I'm updating here to keep it all in one thread. It's been a frustrating day so if I sound snarky, I apologize in advance.
Today I took Filbert to the vet. BIL kept saying he was going to but, surprise surprise, he never did so S threw me under the bus and said I wanted to get his issues cleared up, which is no lie but it was a joint agreement. SIL apparently said she felt like a "bad dog mommy" because we were taking them to get vetted and paying for food. I don't disagree with her sentiment at all, mostly because she neglects them completely, money or no money to pay for things, but I held my tongue.
I found out Filbert is 13, not 10 like I thought. His banfield check up was two years ago, which means the skin issues have been going on for two. f-ing. years. So there's that. BIL was also woken up by my door knocking at 10 am but the dogs hadn't been out yet. BIL/SIL and kids sleep in the basement. Dogs (Filbert and Doodles, Filbert's 1/2 sister 2 years younger) were behind a baby gate in the kitchen upstairs. Dogs had peed in the kitchen already. Anyway...
Today I got Filbert's nails trimmed, which he hated but tolerated. They aren't curled anymore, just longer. He should be 15 lbs but is only 12. He's hairless on his body, neck and tail with his skin feeling like the worst dry skin you've ever had on your elbow x 1000. And he smells horribly. I was told he had a bath two days ago. How much I believe it, I don't know since I can't get the smell out of my nose after two soap lathers in the shower.
We went to the low cost vet about 3 miles from his home, my thinking was they might be able to keep this up if we go somewhere cheaper. The clinic is walk-in so you get whoever's available. I'm also thinking they're staffed by interns and residents since the clinic also helps support a rescue. We got a really great vet who was ready to tackle the problem and work toward a solution. He also said not to Vax and no dental even though Filbert has one clearly dead tooth while the rest are pearly white. We ran CBC, skin scrape and urinalysis. CBC came back mostly WNL with slightly elevated Alt, skin scrape was clear of mites and UA was free of bacteria but very dilute. His numbers were nothing too crazy and the reason banfield said nothing was really wrong with him, apparently. Except something is wrong and it seems frankly negligent for banfield to deny that, but that's water under the bridge. The next step is a Cushing's test and thyroid check. Since I hit my budget limit today and Cushings is an all day test with three blood draws, we'll go back once his skin clears. He got prescribed Clavamox and a Liver support, both to be administered twice daily, with food and can have 12.5 mg of benedryl if needed for itching.
So I get Filbert home, 2.5 hours later and tell BIL all of this including how he's going to need to feed Filbert twice a day to get the meds down him. This was a blow, not gonna lie. Apparently they only get their meal of beans and rice (with some fruits thrown in sometimes) at night, usually after BIL gets home from closing the (chain burrito open till 11 o'clock) restaurant where's he's an assistant mgr. SIL still hadn't come up from bed (1 p.m.) and I'm betting the other dog may have been let out once before being put back behind the baby gate but that's not a certainty that she'd been let out to pee at all. Ugh. Filb peed twice already that day with full bladder each time.
That brings me to food. We bought a bag of Wellness fish and rice two months ago, since that's what we were told that they eat when they eat meat. Last weekend we bought more, thinking surely it would help but maybe they'd bought their own bag when they ran out. It's not unreasonably spendy but not total crap either. Boy was I wrong. They're still working on the tail end of the first bag because BIL has been cutting it with, you guessed it, beans and rice. I told S to tell him that Filbert needs the nutrition and not to cut the food so he decided that Doodles would get beans and rice while Filbert gets dog food. WTF!
Which leads me to rescue. MIL wants the dogs to go to rescue, mostly because they're peeing in the house and no one's cleaning it up (SIL won't and just tells BIL to when he gets home from work.) so her kitchen floors are being ruined. MIL sees that the dogs need out but doesn't let them out because they might poop in the yard, so she might have to pick it up and they aren't
her dogs and she doesn't want dog poop left in her back yard. FIL at least takes the dogs out from behind the baby gate and plays with them each day. Other than that, they snooze and pee behind the baby gate in the kitchen. I'd wager a lot of money that while I had Filbert at the vet, Doodles was ignored even though BIL and the one kiddo not in summer school were upstairs on the same level as the dogs.
I'm going to let MIL broach the rescue topic because 1) it's her house and 2) if I do it, it'll look like I invested in their dogs so they'd be more desirable when I "take them away" (not the case, the dog is miserably itchy and thin). Nope, nope, nope. No thank you. I also told MIL that I would not call in any favors until relinquishment was certain. I'm not going to cash in those chips if I don't have to. MIL did understand that logic, thankfully.
So that's the adventure so far. BIL and SIL were supposed to be at the in-laws house for two months, though privately MIL/FIL agreed to 6. BIL/SIL haven't made any progress toward moving out in terms of saving or looking for a place. At this point, I'm done. All I care about is getting that dog well, getting the other one de-matted and getting them somewhere with someone who actually wants them.

- No hair, jutting ribs, hips and spine
- 2015-06-22 11.04.03.jpg (86.69 KiB) Viewed 8118 times