Birthdate: August 30th, 2005
Entered Rescue: November 17th, 2005
Sora has had a rough start in life. He along with his mother and brother were surrendered by a puppy mill in Missouri
because each of them had sustained injuries that the mill was unwilling to deal with. His mother was blinded in one
eye, his brother's penis was chewed off in the same way Duo's was, and Sora's tail had been chewed off. That was not
the extent of the problems though. Both of the boys came with coccidia, and while at a previous foster home Sora contracted
giardia, a very tough parasite to get rid of. Sora had a mild case but it went undetected for so long that it did a
lot of damage to his intestines. He get such bad bouts of diarrhea that it comes out of him like water. This causes
him so much pain that literally if you look at him the wrong way he tucks his butt underneath him so no one can touch it.
On December 26th we took him into the vet after he had squirted poop all over the walls. He was so dehydrated and
bleeding from his butt so badly that the vet decided to keep him there for the next 5 days and nights. We were
told that due to the diarrhea his intestines had been hemorrhaging. They were able to stabilize him and sent him home
with enough medicine to make his head rattle. Unfortunately the poop issue had not resolved itself yet, even though
the giardia is long gone. We are in the process of trying different diets and researching and testing for other possible
problems. However we have decided that Sora will not be put up for adoption as we are too afraid that someone will say
they are willing to take care of him and then don't. So we decided to male Sora a permanent member of our pack.
Over the months Sora took many steps forward but also experienced many set backs. If the food wasn't coming
out one way it was going out the other (sorry...). We would think his tummy problem was under control then he would
get sick all over again. All his tummy was able to tolerate was white rice, boiled turkey, pumpkin and yogurt.
Finally in July 2006 he started going long periods (sometimes 2 weeks) without a relapse, so we began mixing in dry dog
food. Over several weeks we slowly weaned him onto the new diet and ever since then he has been doing very well.
He still has bouts of diarrhea but they are fewer and farther between. The other good news is that he finally started
to put on weight
He has also become much more outgoing with other dogs and people. He is still terrified that I am going
to abandon him but he no longer NEEDS to sit in my lap in public :) On August 31st he turned one year old and we
couldn't be more proud. He has come such a long way in such a short time. One year down and hopefully many
more to come!
