Meet Lucky

[James Trotta]

Edit - we picked this guy up when we saw him eating mud and rocks and are working on getting him healthy. But we are going on vacation for the month of August. He needs another break so if someone can take care of him for August please let me know. We don't know him well yet but he does seem willing to pee on a mat or outside and he is neutered. He seems pretty affectionate as well. Not sure how he gets on with other dogs yet.

We saw this little guy in Hadong as we were checking out a potential vacation spot. I don't have pictures here (I'm not home so they are stuck on my wife's phone, on Facebook and one on my travel blog - http://www.travel-plan-idea.com/archives/005338.html but pictures will follow).

He is spending the night at the vet - he needs to get checked for communicable diseases before he meets our dogs - plus he's a mess - my in-laws would never let him in the house.

Anyway, this is the seventh animal we've picked up off the street so my wife called him lucky number seven - not all rescue stories turn out perfectly of course, but we have a good feeling this one will. Anyway I thought seven was a weird name (despite being a big fan of Seven of Nine back in the day) so we went with Lucky.

The plan is to get Lucky back from the vet with a relatively clean bill of health and then find him a home. The vet thinks he is a pure maltese between 5 and 7 who was abandoned at least 6 months ago. He is neutered.

We're not sure what happens next - we don't know if we can bring him to Seoul with us and our two dogs (one of our guys is 15 and pretty sick so we have to be real careful). He may end up in a shelter as he waits to get adopted.

Ideally, we find a family or foster home for him pretty quickly as we'll be gone for the month of August.

[jejudogs]

Aw, the poor guy looks like he's had such a rough time :(

http://www.travel-plan-idea.com/assets_c/2011/06/lucky-thumb-500x375-126.jpg
(snagged the pic from your blog, I hope you don't mind)

[James Trotta]

Aw, the poor guy looks like he's had such a rough time :(

He's had a very rough time. We had him totally shaved and the good news is that he has no serious skin issues. The sad news is that he is depressingly skinny. I saw the sunlight shining through the skin of his rear legs today and that was after several meals and IVs.


(snagged the pic from your blog, I hope you don't mind)[/CENTER]

That's perfect - thank you.

[James Trotta]

I just attached another photo - not used to posting photos on forums... More pictures to follow...

[James Trotta]

We wanted to give Lucky at least one night in our home but his foot with the IV started swelling so he spent last night in our regular vet here in Seoul after spending the previous one at a vet in Jinju. He is still getting IVs and he has low iron, low protein, and low red blood cells. They are doing some more tests to see if they can determine the cause. We did see rocks and metallic things and stuff in his stool so hopefully the cause was lack of nutrition and the solution is more food.

The good news is that he is eating and drinking and there's no trouble with that. There might be good news with his personality too as he gave both me and my wife a face lick at the vet, as if to say 'take me back home'. But he also snapped at the vet and at our sick 15-year-old Yorkie who I later found hiding in his box. He can't really handle that kind of stress so if Lucky can't adjust quickly we won't be fostering him at all. And we are leaving for the month of August so if you know of someone who would enjoy taking care of this guy, do please let me know.

And I'm uploading a couple more pics. With a little fur and meat this guy is going to be a very cute doggy.

Edit: We just heard from the vet that we won't be seeing Lucky until this time tomorrow. They are suspicious that he may have some disease from fleas that isn't 100% curable and is causing the the blood problems. That's just a guess but they have to do more tests - we are probably looking at a bill of half a million or more. The good news is that Lucky doesn't have anything he can give to other dogs.

[James Trotta]

It was a rough night and morning because the vet thought there was a good chance Lucky had babesia and since there was no treatment that would mean putting him to sleep (it is treated in America as far as I know but apparently not in Korea). But today we saw Lucky and the news is mostly good - his red blood cell count is going up, meaning the chance of babesia is small.

80% chance the problems were caused by dehydration and poor nutrition and we can try bringing him to our home again in a few days - his red blood cell count needs to go up a bit more before that's safe. A few more nights at the vet for him but he can expect regular visits from us.

One potential problem is his hips - there might be a fracture that didn't heal well or something but we haven't done the xrays yet. We do know that whenever someone touches him around the hips he seems to be in pain. Apparently he has snapped at a couple of the vets when they were working on him back there.

We held him for a while in the vet and took him for a brief walk. Even after a few days of rest and recovery he's still very weak - he can walk only slowly and tires in a minute or two. I'm amazed he was walking when we found him considering his current condition after all this care. He enjoyed just getting held - he licked our faces a bit and was fine when people were crowding round to hear his rescue story and see his bones and give him some sympathetic pets.

Anyhow, being optimistic about his recovery, we do need to find a foster home and/or an adoptive family. Please spread the word.

[annie]

Thank you so much for helping him out! I hope he recovers quickly~

[James Trotta]

It really is our pleasure. We barely know him but we already know the time and money has been well spent. A little chin lick is all it takes for a dog to make you happy and this little guy really appreciates a little love and attention.Thank you so much for helping him out! I hope he recovers quickly~

Update - we brought Lucky home tonight. He can't be with our dogs until he gets more tests so we have him fenced off sort of. You can tell he'd rather be more involved as he whines and makes sad eyes when you look at him. He does give up and stop whining if you don't look at him - a very nice change from our spoiled dogs actually. And when you go in there and spend time with him he's obviously happy so we feel pretty good right now.

