CARINA NEEDS YOUR HELP!

March 22, 2010

PLEASE HELP US HELP CARINA!

We just rescued Carina from the Carson Shelter. As you can see by this picture she is in deplorable condition. We named her Carina, which means, Little Love or Beloved one, as she is now truly loved by her Pugs 'N Pals family. Carina was list at the shelter as a 5 yr. old Pug, she ended up being only 6 months old! How can a human being allow this to happen is beyond our comprehension. These pictures don't truly show the horrible condition she is in (see slide presentation at http://www.photoshow.com/watch/HQ6Mk3Pr

She almost looks like a burn victim. She has severe demodex mange. Her body is covered with bloody sores that are cracking and blood and pus oozing out of every part of her body. The smell emanating from her is truly nauseating. He Left eye has an ulcer and the infection from the mange got in there, so there is a possibility that she may lose that eye, probably limited sight in the other eye. The left side of her face is paralyzed and has ruptured ear drums in both ears. She is anemic, septic and so far we took out about 30 ticks and she is loaded with fleas. No dog should endure this pain at any age for any reason, but to have a defenseless 6 month old only know pain and neglect in her short life is something we can't grasp and we suffer with her.

She is now in critical condition and fighting for her life. We are doing everything humanly possible to pull her through. She is on a lot of medicines, daily medicated baths and pain medicine as she can hardly move her body due to the crust, pus and skin just breaking at every move. Through it all she tries to wag her tail and gives us kisses of thanks.

She needs around the clock care, with eye meds every 2 hrs., special baths to help her skin and we work around the clock to slowly remove the crust embedded in her skin, very painful to her. We will do what it takes to help her, but we need your help. Her care will be very costly. We survive by donations only and we are limited in funds. PLEASE give a donation to the Carina Fund, we appreciate any amount. We ask that you pass this information to any one you know that can help with a donation. Your donation is tax deductible as we are a 501c3 non profit organization. You can send a check to: Pugs 'N Pals, c/o Carina's Fund, P.O. Box 9343, Newport Beach, CA 92658 or via pay pal at http://www.pugdogrescue.com/ or e-mail pugdogrescue@att.net

As always we thank you so much for your support!

Tina Seri - Pugs 'N Pals

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March 25th




First THANK YOU to all of you the care and sent donations. We so appreciate it. Many of you have passed the word around and it i has helped a great deal. We are still a long ways from collecting enough money, so please continue to help and us and make people aware of Carina's story.

Carina has taken a turn for the worse, she started with an upper respiratory infection, and we are praying it won't turn into pneumonia, her immune system is shot and there is no way she would be able to fight it. She is extremely anemic and might need a blood transfusion if levels continue to go down. Transfusions are hard on the system and she might not be able to withstand it. She also has both ear drums ruptured, extremely painful. Skin culture grew 3 nasty bacterias on the them being staph, contagious to other dogs and people and very serious. The results of the fecal test, came back positive for Giardia, another nasty intestinal bug and she has mange parasites in her intestine, probably from licking her skin. We did confirm that the left side of her face is paralyzed, right now we don't know if it is temporary due to the skin infection or if it is due to head trauma. Her skin is raw and bloodied and extremely hot to the touch. Yet through it all she tries to wag her tail and gives kisses. I am trying to get her to eat, but she is not too interested. She is on a lot of meds and it might be upsetting her tummy. She is also on pain meds as I am sure she is in a lot of pain all over.

Please keep Carina in your prayers as right now it is day to day.

We thank you for your support!

Tina Seri - Pugs 'N Pals
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March 29th
Hi everyone! though the Vets tell me that clinically there is very little improvement I personally think she is doing better. The ulcer on the right eye is cleared, the left eye still has it, but it does appear that she won't lose that eye. She may not have much vision but we think we can save it. We did notice a big hernia on her belly, but we will worry about that at a later date. Her skin looks MUCH better, I would say about 40% improvement. The odor is just about gone, and we keep removing slowly all the scabs. She hates her baths as they hurt, her paws are very swollen and still have pus on it, but I think they are better. I can't hold her as she hurts too much and any movement makes the skin crack and bleed. She is much more alert, we have cut back on the pain meds. Since I can't hold her I give her kisses which she loves and I sing to her "you are my Sunshine" when she hears that she starts wagging her tail and trying to come to me and give me kisses :-)
I have started her 4 days ago with a fresh balanced cooked meal as due to the paralysis on her left side she has a hard time eating. She LOVES her cooked food and is eating much better. I feed her 4 times a day, and she has gained 8 oz in a week. Her Upper Respiratory Infection is still there and causing her a bit of discomfort, but at least it hasn't turned into bronchitis or pneumonia which was our fear.
All in all I am pleased, they are baby steps but at least they are going in the right direction. I am very optimistic. She will have a long hard journey, but she seems to want to make it. She is a real good girl and puts up with all the care very well.
Keep those prayers coming!! Thank you all for your support!

