Sled Dog Sanctuary: Emergency Medical Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

Our grant money was used for lab testing, medicine, digestive supplements and special dietary food.

This grant greatly helped our dog Arrow, who was struggling to gain weight. No matter what we did for him, he just kept losing weight. With the emergency funding we were able to get him to our vet for testing and assessment. We were able to afford special food and digestive supplements and watch the pounds come back on him as he regained his health.

How many pets did this grant help?

one

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

Arrow came to us from an owner who could no longer care for him due to his increasing size, health issues and rambunctious puppy behavior. When he came to us he was underweight, under-socialized and had an intense fear of men. As we worked to put weight on him, he proved very difficult, and we quickly realized we not only had a socialization case to work with but a health case as well. Months passed and, while Arrow was still maintaining and was active, he still held on to an unexplained weight loss. After his second visit to our vet we knew this boy was going to need a lot more testing to determine what was going on. We applied for the Emergency Medical Grant through the Petfinder Foundation and started Arrow’s tests immediately.

On the advice of our vet, he was tested, wormed and placed on a special diet of dog food that would help bring up his weight to a healthy level. We also found that with his better diet, his energy continued to improve and what was before a normally active dog became the super-hyperactive sled dog we knew was hiding underneath all those health issues!

Now that he is looking better and on the road to recovery, his adoption interest went way up and we found him a home where he can put that hyper nature of his to work by pulling a dog sled recreationally for his owner. In a few weeks, after he receives the final test and clearance from our vet, Arrow will join two other recreational working sled dogs and release all that energy through exercise by pulling a sled on the snowy trails of Alaska.

We are thrilled to share the happy ending of this boy’s story! Thank you to the Petfinder Foundation for helping us help Arrow find his way!