Pets Alive sanctuary manager

Dogs: The big news this week is that we set up a hydro therapy session for Chipper after his hip surgery. We filled one of the troughs with water, put him in it and let him go at it. Chipper hates being in the recovery cage, so it was a welcome break for him.

Michelle B., dog trainer extraordinaire, is back here from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary to help get some of our dogs ready for the super adoption event September 8-9th. She has been teaching them manners and working with our staff to continue the training with our shy dogs.

Cats: The feral cat house is FINISHED, and the cats have moved into their new palace! Big thanks to Stan for donating the building and doing all the little extras to make it a home – like carpeted steps up to the loft. Check out my blog for photos and updates! (Click on tab at the top of this page.)

Pigs: Our newly moved runts -- I mean “delicates”! -- are eating like…well…pigs. They are looking great and packing on the pounds. These pigs were too thin and we separated them to monitor their feeding and make sure the other pigs weren't taking over their food bowls. So far, so good.

Goats: Sunny is doing just great in her new home. Gilly, her new buddy, was lonely after losing his companion, so after a little matchmaking on our part, Sunny and Gilly are together and contented. For the whole story with photos check out my blog!

Birds: Linda, our part time bird expert, is leaving us. We knew she was only here to help out during the crisis and she couldn’t stay forever, but we’re still sad. She’ll still be coming by to help us treat Ross for his respiratory issues.

We are still discussing what we will do with our birds. Ross is too ill to travel and Olivia will always stay with him, so it looks like we will always have at least two of the birds here.

Horses:Our groomer, Chea, has been been taking up the work of the versatile and talented Miguel, who left Pets Alive a few weeks ago. In the last few weeks, Chea has learned how to feed, care for, clean up after, medicate and work with cats and dogs, and now she’s working with the horses. She's been doing a great job and we are relieved that she’ll be able to fill in when needed.

If you’ll remember from our last update, Maureen has been getting “cast” – she’s goes down and can’t get back up on her own. We had some blood work done and her low white blood cell count unfortunately indicates cancer. She is now kept in a special area so she can see the other horses but doesn’t have as much risk of being cast.

Block Party: The Monticello Chamber of Commerce sponsored a block party, and Karen, Betsy, Jill and volunteers attended to represent Pets Alive. We got several dog adoption applications, and the team gave out literature on common animal issues. It was great to let people know that we’re around and what we’re doing here!

The Fawn: It was a dark and stormy night. [Scary mood music.] About midnight, the dogs started barking like crazy. Everyone jumped up to investigate and they saw Tyson spinning and “pointing” toward a shape stuck in the fence. It was a spotted fawn, stuck upside down between the perimeter fence and a dog run.

Karen, Betsy, Victor and company went into the dog run and pulled the fence away so the fawn could get back on her feet, and back into her home in the woods. [Cheerful mood music.]

Veterinary update -- August 13

rebecca — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 20:45:40 GMT

A report from our medical team.

BARCLAY, our big, black long haired FIV positive cat, has been doing superbly well. He had his leg removed last week due to a former foot deformity, and able to come home from the hospital sooner than expected. The best news of all is that Sandy, who has adopted several FIV cats from Pets Alive through the years, came today to foster him during his recovery. His appetite has been great and he does not bother his sutures in the least. He receives a daily dose of pain meds to help in his recuperation, but I’m sure that it won’t be long before Barclay is climbing furniture looking for a favorite spot to cat nap. Here’s once again to the old adage that cats (and dogs) are built with three legs and a spare.

ATTENBOROUGH, another of our FIV kitties, can be a bit strong-willed to say the least. We noticed he had a bad limp over the weekend, and took him to the vet for radiographs. There were no obvious fractures on his X-ray, and he’s back now and doing his best to avoid all human contact (as usual). He has only had a moderate appetite, but that may be just because he’s shut in a cage – just for the moment.