Tina Seri - Pugs 'N Pals
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May 31st
CARISA (Carina's Sister )

Hello every one! We continue to get donations and calls about our beautiful Carina. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Before giving a little bit of info. on Carina, we want to give you some new news. Yesterday we rescued Carina's sister, Carisa (see picture) from another shelter. We were alerted last week of her existence. We have been working very hard to get her out and we did. It appears that the same person dumped them both at different shelters two days a part. It is impossible to know for sure. But the coincidence are too numerous, they look a lot a like, same age, very similar issues, except luckily Carisa is not in critical condition. She just needs a lot of care. Her skin is bad, but not nearly as bad as her sister. Less ticks and fleas. Her eyes are a lot worse and she appears to be almost totally blind, she has SEVERE Pigmentation Karititis on both eyes, even that Vets were shocked as to how bad it was for her age, so most likely poor breeding and genetic, as it is uncommon to have this so bad at such a young age and they both have it. We did take her to the eye specialist to make sure we were not missing anything. That Vet too was very surprised at how bad they are. She will need Cyclosporine for life in both eyes. But due to her condition we can not administer yet, is it prevents healing and now we need to concentrate on her skin and other issues. Luckily we got her in time as to not to get like Carina. Of course this mean double the cost on these babies, so we need your help that much more now! Carisa is a bit on the wild side, not very socialized, tends to be a bit aggressive in a puppy way. She bit my cheek pretty bad yesterday, so lots of work in that dept too. These are not the only dogs in need of care, but some dogs hit people's heart more than others. We have many in-house that have on-going care. One had his second leg surgery yesterday as he came in with a severely broken leg 6 months ago where the bone was deteriorating from being broken for so long. The first surgery didn't take as well, as his bones were so brittle. With good care and good nutrition the bones got strong enough for a second surgery. The second surgery was very successful. Once this heals he will have to have back surgery. Two others had back surgery last month. Each surgery is around $4,000-$6,000. We stop at nothing to get them well, but right now we are $35,000 in debt and that was before Carina and Carisa, so your help is extremely needed.

Now regarding Carina, she is improving daily, more active, eating very well, think the home cooked meal really helped in her on-going recovery. Her skin still looks really bad and it has been over a week. Just raw! The baths are very painful to her but needed. She is truly an ANGEL, so loving so grateful for everything we do. Accepting of everything that is being done to help her. She is going for a battery of test on Friday to access her condition further. I continue to be very optimistic. Even though the Vets are still cautious about her condition, I feel it in my heart that she will make it. It will be a long journey and not an easy one, but we can do it.

Again thank you all very much and as time progresses please continue to support us. After the initial shock of these babies wears off, there is still a long way to go to make them well.
Below is a quick video of Carisa being cleaned up at the Vets




Tina Seri - Pugs 'N Pals
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April 4th

Carina and Carisa's Update

Dear friends - A little update on the girls. Carisa is doing well, not much to report on her as she didn't have all the problems and issues that Carina has. Carisa will take on going care for the mange and will take a while, maybe 6 months to get her back in shape. She is happy, eating well and enjoying playing with all the toys she can get to :-)

Carina had one of her Vet check ups on Friday. The Vets were very encouraged as to how well she is doing. They are still amazed that she is alive and improving. She is a little fighter, not giving up and nor will we. She is taking baby steps, but improving. Her eye ulcer is much better, one more week of treatment as we should have it clear. The ears are MUCH better, her ear drums are now intact, much less painful. Still some infection but under control. Her skin is much a improved, but a LONG ways away from getting the sores and infection under control. We changed antibiotics on her to see if that might help more. Her paws are very swollen and full of pus and cracks causing her much discomfort, though her skin looks terrible, and to most it might seem horrible, it is much improved. Her Upper Respiratory Infection is improving also. We still working on the anemia. She continues to gain weight. 3 more ounces in one week. She almost gained 1 lb. in 2 weeks that is great considering she wouldn't eat much when we first got her. We stopped the pain meds except on the days of her bath as it is very painful to her. She has a VERY long journey ahead of her, but barring any unforeseen problems like more infections or anything that will hit her due to her VERY suppressed immune system, the vets are pretty confident she will make it. That was the best news we could have gotten. We were all in tears, tears of joy of course. Our vets adore her and get tears in their eyes when she comes in, she kisses every one and endures painful treatments like a champ. She sleeps with two toys I bought her, a teddy bear and an elephant. At first she didn't pay attention to them as she was so sick, then she was afraid of them as I don't think she knew what a toy was. The last few days she has wanted to play with them. She has a hard time picking them up due to the facial paralysis which is still there, but she tries very hard to play with them, it is so CUTE!

