My Amazing Gracie
Our story of Gracie begins with Ginger, our sweet yellow lab. If you have read Ginger’s Story, you know how connected we are to our animals. When we had to let Ginger go in January 2008, it was a very difficult time for all of us. Though we knew we had won the battle against a devastating cancer and we were reversing her diabetes after 7 years, a dog can only live so long! Ginger was coming up to her 14th birthday and had suffered the consequences of the ravaging effects of diabetes for too long. (Read more about Ginger on her own page later!)
If you have ever lost a dear pet, you know it takes time to heal. My husband was especially effected by losing Ginger and took longer to “come around” after her departure. But finally by the end of summer he was beginning to open to the idea of having another dog. We missed having a dog in our lives and every dog we met while we were out you might have thought we were kids saying, “May I pet your dog?” 
Meet Gracie. How did she happen to come into our lives? Well, you know how things go sometimes. Everything seems to fall into place and we end up where we need to be. Here’s her story, as far as we know it.
Once my husband thought it was time to begin looking for another dog, my daughter, Michelle, wasted no time in going to PetFinder.com After much deliberation, considering the profiles and qualities of the various dogs, we found ourselves going back to “Violet”. Now that you know how she was listed I won’t have to write that name again. She is forever Gracie.
Gracie was abandoned along with her brother and 2 of her remaining puppies in a rental home in the Portland area. At the age of only 9 months, she had 11 puppies. By the time they were discovered by the home owner some days later, Gracie weighed only 45 lbs. She was so depleted and malnourished that her ribs were very visible. Even when we took her into our home 2 weeks after her rescue, we could still see her ribs and faced a multitude of health challenges. Goopy eyes, fleas and other parasites, dull coat and a lack of health history for vaccinations.
Gracie appeared to be in heat the day we brought her home. Ugh! This wasn’t going to be easy. We bought a doggy diaper and used pads for the period of time the vet said she’d need them, about 2 weeks. Then we had to wait before scheduling the spay until her body was ready. A few weeks later we ran some blood work based on the vet’s recommendation. Gracie was showing a high white count and other imbalances. The spay was postponed until we could get her healthy enough for surgery. The vet prescribed antibiotics, which we used.
Here’s what we did. We gave Gracie zeolite to remove toxins and balance her pH. We gave her Agarigold (a super mushroom extract)to boost her immune system. We gave her colostrum and a raw food diet (another page for info on raw diets later) which is really the best, in my opinion, and supplemented with other good things. Yet, we couldn’t figure out why Gracie was gaining weight, yet forever hungry and going for walks, but laying down after a few steps. She had a seizure at the beach and we were very worried about our new sweetheart.
After 2 weeks and another blood test the vet determined that Gracie was still very unhealthy, in fact, less healthy. The white count had nearly doubled. Suspecting a uterine infection as a possible cause… maybe something left over from her previous pregnancy… we went ahead with the surgery.
They called us from surgery to say that Gracie’s uterus was very enlarged. She was not in good shape and it could be puppies in there. We gave the go ahead for the spay. Gracie’s health was severely compromised by what they found; a uterus full of 14 puppies… many already deteriorating and the cause of her infection. Her brother was the likely father, considering their enclosed abandonment.
I believe that all we did for Gracie with supplements, good diet, Reiki, love and care helped to set her up for success in spite of her challenges. Now she’s quite the character. We could see “Joy of Life” in her 2 days after her surgery… something we had not seen before. We see smiles and energy unbounded! Gracie is a blessing in our lives, bringing healing to my husband and me. We are “Full of Gracie”.
More to come in our upcoming posts.
P.S. Here’s a link to the products we used. Please contact me if you have any questions.
Do you have a story to share? I’ll find a place for it if you have used Natural Healing in some way.
May 2009
We always wondered why Gracie drooled so much. We’re talking “puddles” of drool. Was she always hungry? I fed her 3 meals per day, raw food diet, full of delicious supplements, colostrum, meat, veggies and more. Then about a month ago Gracie started to vomit small amounts of bile. The timing was just before meals and it seemed like she might not be getting enough food. I won’t go into all the details, but we did take her to the vet and he suspected inflammation from stress. After all, she is a high energy dog. He too couldn’t get over the drool. We started her on pepcid before meals. It didn’t really help.
Two weeks after our vet visit, while out of town at our daughter’s graduation, Gracie couldn’t keep any food or water down and we were worried. We got her in to see the vet that very afternoon upon our return home. IV fluids, anti-nausea meds and anti-vomiting meds kept her stable. X-rays on Monday and Tuesday revealed that her stomach was full of fluids and gas. It took us 3 days to find the blockage when we finally had an ultrasound. There was an obstruction in her intestines. It was good to have an answer. Surgery would solve the problem.
The Danger of Corn Cobs
Gracie came to us last August. Under our watch she had never eaten corn. Somehow she managed to swallow a segment of corn cob that had harbored in her stomach all these months. Apparently, the corn cob moved from her stomach into her intestines where it finally lodged and couldn’t move any further. This coincided with her drooling and vomiting. Surgery revealed that the corn cob had in fact moved 10 feet along her intestines, leaving an inflamed and bruised trail. Corn cobs are indigestible. Poor Gracie! The piece Gracie had swallowed measured about 1.3 inches cubed.
Never ever never never never ever feed corn cobs to a dog.
By the way, Gracie is home and healing nicely. The vet bill was very expensive. We’re looking into Pet Insurance and let you know what we find out. Having insurance on Gracie would have paid for most of the bill.
Wow. Bless your heart, Gracie. Thank you for the story.
Don’t most animals on petfinder.com from private rescue shelters, in which case most of them have been neutered?
Gracie was in a foster care situation and her health was not good enough during her time in foster care to go ahead with the spay. Since we wanted her, the vet suggested that we put it off for a couple of weeks and schedule her spay for later. What seemed to appear as “heat” the day we got her was probably an attempt at miscarriage, looking back. We were doing so many good things for her health that she was able to get through that… but not enough to save her. We see now that if she did not go ahead with the spay her life would have been in danger.