Long Term Foster Dogs

George update July 2024

Well George, who we believe will be 15 years young in January, is still with us in spite of all the medical problems he has. His greatest delight is still his tennis balls, the more he can spread those my mobile home the better about 30 at the last count.

His blood pressure is still a problem, but we are slowly getting there’ Normal dogs are about 120 to 140 but George likes to be different with his now just about 200 but his record was 298

The controlled drugs (class b) he is on, have made him very hungry ( I was warned of this when they were prescribed) George is now a THIEF, never before had he ever thought of stealing food, now he has learnt how to pull the chairs out from under the table so he can climb on them and then on to the table to see what he can find to eat. (I have had to learn to be ultra tidy or suffer the consequences!) Poor Steve when looking after him whilst Jenny and I are out collecting and delivering dogs had has many an argument with him, but he cannot control his urgings

Following on from George’s update in October

George’s blood pressure had not come down enough in October so the tablets were doubled and instead of coming down it went up!!! Emma then referred him to The Ralph Centre in Marlow. So Jenny and I set off with me leaving Copsale at 6.15 am to go to Jenny’s who kindly did the driving and up to The Ralph for 9.15am Here George had a though history taken and then he went off to have MIR scans of his brain, ultra scans of his abdomen plus a lumber punch and samples of his spleen. It was discovered he had had a bleed on the brain, but why is still a bit of a mystery, was it the high blood pressure? or what had caused the high blood pressure, this is why they did so many scans trying to find any lumps or tumours which would have caused the rise in blood pressure, but they drew a blank. So back home with yet more pills, but all through this George has remained his usual cheeky self, balls, food, plus short walks are the order of the day plus lots of love, and he is as happy as Larry as the saying goes.

The Ralph is a wonderful place, the care both George, Kate, Jenny and myself, was second to none and we would like to thank them for all their care even for Kate who was with George all the time he was awake, they understood George’s need for his mentor dog and even made a fuss of her so she did not feel left out. Once again the Charity picked up the bill which after The Ralph’s very generous discount was in the region of £4,000 plus. George now at the beginning of February is doing well on his 13 medications, still going for short walks and playing ball in the house.

Update on George October 2023
George has been in the wars lately, besides his normal complaints for which he regularly receives treatment. The poor lad has been suffering from anul gland problems which ended up in him having them washed out and packed with antibiotics under sedation. When trying to relive himself before treatment he damaged his spine which the muscles were keeping in place , on recovering from the sedation his muscles relaxed and he temporally lost the use of his back legs, which after a few  trips to the chiropractor and having acupuncture he regained full use of.  Then very unexpectedly one Sunday he had 6 seizures the first being the longest of nearly 20 minutes the last 6 hours later only lasted about 30 seconds,  So after speaking to the vet up to Reigate it was  yet another visit, were it was discovered his blood pressure was very, very high being 226/149 (usual  range 110/60 to160/90 ) so more pills to bring it down. After one week it was down to 211 so work on this is still in progress.

But George being George takes it all in his stride, still wanting his walks, and still insisting on playing with his tennis balls, Any visitor is expected to play ball with him as his Mum won’t play until the evening, Balls are not now put on the bed but laid beside the bed in a pile ready to trip me up as I get out of bed!

Previous update
George is now believed to be 13 years old and is still work in progress. He came to JSR aged about 30 months via the Dog warden, having been found under a car when the owner of the car returned from holiday. It took three days to get him out when it was discovered he had a broken jaw, broken shoulder and a split pelvis, he was terrified of humans, having probably been used as a football!!

George ran loose on a committee member’s smallholding for about a year before he could be touched, he was very clever in never going into a building with a door and slept in the hay barn or under a hedge. He then fell in love with the late Bramble and jumped into my car to be with her, the third time this happened I managed to shut the cage door and had him trapped. On arriving home, he was tied to Bramble for three days as his fear flight was very, very high and he did not like going into any building with a door on.

Bramble was quite happy to stay in the garden until it was dinner, when the thought of not going in was not to be considered, George had no choice but to come in being dragged by Bramble up the steps on his back. Bramble put a lot of work into George helping him to get over his fear of humans and other dogs. On her death George was distraught until he had another mentor dog.

 Enter Kate a very beautiful, champion show Springer who has carried on Bramble’s good work and has greatly helped George with his confidence when out of his comfort zone. His greatest delight are his tennis balls, putting up to 14 in my bed in the morning to get me up! In 2017 he won a national award at the National Pet show in London for his courage in over coming his terrible start in life. George’s health is not brilliant but with regular visits to his vet and chiropractor he manages very well and enjoys a great life down here at Copsale where most people don’t realise his past history, he now goes to the village hall once a month to the coffee morning and is starting to get known and enjoys the fuss he gets.