Carlin Comes to Call

When 5 year-old Carlin came to us, he had a few problems. Like his comedian namesake, he is a big joker, funny and charming, and he is also a snuggler and a cuddler and a lovebug, but his life as an outside dog left him with some undesirable behaviors. We discovered he had quite a few medical issues, as well. He has been to a vet and some of those problems are gone, but some will take time to address. In these photos, it appears to us that Carlin's looking all over for some of what he lost at the vet's last week.
Let's see: he got rid of some nasty parasites when he was wormed--no great loss, there. He gave up a little skin when the doctor scraped for mange. He was relieved of a polyp from his rectum (we doubt he'll miss that little thing!) In the course of his dental cleaning, 3 loose and infected teeth were pulled. And everyone knows what he lost during his neuter. Poor Carlin! He must have felt a little like he'd been mugged when he got out of there! From stem to stern, eartip to tiptoe, he'd been inspected, detected, resected and disinfected!

But if he lost some things, he also got a goody bag of some medicine to take home with him. Some for a yeast infection--the skin scraping showed he had no mange, but plenty of yeast! He also got an antibiotic and a steroid to help get his itchiness and hair loss under control. As you can see in the photos, Carlin has lost a good bit of hair, and his nub is not black with fur--it's leathery and hairless, and it may never grow hair again.
The vet suggested that a testicular tumor can lead to too much estrogen and result in the symptoms of allergies Carlin exhibits, like hair loss and red and itchy skin, as well as his enlarged nipples.
Once his incision has healed, he'll require medicated baths, but we hope that with his neutering and the baths and medicine he'll soon be suffering less from the maddening itchies and will be regrowing his luxuriant Samsonesque locks. Once Carlin is feeling better, we'll look into doing something about the polyps in his ears. There may be more surgery in his future.

Looking at his sweet and friendly face, it's not easy to believe that Carlin has a tendency to be possessive of his people. At the vet's he growled with some menace at another volunteer who approached his foster mom, and at home he'll sit on her lap and growl at any dogs who pass too closely. Though we were told Carlin has barrier aggression, his foster mom has not yet found that to be the case, and reports that he crates well and tolerates her reaching in and touching him and his toys without a problem, and she can close and open the door easily.

He has yet to receive any obedience training, but he walks nicely on a lead. Carlin was an outside dog, and he will be learning some house manners while he's in foster care. His foster family will work on redirecting or eliminating his unwanted behaviors. His foster mom notes with some awe that he produces an enormous quantity of a ferociously offensive effluvia, and she will be addressing that just as quickly as she can. Possibly a change of diet will help.

We are delighted that we were here for Carlin when he came to us. Today is the 5th anniversary of FBRN's founding, and we are so grateful to our network of volunteers, donors and sponsors who make it possible to prepare a dog like Carlin for life as a pet. As he recovers from his surgery and treatments, we'll check in with him again. Though we doubt he'll have found anything he lost at the nice vet's, it could be he'll have found something interesting to show
The Frog Princess