Success Stories

Kiley, September, 2000

Kiley is an approximately 3 year old female yellow Labrador Retriever. She was rescued by Dallas / Fort Worth Labrador Retriever Rescue from a shelter in Dallas, Texas. She was a loving, seemingly normal, if a bit fat, dog with a history of being found as a stray.

The first thing that Kiley's rescue organization did was to take her to a veterinarian for a general health check, and because no scar could be found on her belly, a spay surgery. Kiley appeared healthy to the veterinarian and her spay was scheduled immediately, before the results of her heartworm check were finished. In surgery the veterinarian discovered that Kiley had already been spayed! Therefore he closed her abdominal incision and woke her up from the anesthesia.

Kiley recovered uneventfully so when the results of her heartworm test came back positive, the decision was made to give Kiley the first injection of her heartworm treatment and keep her at the veterinarian's overnight. The next morning Kiley was still doing well and she was given the second treatment for heartworm. She did well throughout the day and was transferred to a 24 hour veterinary service so that she could continue to be observed until her new foster mom could pick her up.

Here Kiley took a turn for the worse. When Kiley's foster mom came to pick her up, Kiley was very shaky and unable to rise. She was also spiking a fever. Everyone was very concerned that the dying heartworms in Kiley's bloodstream had acted as an embolus to her lungs or brain. Treatment was started immediately; however, Kiley was slow to respond. The rescue was very concerned and took Kiley to see a veterinary neurologist. The neurologist was concerned that Kiley might have a tick-borne disease as well the heartworm problem and a long course of a specific antibiotic to treat this possibility was added to Kiley's current treatment.

Slowly Kiley was beginning to improve. Her appetite, which had been non-existent immediately after the heartworm treatment, began to pick up and she began to be more steady in her walk. Now that Kiley was feeling better, the rescue had to contend with the huge pile of bills that had begun to mount up for her treatment. Normally the rescue could have taken this in stride, but unfortunately Kiley's life-threatening reaction had come on the heels of two other rescue dogs that had required expensive hip surgeries and the rescue's medical funds were low. Therefore, the rescue organization turned to LABMED for help. LABMED was glad to be able to help give Kiley a second chance to be someone's faithful companion.

Update: February, 2000

Kiley has found a forever home with her foster mom who got too attached during the time she was nursing Kiley to let her go to another home.