I ask you to please continue praying for little Carina, she is not out of the woods, but we are extremely hopeful and we pray her body holds up to all that is to come. We again appreciate your support, financial and in any other way many of you have supported us. Please continue to pass the words about these little ones as their journey has just begone.

Tina Seri - Pugs 'N Pals

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April 7th

Carina
Carina continue to improve. Her spirits are up a great deal. Still hates her baths :-) They hurt and I can understand that. She wants to play with her toys now, but it is difficult for her having the left side of her face paralyzed. We had a bit of a set back yesterday when she developed bad diarrhea, we are working at trying to figure out what is causing it. Could be one of the antibiotics, or the mites in her belly causing havoc. We stopped the antibiotics for a day and give her powder with the good bacteria for her belly that the antibiotics kills. It is dangerous at this point to take her off the antibiotics, but we can't have her get dehydrated either. We will put her back on the antibiotics on Friday and see what happens.

She still loves her song "you are my Sunshine" and gets all happy when she hears it. Also the other good news is that I was able to hold her and cuddle with her. Can't do it for long as her body is so hot and the skin so sensitive, but it was wonderful for her and me to have that contact. She is truly an Angel. This picture was taken yesterday, you can see the improvement of her skin, though it may look bad it looks SO much better.

Thanks every one for you support. Please keep her in your prayers and continue to get people to donate.

Tina Seri- Pugs 'N Pals

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April 10th

CARINA
Carina had another follow up appt. with the Vet and once again they can't believe how well she is doing. She is such a trooper. Her eye ulcers have healed!! she still on eye drops as they are very dry. Ears are improving greatly, one ear still has a bit of an infection, but not a big deal. The skin is looking LOTS better. Her anemia is improving and so is her upper respiratory infection. She lost a bit of weight this week due to the diarrhea she has been having, but it is improving a bit, hopefully she will re-gain the weight next week.
She did start being a bit incontinent, don't know why. We sent a Urine Analysis to the lab and see what it is going on, could be a urinary track infection or the hernia she has on her belly might be causing some problems. Not much we can do about the latter for now.
Her personality is starting to come out. She is trying to play with toys, hard for her to hold them with the facial paralysis, but she manages. She acts silly and when I am cleaning her area she bites my hair and pulls it :-) So CUTE! Now that I can hold her, it is not easy as she is a wiggle worm. She is cocking her head on the above picture because I am signing "You are my Sunshine" as I am taking the picture and she LOVE her song! (what you see inside the e-collar is gauze so it doesn't hurt her sores)
As I mentioned before it is a long journey, but considering how she was a little over a 2 weeks ago, this is truly a miracle.
We thank you all for continued prayers and support!

Tina Seri - Pugs 'N Pals

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April 16th

Hello everyone, we have a busy week, as we are working Pet Expo in OC all weekend long and it took all week to set up, so been really short in time! A little update on Carisa (Carina's sister) she had a check up this week and doing well, the skin scrapping showed that all the mites are dead YEAH! She still has an infection on her head that we are dealing with and also with the skin infection, her eyes have improved with the meds. So all in all, though it will take time she is doing great and she gained a pound.

Carina had a check up today, she still has many live mites on her, she will take much longer to improve as her condition was truly horrible. Her eyes are much better and the ulcers healed. She does have dry eye and is getting daily meds for that. Her infection is under control, just will take a long time for the skin to improve. Her anemia is improving. She is still on antibiotics. Lost some weight due to her diarrhea which we are still trying to control. We changed her diet and added some nutrigest to help get the good bacteria into her belly. All in all her spirits are great, eating well, and once we get the diarrhea under control hopefully she will start gaining some weight. The left side of her face is still paralyzed. We will be taking her to a neurologist for him to evaluate what is going on. Her left ear still has an infection going on. She is a sweetie and loves to play with her toys and give tons of kisses.