SEVEN-ELEVEN, has been diagnosed with renal failure. This kitty is so anti-social that we do not want to push any sort of treatments that would traumatize him. So, his daily medical regime at this point consists of a special kidney friendly diet with the addition of a phosho-binder and fluids to the meal. He had been eating the diet fairly well up until the last couple of days. Sub-q fluids are still not a feasible option since he avoids ALL human handling. If we can get him to eat properly we are hoping to move him out of the iso ward and back with his friends to make his life the most enjoyable it can be.

SUKI, one of the not-so-easy-to-handle female brown tabbies has a chronic inflammatory condition affecting her nostrils. Unfortunately, none of her meds has given much relief for very long. This week she licked her nose raw. The vet was able to sedate her and flush out her nostrils. The odd thing is that they are not blocked. It seems to be a condition affecting the tip of her nose. Our veterinarian has prescribed steroids and an antibiotic. He does not feel that Suki has a good prognosis, so we will continue to exhaust all avenues to give this little girl some relief.

HUNTER, the adorable little pointer mix, was returned to us this week. Hunter has had a history of eye issues and his new family did not feel that they could take on that responsibility. It’s actually his third eyelids that are the problem -- constantly inflamed. The vet says that it seems to be a chronic condition but does not appear to cause him any harm or discomfort. Hunter is as happy and cheerful as ever, and his friend Bingo is glad to have him back!

TOBY, the oh-so-adorable but not to be trusted little mascot of the sanctuary, was adopted this week by one of our employees, Ann. I truly think that Ann is the ONLY person that Toby hasn’t bitten or attempted to. She can even pick him up and kiss his cheek! He lived in the kitchen where he loved to beg for snacks every chance he got…but would then eagerly bite the hand that feeds him. Toby has a history of upper respiratory infections, which improve with antibiotics, but then return. Our veterinarian is checking for liver or endocrine abnormalities.

MITZY, our old geriatric black chow, has been exhibiting the signs of old age. She has had greater difficulty getting around and even needed to be carried up and down the stairs of the staff house. Her pain meds have been increased, and she was given a Legend injection, and we’ve switched her to one of the brand new types of glucosamine supplements. The heat and humidity of these summer months has not been much help to her condition either.

CHIPPER, the vocal little beagle who had the femoral head of his leg amputated, is back from his foster home. His separation anxiety led him to all sorts of destructive tendencies while his foster dad was out of the house. He is now confined to a cage in the kennel area where he howls. But he has to have cage rest. We built a make-shift aqua-therapy tank with a horse-water trough to give him some exercise, but Chipper wound up struggling so much as to shower all bystanders in his path.

FROM THE WILD: Last week I received a call from our veterinarian who asked me to come down to take a look at a tiny baby squirrel. Her umbilical cord was still attached, her skin was transparent, and her eyes were seemingly glued shut. She could be no more than a couple days old.

I took her back to the sanctuary, warmed her up, got her rehydrated and stimulated her to urinate (extremely important). Then I needed to devise a feeding instrument since everything commercially available was still too large for her tiny lips.

She enjoyed nestling in my shirt pocket just as she would in her former nest. She needed round-the-clock feedings, and seemed full of life, fussed when she was hungry, and stretched for the feeding syringe. But this was not to last. Sadly, she slipped away from life, and we laid the little girl to rest out in the woods where she would have been released had she survived.

Weekly update -- August 3

rebecca — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 03:58:20 GMT

Report from Kerry Clair, Pets Alive sanctuary manager.

DOGS
Some of the biggest news we have is that Larry has found a forever home. Larry is a dog who was practically feral when Best Friends got here. You could not approach him, catch him, or interact with him in any way. All our canine behaviorists and caregivers spent time with him as did the adoption coordinators and volunteers, getting him ready for adoption.

I admit to being nervous about Larry being able to handle the stimuli of an adoption event. But, Tiffany took him to PetSmart and walked him all over the store to get him comfortable. And on the big day he got two applications! His new home is with a couple who can take him to work with them every day.

Thanks to all the dog lovers and caregivers who recognized this dog was ready and waiting for a home and spent extra time with him. Larry, we are so happy for you!

