Meet
Gabe. He is a 3 year old male German Shepherd Dog.
Gabe came to us from New Jersey where he was found as a stray. He was very shy and scared when he first arrived, but has really come out of his shell.
He is a very friendly boy and gets along with other dogs. We don't know about cats.
One of his favorite things to do is play frisbee. He will jump up and catch it in the air.
07/20/09 Update: Gabe is a lot thinner than he looks. He needs to gain a good 15-20 pounds. When at his ideal weight he will be 90-95 pounds.
10/24/09 Update: Gabe has suffered an unexpected medical setback on October 3rd. The best way I can describe what has happened to him is to say he suffered stroke like symptoms. For several days Gabe had trouble walking and needed help getting out going potty. He lost all will to eat, his head tilted to the left, some vision and depth perception trouble, partial paralysis on the left side of his face. Gabe could not even hold a dog biscuit in his mouth let alone chew his food. He had no blinking reflex in his left eye. After several days and seeing him lose precious weight Gabe was admitted to the hospital for tests. His blood test was good, Lyme test negative, and urine analysis normal. Another doctor was asked to give Gabe an exam and render his opinion. Gabe’s symptoms presented several different issues and diseases, making a course of treatment difficult to plan. After consulting with the other doctor they decided to aggressively treat Gabe for several somewhat common things at once. He was given shots of long acting steroids, antibiotics, and Ivermectin. As Gabe was holding his own, the doctors felt keeping him in the hospital and creating a costly bill for BrightStar was un-necessary. Between my rescue work with BrightStar and my wonderful veterinarian, I have learned more than enough to be able to provide and take care of Gabe at home.
When Gabe came home he was unable to chew due to some partial paralysis on the left side of his face. He had lost 10 pounds in 5 days. His head had a noticeable tilt to the left and his equilibrium and balance was poor. Gabe should weigh around 90lbs and did not even weigh 80lbs. Louise, the wonderful owner of Tweeter Feeders, helped me stock up on Evo canned food and we started working on getting him healthy again. During this time an amazing thing happened. Gabe adopted this ball when he came to my house. It is a somewhat hard rubber ball that Gabe just loves and it is never far from him. When he started feeling better he could pick it up and carry it around but was unable to chew on it. As he starts to feel better he is able to move his jaw more. He can now hold and chew a biscuit and chew his dog food, although quite a bit still falls out of his mouth. He has blinking reflex in his left eye now. The head tilt isn't as noticeable and his balance is better but not perfect. My vet feels that this ball was therapy for his mouth and he should continue it, which he is. Removing the ball from him is not really an option right now. He just loves it too much.
When all this started the doctors felt the best thing for Gabe was to see a neurologist and have a MRI done. Gabe is a young dog and deserves a chance at a long and healthy life. Unfortunately, rescues do not have that type of a budget. At this time the doctors still do not have a diagnosis for Gabe. They are very pleased that he is making progress. Why, they do not know, but the fact remains he is improving. For now, Gabe will stay under evaluation while he continues to get better. Gabe and his doctors will re-evaluate him in 2-3 more weeks to see where he is medically. He still may need to see a neurologist and only time will tell. Should Gabe's doctors feel that he could benefit from seeing a neurologist, BrightStar will do everything they can to raise the funds needed to get Gabe to Cornell. Guardian Angels are one way you can ensure Gabe gets started on the road to seeing one. The other way is to keep him in your prayers. Some may say he is only a dog but Gabe is a wonderful dog with a classic German shepherd personality. He is young and healthy and deserves that chance just like anyone else. I can tell you that Gabe is at a good weight. He is happy. He is learning his manners and with me hovering around him he is able to do most things a dog should be doing, such as play dates, running through the yard after his ball, etc.