[Brown]

Babesia is tick-borne and yes, treatable in the US (Imizol injections as I remember) - not sure why they can't treat it here if it does turn out to be that (maybe Imizol isn't sold or approved here?)
Have they checked him for other tick-borne diseases by the way? I have seen the 4-way SNAP test (manufactured by IDEXX) in Korea - it tests for heartworm, Ehrlichia canis, Anaplasma phagocytophilum (sp?) and Lyme. There is no Lyme in Korea, but Ehrlichia and Anaplasma are here, both treatable with doxycycline. They can cause anaemia (among other things).

[Wiemann]

James,

Thank you for being his angel! Lucky I'm sure if most grateful, especially if he was feeling so sick. Hoping it's nothing serious and he's on the rebound in no time! Thanks again! You rock:)

[James Trotta]

We did something called 4dx that tested for heart worm and 3 other things - could be the same thing but I'll have to check.Babesia is tick-borne and yes, treatable in the US (Imizol injections as I remember) - not sure why they can't treat it here if it does turn out to be that (maybe Imizol isn't sold or approved here?)
Have they checked him for other tick-borne diseases by the way? I have seen the 4-way SNAP test (manufactured by IDEXX) in Korea - it tests for heartworm, Ehrlichia canis, Anaplasma phagocytophilum (sp?) and Lyme. There is no Lyme in Korea, but Ehrlichia and Anaplasma are here, both treatable with doxycycline. They can cause anaemia (among other things).

Yeah, rescues always start off appreciative of the little things. All I have to do is spend a minute with him and he'll lick my face or something to show his appreciation. Let's just hope an August angel materializes soon.
James,

Thank you for being his angel! Lucky I'm sure if most grateful, especially if he was feeling so sick. Hoping it's nothing serious and he's on the rebound in no time! Thanks again! You rock:)

[Brown]

4dx is the IDEXX test and is pretty accurate for the most part - if one of the tick-borne diseases were advanced enough to be causing anaemia you'd usually get a positive on it. There are diagnostic blood tests for babesia too, but if they don't treat it in Korea they probably don't test for it either.
Still, it sounds like he is on the mend, fingers crossed.

[James Trotta]

Took Lucky to the vet today. His red blood cell count has gone from 20 which is very dangerous to 30 which is approaching the normal range. And he is starting to put on weight - up to 2.9 kilograms - the vet thinks 5 will be about right for him.

We take him back to the vet in 2 weeks when we hope to get an all clear - for now he still isn't allowed to mingle with other dogs.

If anyone can try to find him a home, either for August or forever, please spread the word. So far he's a personable dog and he'll make whoever takes care of him happy.

[Wiemann]

How's Lucky doing? Hoping to hear some great news!

[James Trotta]

I have some great news. We are adopting Lucky. Basically we found a foster through our vet who wanted to take over the adoption process (not just foster Lucky while we were in Europe). "No problem," I said. I know from experience how hard it is and how long it can take to get a dog adopted. And Lucky, they now estimate, is around 10, which makes things harder.

We dropped Lucky off at her house. That was hard because he wanted to come home with us and he kept clawing at my wife's legs and was obviously upset. Driving home we heard a radio show we had never heard before. The next day we called in, talked about rescuing Lucky, and won a pair of concert tickets. Lucky brought us some good luck.

Then a few days later, less than a week before we flew to Helsinki one of our dogs got sick. We took him to the vet around midnight and the foster mom was there with Lucky and a few other dogs. What are the odds? Of course we petted him a bit and whatnot.

We flew to Europe and started having fun. My wife texted the foster /adoption lady from Europe to see how Lucky was doing. Turns out after meeting us at the vet he got all depressed and developed a skin condition. "He really misses you," she said.

"I'm adopting him," I told my wife. She asked if I was crazy, if I really wanted three dogs, if we would ever travel again, how much it would cost, what would happen if I wanted to move to the US to do a PhD, etc. I asked her if having Lucky would make us happy.

We're now back from Europe and we brought Lucky home yesterday. He's happy. We're happy. He's falling asleep on my lap right now.

[Karen]

Congrats to you and Lucky, that is fantastic news!! Thanks so much for sharing your story. Actually it made me cry :) I hope we can see some pics of Lucky looking fatter, once you settle back in from vacation. Thanks again, you made my day!

[James Trotta]

Here we have a picture of Lucky at 3.8 kilograms. He looks pretty good at this weight. Then we have a picture of the kids: Mimi, Libby (who has her own thread on here somewhere since we found her on the street too), and Lucky. We got the matching dog beds in Finland - the store had three left, one of each color. Lucky us.

[annie]

Oh my gosh! This is such a beautiful story! I love you...hahahha!

[Karen]

Lucky looks beautiful, you'd never know he was the same dog. I love the trio of matching dog beds. Two little faces look like Ahem we'd like to get some rest here but Lucky is already napping :)

[Wiemann]

It was Kizmet that you found him! He looks marvelous!

[James Trotta]

Thanks everyone.

[annie]

Thank you!!!