Stella says ADOPT ME!!

STELLA

Stella is a purebred female Soft Coated
Wheaten Terrier. Her DOB is 8/31/08

She was turned over to animal shelter by
her owner when she was diagnosed with
Mega-Esophagus saying they did not
have time to deal with that.

The shelter contacted us and asked that
we take Stella into rescue to give her a
chance at life.

Stella is now in a foster home where we
are stabilizing her and learning about
her and how to best handle her
condition.

Anyone interested in adopting Stella
should thoroughly do their research and
learn about the condition and speak with
their vet to make an informed decision
on applying to adopt her.

Update #1 from Foster Mom Marcia

Well Stella has a roaring infection. The
vet, said it was just absolutely full of
bacteria, rods, spirochete's and another
motility varmint that he couldn't identify
because of it's activity, nonetheless,
Metronidazole will take care of all
varmint's, I've been given 8 days of
treatment.

Weight is down from Tuesday at 9.2 to
Friday, 8.6, he said about 1/2 pound. Her
appetite was poor this a.m., but good this
evening.

The vet was very nice, he reviewed all
her records I had typed up and went
over the GI scope report, which is from a
specialist. He said her condition of
megaesophagus may be surgical and
easily correctable. There is a Barium x-
ray that the GI doc comments on and
notes the esophagus dilates above the
heart, which would indicate that there
may be a ligament off of the arch of the
aorta that is crossing the esophagus and
causing the esophagus to dilate and
reveal the 'generalized dilation' of the
esophagus noted on the scope. He said
the surgery would involve clipping that
ligament, 'easy' to correct, but a
specialist type of surgery because of the
location of the site.

So some good news possibly for Stella,
an easy explanation for her diarrhea and
maybe more importantly a surgical cure
for this condition, the bad news her
weight is down, but once the diarrhea is
controlled that should help straighten
that out.

Update #2

Stella is scheduled to see a surgical
specialist at OSU on March 4th. There is
a chance that she has PRAA (Persistent
Right Aortic Arch) and not Mega-
Esophagus. This would actually be good
news as PRAA is surgically correctable
while mega E is not. We will update
everyone on that after the appointment.
Stella is thriving in her foster home.
Below is an update from her foster mom
Marcia:

Stella is 12.5 pounds, or up 45% in weight
in 4 weeks! She is gaining a half a pound
every 2-3 days. She eats 16 ounces of
canned Natural Balance a day, with
handfuls of kibble small bites Natural
Balance, thrown in throughout the day,
probably a cup. She eats her canned
food up on the step-ladder mixed with
water, the consistency of a thick
milkshake, eats kibble separately spread
over the step so she doesn't gobble and
is tolerating small quantities (20-25
pieces) spread on the floor. She
absolutely cannot tolerate large pieced
kibble in a bowl that she has got into by
accident, it brings everything up in just
seconds.

She has been off steroids for a weeks
and gaining weight. She is off Pepcid.
She is on Flagyl because I noticed some
just barely loose formed stools and some
cough and I had a low threshold to get
that re-filled, she is on 10 days worth.

She feels great, she is a terror, since
she got past 11 pounds, she has really
come up on energy and playful puppy
behavior, chase, toys, curiosity, which
was lacking previously.

Update #3

Today Stella saw the specialist at OSU.
They redid the barium swallow and x-rays
and they do not believe that Stella has
Mega E but in fact has some sort of
stricture. Before we open up her chest
we want to make sure we know exactly
what we are dealing with so tomorrow
she will go under anesthesia and have a
cat scan. They will then look at that along
with other specialists and decide exactly
what we need to do to help Stella. If they
decide this a surgical issue, they will
take her into surgery on Friday.

The bill for today and tomorrow is
estimated at about $1000 and if surgery
is recommended, that will be an
additional $1500 for a total of $2500. So,
we are again asking for some Wheaten
Angels to come forward and donate so
that Stella can get the surgery she needs.

Below is a note from her foster mom:

Well the house is quiet tonight with
Stella spending the night in Stillwater,
today she weighed 14 pounds! The little
thing was happy Greetin' all the people
and furry friends in the waiting room, but
she knew where she was going when we
headed into the patient room and the
feet went down and she was dragged in
there.....

She's a funny little dog, I swear she has a
hilarious sense of humor. She quietly
and motionless watches the other two
dogs in the yard finding their perfect
spot to do their bizness, she then goes
into her sneak-attack position, rocking
back and forth ever-so-slightly for the
perfect moment. As they start getting
down to bizness, she springs on the run,
flies over them, startles the heck out of
them abruptly stopping their important
job as she runs a big circle around them
delighted she got their attention! And as
the dogs were interrupted, the game
starts again on the next attempt! It's
hilarious but warped entertainment! But
as pesky as she is, she is a cuddler too,
every night she wants quiet time with
me. Stella doesn't ask for petting, she
just want's to sit on my lap and lay her
head on my chest sitting perfectly still
and as close as she possibly can. She
will stay there for 10 minutes and not
move an inch, totally quiet.   I wonder
what she's thinking when she does that,
is she remembering her old home, the
kids, the other pets, is she missing
them? Or is she enjoying the peace of
her tummy finally feeling full? I don't
know, maybe it's all of it, maybe she
knows the uniqueness of her life's
journey so far. But tonight she is laying
in a strange place again, hopefully she
knows we're coming back for her soon.