11/23/09 Update: Gabe went back to the vet for his follow – up visit. The doctor was amazed at how well he was doing. Gabe weighs 86.9 pounds and still has at least 5 more to go before he will be around his goal weight. I brought in his ball to show the doctor what he had been doing with it. The vet truly feels that ball has been a great source of physical therapy for his face. Gabe still doesn't chew fully and tends to swallow more then he chews. When he does chew quite a bit still falls out of his mouth, but the fact that he can chew something and eat on his own is a miracle in itself. The doctor noticed that Gabe's blinking reflex came back in his left eye. Gabe's doctor feels that Gabe may have suffered some sort of trauma to the left side of his head. Rather it was being hit by a car; kicked or beat we will never know. The doctor feels this way based on his years as a vet and how quickly Gabe recovered some of his reflexes. His doctor would love to see a MRI done but realizes that an expense like that isn't always possible in a rescues budget. The doctor wants me to continue working his mouth on a ball or something rubber that he can bite down on to keep working his facial muscles. There is still some paralysis and his head still tilts to the left. We don't know if Gabe will ever fully recover but he has a quality of life he didn't have before. To celebrate I took Gabe to Petsmart and bought him a cuz. They are a bit more durable than the ball he had and should work him facial muscles more. He absolutely loves it and it is never far from him now.
For those of you who sent well wishes and prayers Gabe and I thank you. He continues to hold his own and is once again a happy dog. We will update more in a couple of weeks.
12/18/09 Update: Gabe had his MRI December 4th. I would like to extend a big thanks to Gabe's extremely generous guardian angels. Without their generosity we would not know what was really wrong with Gabe or how to start him on the road to recovery. The MRI did not show any tumors but it did show Middle Ear disease. The doctor feels that it may have been brought on by an ear infection that had been left untreated. They re-sedated him to put a scope down into his ear to flush it out and take a couple of cultures. What we thought was ear wax that I had been cleaning from his ear was really dried blood and pus. Unfortunately, there was so much pus and blood still attached to the ear lining they couldn't get the ear canal as clean as they had hoped. By the time Gabe started to wake up it was late and we decided to have him spend the night just in case any complications arose. There was a doctor, vet tech, and assistant on staff all night. The outer ear culture came back 2 days ago and the doctor called it a "wimpy staph infection." I haven't heard yet on the other culture. So now that we know what is wrong we can now do a treatment plan.
Gabe's treatment plan will be 6 months of cephalexin, steroids, ear cleanings every 2 days, one topical ear drop every 12 hours and one every 24 hours. Gabe did come home with pain meds as we now know he has had a raging ear ache for a long time. I know Gabe is feeling better because I am starting to see another side to his wonderful personality. Gabe has to go back in another week for a recheck to make sure that the topical antibiotics are working. The doctor feels that Gabe can make a full recovery. The down side is that he has suffered permanent nerve damage to the left side of his face. His left eyelid droops just a little and that will be permanent. He more than likely suffered significant hearing loss to his left ear but until we get the infection under control we won't know the extent of loss. I want to extend a special thanks to the Veterinary Medical Center of Central New York, and to Dr. Tim Robinson, Dr. Kent Wallace who accompanied Gabe to his MRI, Dr. Jeff Vogel who has been Gabe's primary doctor while he was a patient there, and to all the techs and staff who have cared for Gabe. Every time I called or they called me no one ever had anything but nice positive things to say about Gabe. Many of the girls came to see Gabe off when I picked him up the next day. The level of care he received was wonderful and although he was happy to see me and I him he wasn’t going crazy like some pets you see when their owner shows up.
Gabe still has a ways to go but should the right home be willing to take over his care and make that commitment to him he can be adopted. Until that happens, Gabe will stay in his current foster home getting the care required to clear his ear up.
I will update after his recheck next week.
Gabe is neutered, up to date on shots and heart worm negative. He will be micro chipped soon.
This pet is eligible for a gift of the first month of ShelterCare pet insurance paid for by BrightStar
German Shepherd Dog Rescue. For more information on pet insurance please visit us online at
http://www.sheltercare.com or call 1-866-375- PETS.
For more information on Gabe, please contact Sue at:
sclark@bville.org
To view "Privately Owned Dogs", visit 