Toby is sort of the Pets Alive mascot around here. We all call him The Pineapple because that is how he is shaped. The Pineapple also has the largest dog bite file of all the dogs here.

Oh, did I mention that The Pineapple is only 8 pounds and 16 years old? Yeah. Well, there ya go. That's our Toby.

Toby has become fast friends with Ann, our cleaning lady. He hangs out with her as she washes the dog bowls and cleans up around the kennel and office. Lately she’s been taking him home at night where he sleeps on her bed and hangs out on the porch with her other dog. At the sanctuary he’s sort of free about where he goes to the bathroom, but at Ann's house he is the picture of decorum, never once having an accident.

This week, it's official. Ann is fostering Toby. Don't worry, she’ll continue to bring him with her so he can make his rounds as official Pets Alive Vicious 8-lb Elderly Mascot. Good luck Toby.

CATS
Our feral cat house is coming along nicely. The outside enclosure is going up now and Stan, (who donated the building and is shown here with me) has put in the cat doors, an inside air vent and put up the fencing. It’s really looking great!

We have a new cat caregiver who started today. We’ve had a shortage of cat caregivers for several months. Our two caregivers were not enough to handle the care, feeding and maintenance of 75 cats, considering they also needed days off each week (can you believe it!!). We've been pulling staff from other areas to fill in. Linda G. has been helping out and our volunteers are pitching in on the weekends. So, we brought in Karin Tobin.

Karin is a double bonus for us as she is already trained. She’s mega experienced after working at Best Friends in Utah as a cat caregiver. She also did cat introductions and adoptions. She’s just started but we already love her and hope she'll decide to stay.

PIGS
Two of our pigs are what are commonly called "runts." We don't like the term. We call them..."delicate." Two of our delicate pigs needed hands-on attention because the larger pigs were pushing them out of their food. Our caregiver monitored meal times, but these little guys needed additional feedings each day which SERIOUSLY upset the other pigs!

So the decision was made to bring our two delicate pigs into the barn where they could have their very own stall and outside area and we could monitor their feeding better. Uh-oh. Problem. There is a third pig, while not quite as delicate as his two friends, was rather bonded with them and was very upset to be left behind. So now we have the "three little pigs" living at the barn. We're closely monitoring for huffing and puffing.

GOATS
Our pigs are “delicate” but our goats are rather...hmm…"fluffy" and we’re looking for ways to take off that extra weight. Their diet has been changed of course, and we introduced toys for exercise and also a mound of dirt and rock for climbing. The gals had also piled tree limbs all over the mound to facilitate climbing and chewing and the goats seemed to love it. Now they’re putting their hay on top of the hill so the goats have to climb up and down a few times a day to get their food. They are so adorable standing amidst the homemade climbing wall chewing their hay!

HORSES
Our barn managers have been working to get the horses on a good diet for their different ailments. Many of the horses are old and have varying medical issues. This week they met with a Nutrena rep who went over their diets. Our new feed schedule will save us $16 a week, provide better nutrition for our horses and help some of their medical issues. Likewise, we found a hay farmer in the area who will bring us hay at $1 less a bale than we’ve been paying. That's an additional $70 a week in savings and the hay quality is better. All in all our horses are doing very well now.

Maureen, one of our elderly horses has a serious hip issue. She is not a surgical candidate and she gets around just fine as long as she does not fall. However, if she falls on her right hip, she cannot get up without our help. The term for this is "cast" and when a horse gets cast, it obviously causes problems. Twice in three days, Maureen was cast and the staff were fabulous at working together to get her back up. In one situation they took down a fence and gate to make her more comfortable while we prepared to get her rolled over on to her good hip. Rolling a horse over is not easy. We managed it, but decided we needed a better way. Shelley, a Best Friends employee who was here for a few weeks, has had horse rescue training with FEMA and she told us of a board they used for these situations.

Since my husband also works with FEMA I asked him about it. Soon he brought home a board and some old fire hose. The fire hose is excellent because it is flat and it is easy to get under a downed horse. FABULOUS! We now have our own horse rescue equipment if Maureen goes down again!