Luke and I are back at fostering through Secondhand Hounds, and this time we get to hang out with a 4-5 year old lab-ish mix named Reuger (pronounced Roo-ger) until he finds his forever home!

After Chance and Andy we took some time to hang with our number 1 (Ms. Stella) and travel for the holidays, with the plan to get back at it after the new y ear.  As Luke can confirm, I was looking at dogs available to foster daily finding the right one who needed our help, when I came across this photo with the caption:

Reuger has severe demodex mange (non contagious), a secondary bacterial skin and eye infection along with full body hair loss.  He has ulcers all over his body and swollen feet.  His nails were so long they were grown into the pads of his feet

I mean if that Sarah McLaughlin song doesn’t start playing in your head as you look at this you have no soul!

We committed to fostering Reuger at the end of December and he arrived from somewhere down south on Saturday the 21st of January.  He was moving pretty slowly and looked like it hurt him to walk, so we took him to the vet.  Turns out he no longer has mange, but still has the secondary bacterial infection all over his body plus a yeast infection (this is Yeast Dermatitis, another infection of the skin) plus an infection in both ears.  He is also anemic and underweight 😦  Long story short this poor guy has a lot going on (and unfortunately the yeast infection gives him a VERY pungent odor)!

Reuger at our vet appointment, you can see the hair loss

clearly ready to leave!

Good news is that this is all treatable with 30 days of prescriptions, and he is already feeling better! (that was until we took him to get neutered today, sorry bud!)

He is great to have around – very chill, loves to be by his humans, and is already potty trained!  Plus after a week of daddy daycare (I traveled the first week we got him) Luke taught him to sit and lay down!

He is a bit of a creeper though, he somehow finds his way from the way back of my SUV next to my face every time we get in the car!

Just creepin!  (ignore the eye goop, this was right after he was neutered and it was from when they put him under)

I look forward to showing some improvement photos as the month progresses and to get this guy lookin’ fly to meet his forever family!

P.S. I got another pup-date from Chance’s parents – THAT SMILE THOUGH!  She said he is still as happy and snuggly as can be, and has started to do this “smile” regularly (heart = melting)!