UPDATE #4

Stella had her CT scan today and all
kinds of interesting things were found.
First, Stella definitely does not have
Mega E - what she actually has is an
aberrant left subclavian artery and her
aorta is actually on the wrong side of her
heart. As bad as all of that sounds we are
told it is really not that awful. The only
sticking point is that the artery that is
causing the stricture on her esophagus
is the main artery that delivers blood to
her limbs on the left side of her body. We
are told this is an extremely rare defect
and only a handful of cases have ever
been seen.

She is scheduled for surgery first thing
tomorrow (March 5th) morning. They will
go in on the left side of her chest and
visually look at the problems to see if
there are any other strictures that did
not show up on the Cat scan. They will
then hook up a monitor to one of her
paws and then clip off that artery. They
expect that within 30 seconds her body
will reroute the blood flow which is
called collateral blood flow. As long as
they get a steady pulse in that paw after
they stop the blood in the artery they will
go ahead and cut and cauterize the
artery so that it is no longer across her
esophagus and causing the stricture. If
there are other strictures there as well
they will fix them at that time. Providing
nothing else major is found during
surgery they predict an 80% chance she
will be cured of her eating issues after
the surgery is complete.

They said that she did very well with the
anesthesia today so they do not expect
any complications with that but, as we all
know, every surgery has the risk of
complications so everyone please keep
Stella in your thoughts tomorrow.

We will update the webpage again
tomorrow after the surgery is over. We
would like to thank all the great people
who became Angels for Stella today to
help her get this much needed surgery.

UPDATE #5

Good news on all fronts with Stella today.
Her surgery went off without a hitch and
she is resting easily and is recovering.
When they got into her chest they found
that although the artery did cross the
esophagus, that was not what was
causing the stricture. She actually had a
band of tissue across the esophagus
which was below the artery. It did not
show up on the cat scan as that will only
show things that have blood flowing
through it and this did not. So, they were
able to just cut that band and leave the
artery intact which is very good news.
They did not find any other strictures
than the one that was cut.

All signs point to the surgery fixing
Stella's issues and she is expected to
live a long and healthy life.

They say she will be able to go home on
Sunday or Monday as long as there are
no complications. We will update again
when she goes home or if there are any
other significant changes to report.

UDATE #6

From foster mom Marcia:

Stella is doing "really really well," she is
off IV meds and taking oral only. She is
eating and drinking well. She is still
being fed in an elevated position to give
that all time to heal. They are ready to
discharge her Sunday a.m. between 8
and 9 a.m. (time change means 7-8 a.m.,
aghhh!) I'm planning on picking her up
Sunday. I asked about restrictions and
she said, no playing, running,
jumping, keep her quiet for the next
couple of weeks.

UPDATE #7

From foster mom Marcia:

Well Stella is out of the hospital with a
shaved back and belly, Elizabethan
collar, a bandage and two front leg’s that
look part poodle and a pudgy belly! All in
all she is doing well, she’s worn out from
the trip home and all the excitement and
is sleeping in her crate. She didn’t even
stir when I came in from the store, so
she must be getting some much needed
rest well, yes she is breathing.....I
checked! :) She has subcutaneous
emphysema, air under the skin that
crackles when you press on it, common
in chest surgery, which will absorb in the
next week or so. The picture show’s
that, it’s behind the bandage, normally
her ribs would be showing, that is not
fat.    She is in the collar because the air
has traveled down to her left leg and
seems to be bothering her, so it is to
protect her leg. She is not liking the
staples on her side and is scratching,
I’ve put her in a coat to protect the
incision. She’s had some food and done
all the other things little dogs are
supposed to do after a car ride.
Her buddies here were glad to see her
and the Beardie’s tail is up back wagging
and the concerned look absent from her
face.

The doc’s said that she should do well
after all this, what she had was in the 5%
occurrence for a Vascular Ring Anomaly,
most are the PRAA. But that she should
do well. He esophagus is likely
stretched out from her months of
fighting this and she may always require
elevated feedings due to that, but as far
as being able to get food to the stomach
to provide her proper nutrition that
should be corrected.

If Stella could thank you Wendy, Kathy,
the transport team that got her to
Oklahoma, Topaz and all the others that
asked about her, and have donated for
her to have this chance to be alive and
now a chance at being a normal little
dog, a great big Wheaten Greetin’ with a
big ol’ kiss today would be given readily
to you all today! And we can’t forget the
people in the Kentucky shelter that
contacted Wendy, “Thank you!!!” and
Kisses!!!!

Update #8

From foster mom Marcia:

Stella is now 12 days post-op and doing
very well, she gets her staples out this
week and then to the groomers for a Spa
Day to get this foofie Poodle-do
smoothed out! She is tolerating food
well without a problem from her step-
ladder. Friday she will try eating on
ground level and we will find out if that
will be tolerated. The goal is to get her
to ground level eating kibble, she is still
on canned mixed with water. She is now
housebroken, finally, and is extremely
intelligent. She only needs to be
reminded about three to four times what
is a 'no-no' and the little girl remembers.
She has an affinity for house shoes and
can sniff them out where ever they are
hidden! She seems to be on her way to a
long, happy and healthy life! What a
difference in seven weeks!

Stella is spayed and up to date on shots.

APRIL 2009 - A FOREVER HOME!

Stella has been adopted by the
DelaRoche Family of Missouri

CONGRATULATIONS!

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