Adopted: October 7, 2014
Biography:
UPDATE 07/10/14 – Daisy gets more beautiful every day and is a very sweet and gentle girl. She has been going to obedience training each week which helps her become more confident. She also goes on three-mile walks, sometime with her foster brothers or with other visitors and their dogs. She has even gone on hikes and is enjoying the outdoors. Daisy has been with us for several months while her EPI, Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency, was being confirmed and brought under control. It is now time for this sweet girl to find her forever home.
If you are concerned about caring for a dog with EPI, we want to share some important facts with you. She plays and enjoys all the things that GSDs love to do like going on walks and fetching her tennis ball. To keep her healthy and happy, her forever home does need to take one extra step at mealtime. She gets a 1/4 teaspoon of crushed enzymes mixed with her kibble and water twice a day. After her food sits for 20 minutes to activate the enzymes, she is given her meal. She has gained weight and is keeping the weight on. She is on a regular potty schedule and does not have “accidents” in the home. Her enzymes can be purchased online and Daisy is on a generic form which costs about $20 per month.
Daisy is an amazing girl who has made the transformation from an undernourished, absolutely terrified dog into a beautiful, loving and happy German Shepherd who will steal your heart away. If you want to learn more about this great girl, contact us today at 978-443-2202.
Daisy is a gorgeous, large, white, 1 year, 9 months old, spayed, female GSD. She is being fostered in a home with one human adult and three male GSDs.
She came into our program from an owner-surrender situation. Although they took great care of her, they could no longer financially afford to keep her. They were also concerned about her health as she continued to lose weight while in their home and they were not sure what was going on. She was being treated for EPI, Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency, but did not have a test to confirm this condition.
She is super sweet, super gentle, and a little lady. She is also a very smart and loveable dog with a medium energy level. When she first arrived in the foster home, she was terrified. The only place she felt safe was in her crate. She would crawl through doorways into the house. If you went to grab her collar, she would yelp. Riding in an SUV, she would scrunch her body to the very back of the tailgate door and hunker down. She would not go up or down stairs, but eventually started to go up, but not down. By the end of the the second week in her foster home, she was going in and out of doorways, running up and down the stairs, playing with her foster brothers by chasing them around the yard, and riding in the SUV like a pro. She comes out of her shell more and more during her time in her foster home. We believe that she would be best in a home with another dog that will help her gain the confidence she needs.
We took Daisy to the vet’s to be seen and to confirm that she has EPI. She weighed in at 47 lbs. After confirming she had EPI (This is the inability of the acinar cells of the exocrine pancreas to produce and secrete the necessary enzymes needed to digest food.), we continued to treat her with the Pancreazyme tabs she was being given from her previous owners. Those should have been crushed and allowed to soak on her food for 20 minutes before feeding. That is important because in order for the enzymes to work, you must crush them up, add warm water and mix in with kibble and let sit for 20 to 30 minutes before feeding. She started to gain weight and once we used all her pills, we changed her over to a generic, powdered enzyme (Enzyme Diane) and followed the same preparation for her meals. If she is not given the enzymes properly she will lose weight and have very loose stools. She will be on the enzymes for the rest of her life, but this does not impede her activity level or personality. Since being in her foster home and given the enzymes properly and consistently, she is now up to 59 lbs. She can use some more weight and will fill out as she is still growing.
This is how Daisy looked when she first came to GSRNE:
