Foster: On the road to recovery

Unfortunately, Foster has taken "sad puppy dog eyes" to a whole new level in the past 2 weeks.

Foster is a 10 month old black lab mix who fell ill about 10 days ago. He had been in foster care for a couple of weeks, but the source of his problems probably precedes his arrival in foster care. Foster developed a growth on his neck and spiked fevers up to 105 degrees. He began to collect a large volume of fluid in his neck, the affected swollen area started to extend up onto his head.

The road to a diagnosis and treatment has been a long one. Foster spent several days hospitalized at one of our partner vets. He had exploratory surgery to try and determine the source of the infection. Our vet ultimately suggested that we seek a 2nd opinion at the University of Minnesota vet school. Foster spent last weekend at the University of Minnesota ICU where he received 24-7 monitoring and was put on 3 different IV antibiotics.

We are relieved and delighted that Foster was released back to the care of his doting foster family on Tuesday evening. His fever and swelling are under control at the moment. The veterinarians believe that Foster's injury was the result of some kind of foreign body (stick, etc.) becoming lodged in his neck at some point in his past. It is possible that there is still some residual foreign matter in his neck that will require additional surgery in the future. We prefer to maintain an optimistic outlook and hope that the worst is behind us for this sweet boy!

Foster's vet bills, thus far, total into the thousands of dollars. We rely on the generosity of donors to help off-set the cost of high medical needs dogs like Foster. There are two ways to help:
1) Visit our website and make a donation.
2) Mark your calendar to stop by the Twice the Gift shop between November 21 and December 31 to purchase Pet Haven gift cards to give as holiday gifts. All proceeds go directly to Pet Haven and will provide food, veterinary care, and spay/neuter services to homeless dogs (and cats) like Foster.

Foster (when he was feeling better) on the day he arrived in Pet Haven foster care.