HEALTH QUESTIONS:  If your dog is having health issues and you have questions, you can search symptoms here on a site run by veterinarians.  We use this site ALL the time:  www.petmd.com


BACK ISSUES:  If your dog is having back issues there is many great sites now for back issue babies and all that entails.  You can Google a lot of care sites if you use this search term "IVDD in dogs."  The site above is also very good.  


On our old website I had a journal on how we had dogs with injuries to walk again and here is what I tell everyone now who emails me now for help:


1. GET AN XRAY FIRST!  How can you tell if your dog will be fine with crate rest or if they need surgery where crate rest and meds like pain or steroids will not help them.  If your vet refuses to do an Xray which usually costs around $100, find another vet.


2.  Back surgery is the most effective if done in the first 24 to 48 hours.  There is often swelling inside the spinal column after the dogs have slipped a disk and many times they come through surgery without being able to tell if they have to go poo or pee.  I have noticed about half the time dogs that have one surgery and might need another surgery later, etc.  So be aware this may not be a one time thing.  Half the time the dogs do not do well with their first surgery either unless folks get the best dog docs out there so research your vets first.  We recommend Washington State University in Pullman, Wash.  They have the best success rate in this area.


Did you know many of the dogs who can't feel their back legs and end up in wheelchairs have to be in diapers the rest of their lives?  That is a huge mess and their people need to be a dog nurse the rest of their lives.  Some folks can handle those messes and many folks can't.


3.  We can't afford the $10,000+ for dog back surgeries here.  We would let our dog go right away if we know that crate rest and meds as well as water therapy later or anything else needed for physical therapy will not help them.  I have nursed back three of our dogs in 50+ years to walk again but those were just injuries where crate rest was needed.  Two came back completely with about two months of crate rest while they were bitching at me while healing up.  Then we started physical therapy on them to get their muscles back.


Our Britches girl, old red dog with grey on the right, never did come back all the way after her injury.  She walked drunk behind for nine years before she passed away at 19 years old.  The last few years Britches was having a hard time feeling if she had to make messes at night.  We cleaned those up and made sure she she had clean bedding daily so it was a lot of laundry.  Britches also had a large enough dog crate if she made a mess at night, she could move away from it.  Britches was one happy dog until the very end.  


Other dogs we had, Patsy and Hunter came back completely and never did have any issues later like Britches.  Both lived to around age 16 if I remember right.   I also never let them jump off the porch or furniture the rest of their lives to reinjure their spines.


I have nursed back many other dogs who just had injuries.  I helped a few local folks while working when their dogs had back surgeries too.  Now that this rescue has grown I do not have that much time for other people's dogs to play nurse as I did when we rescued less than 50 dogs a year.  We placed 157 in 2016, or a new record and I took care of my snotty old Britches the whole time too, the feisty old girl.  If any of the dogs I nursed did not have a quality of life I would not of hesitated to let them go and bury them here on the farm.  I love them enough to not make them live in pain.


VETS WHO TAKE PAYMENTS: We know of no veterinarians in this county who take payments on dog vet bills.  Some do Care Credit or sign up for a credit card if you have credit.  We DO NOT have the funds to help sick or injured dogs that are not our own.  We barely tread water here to keep our doors open for this rescue to cover our own vet bills.  The ONLY reason we can afford this dog rescue is we take in dogs without a lot of major medical issues and place healthy dogs.  Plus we have no two footed kids we are raising.  No one will adopt obviously sick ones from us.  Now and then folks do dump dogs with major health issues on us without telling us and many of those we have to put down.  I still feel their owners should be the last face they see, not us.  Pretty crappy to do that to us as well as their dogs, right?  (This is one major reason why I tell folks to NEVER be animal rescuers as folks giving us animals are not always honest.)


WHERE TO GET SHOTS AND DOGS FIXED LOCALLY?  We recommend:  www.spokanimal.org at Napa and Trent near downtown. 


WHERE TO GET DOG'S TEETH CLEANED LOCALLY  OR GET DOGS FIXED?  Der Park Vet Clinic or Spokanimal is who we use.


FIND US ON FACEBOOK FOR ANSWERING OTHER QUESTIONS!  We have daily updates of our events, dogs that need homes and more fun.  It use it like a blog as well so folks realize how much work it is to be a dog rescuer.  ;-)

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BELOW: One of the oldest dogs we here we helped pull from a local shelter.  This was the look I saw when I went to meet her and let folks know she needed a new home right away.  Gretel was happily placed in her new home.

Since 1991!