The owners suggested that I came over to their house to familiarize myself with Sam before I adopt him. I agreed and went over to meet up with him. While there, I saw another dog, Max who was not mentioned by the owners as they thought nobody would want to adopt Max because he had skin problems and was initially thought to be partially blind. Told the owners that if I were to adopt Sam I'll take Max too but on one condition, they send both dogs for vet checkups and send the dogs over to my house. They agreed and so Sam & Max began their new life with me, John and my 2 other dogs....Calu, Tyson and Casey.
When Sam first came, he was rather aggressive towards John but not me. He was also rather possessive around food. His previous owners told me that they fed him brown rice with mince meat but for a Rotti..he's rather skinny. Started feeding him dry food for the first month and noticed a huge change in him. He started putting on weight and was also less aggressive towards John. However with my other dogs, it was a different matter. He tried to impose himself on the other dogs but was unsuccessful He got into a fight with Casey my little princess and Calu came to her rescue!! After that he didn't dare mess with either Calu or Casey. Though with Max, it was a different situation. He has been living all his life with Max but still growls and picks a fight with Max if the opportunity arises so I had to separate them. Tyson my oldest dog couldn't care less with any dogs. He's a loner & doesn't like to mix.
Another bad habit I found out about Sam is that he's very frighten of loud sounds like thunder and fireworks/fire crackers. Whenever there is thunder or fireworks, he will want to fight with the thunder, he will charge like a crazy bull, barking his head off and he won't stop barking until I bring him into the house. If I don't bring him in, he will claw my door down, topple everything and try to enter the house through the window. For a dog so clumsy, he sure can balance himself on the ledge!!!! I had my sliding glass door completely clawed out from the slider...(thankfully I placed a water container outside if not my entire door would have fallen and shattered to pieces), my inner sliding door smashed all because he wanted to get into the house during a thunderstorm!!! In the end I had to arrange a contractor to install stainless steel grilles and gate to protect my glass doors and front wooden door. My front door has all the marks of his clawing that looks like a monster tried to get in!!!!
Despite all the items that he has destroyed during his stay with me, he's actually a very sweet boy..so I was very upset and depressed when one fine day, he just kept toppling over onto his side and started having seizures. I brought him to the vet, he prescribed some medications and I took him home. That very evening, he started vomiting violently and kept losing his balance. He was also very disoriented and very quiet. Not even the thunder could get him up. Brought him back to the vet the very next day as he was vomiting whatever food he ate...all were undigested food. They hospitalized him for 3 days, put him on a drip and monitored him. No medication was given, his blood test was fine but there was a lot of food inside his tummy. They told him he didn't collapse nor vomit during his stay there so I had to take him home. All they told me was he was suffering from "old dog encephalitis". Took him home, but his condition didn't improve. Checked up on the internet for some solution to treat his sickness and decided to put him on antibiotics, painkillers and anti-vomit medications. After a week of medication and very careful monitoring and care, he started to show signs of improvement. He could eat without vomiting his food, didn't collapse much and also was more lively. Decided to continue with his medication just to be sure. Then had another problem, he eats well but doesn't poop!!! Thought it was the antibiotics causing him not to poop, I decided to stop his medications and it worked for about 2 days. I then decided to stop all medications and just let nature takes it's course. It worked!!!! He didn't collapse, got his orientation back, was more lively and was eating well. Though he now poops everyday but in a very small amount, am satisfied cos he didn't show any signs of his illness!! He's eating more now..feeding him rice with dog canned food along with his multivitamins. He's back to his old self now..driving me up the wall with his constant clawing and barking..but I rather have them than him falling sick!!!
What caused his illness? I was very baffled until just 3 days ago, I chanced upon a rat running around my house and trapped the rat. I then traced the rat's route and found out that the rat had made a home in my porch. There were lots of rat urine and feces that I had to clear. Out of curiosity, I checked the internet about rat urine and feces and found out that if an infected rat was digested by any animals, they actually will have the same symptoms as what Sam had!!!! So there's only 1 possibility.....Sam must have eaten an infected rat!!!! Now Sam is one dog that eats anything..I once caught him eating a bird feathers and all!!!! Now I have rat traps everywhere in my garden and porch and I also cleared and cleaned out everything where Sam sleeps to prevent another mishap from happening again.
I am really glad that I got Sam started on antibiotics and painkillers to kill off whatever poison or viral infection that he had...so my guess now is he's not suffering from "old dog encephalitis" cos he's recovered fully from his ordeal and I hope he stays that way!!!! I hate to lose him cos he's by nature a very sweet and lovable dog....more like a gentle giant.....lol
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