Thank you all for caring and for your support!

Tina Seri - Pugs 'N Pals

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April 25th

CARINA
Hello everyone! Another update on Carina. She had another check up on Friday. She is doing very well and slowly improving. The skin scraping still show live mites! ARRGGHHHH when will they go away!! One of the ears still has an infection, but nothing major. Her eyes are improving, but we did notice that she has VERY limited vision. She has been confined due to her condition so we didn't notice it as much. At the vets we let her run around and she ran into walls a lot. Oh well the least of our worries. Her skin has a weird blue tint, as you can see by the above picture. We don't know why that is other than potential damage to her skin due to the severe infection. The other concern is that on her head and neck she has some nodules, that I thought was still scabs and noticed that they just don't go away. On closer inspection the Vet said it is severe scarring below the skin. That is where she had the worse infection and open wounds. So there is a lot of scar tissue which may limit in time how much she can turn her neck. There is a possibility that in the future we might have to do surgery to remove some of the scar tissue. It does bother her now, as when you touch her there, you can tell it hurts her. In a couple of weeks we will do a bile Acid test to see if there was any damage to the liver due to her being so septic and if she has a liver shunt. Which has been a concern of ours. All in all she is doing very well, very happy, growing some hair. You can see in this pic I put a sweatshirt on her as it was a cold day and she is pretty bald. Doesn't she look ADORABLE? :-) She is still having a bit of tummy problem an loose stools and we are working on that. She gets the best medical care and we don't skimp on anything, so please continue to support us so she can get the best of the best.
Another update in a week. Thanks every one for caring and your support!

Tina Seri - Pugs 'N Pals

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May 12th

Hi every one! Sorry for the delay. I am just going to write something very quick and give more info and pictures later. We have been hit with some very major emergencies. We got a dog with his paw detached, had to have emergency surgery to re-attach it and I am caring for him around the clock too. Then a 1 yr. old little girl came in dragging her back legs, after a Mylogram, we found the problem and she went straight to back surgery, and she too will be coming to me for recuperation. Another dog was attacked by two other dogs and he is now critical, so been dealing with all of this and trying to figure out how to pay for it all, as yesterday alone we spent $11,000 on the 3 sick dogs! ARRRGGHHHHH

Now to Carisa, she was totally clear, looks great. We will work on building her immune system for the next 2-3 months then we will have her spayed and have to enlarge the nostrils as she cant breath too well.

Carina is also doing very well, unfortunately she is still not clear of mange, still positive! Taking way too long. :-( Her hair is still growing, she will just take a long time and there might be not much more I can update you guys about as it will be a VERY slow process with her as her immune system is really shot. We did do te bile Acid test on Monday and it came back negative, so that is good news, at least no Liver Shunt!

Thank you to eveyone for caring!!

Tina Seri - Pugs 'N Pals

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June 10th

CarisaHi everyone!

Sorry for the delay in updates, we are dealing with another critical dog and it is taking all of our time. Carisa as I said in my last update is all well. Now we are building her immune system so we can spay her and enlarge her nostrils as she can't breathe very well. We don't want to do the surgery too soon or she will get her mange back. This picture was taken a few weeks ago, you can see the dramatic difference from the original pictures of the day we got her. (Carina's update coming soon as I have more to write on her)

Tina Seri - Pugss 'N Pals

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June 16th

CARINA

Hi everyone!

Miss Carina is doing well, still struggling with the mange, so far we have not gotten a negative reading, very frustrating. We have tried different meds, but it is going very slow. She should have been cleared by now. Her immune system is shot so she is healing slowly. But very happy and active girl, full of life!! A couple of weeks ago she got Giardia again, so now she is on Meds for that too! The left side of her face still paralyzed and it looks like it will stay that way. Part of her tongue is atrophy so eating and drinking is a bit difficult for her, but she still eats like a Pug! :-) In a few weeks we are going to visit the Neurologist to check her out as she seems to have some nerve pain on the left side of her body. We will also visit the opthomologist as she is getting a white spot in one of her eyes. She is very sight impaired, which we knew, but we want to make sure we are not missing anything. Her hair is growing in very nicely, she does have some spots, specially on her head that is not growing. She has many scars due to the severe infection she had. It might just stay that way, she is beautiful nonetheless.

Once again we thank you for caring and for your support. Her vet bill is really high so any continued financial support would be very much appreciated. Also thank you to those of you that sent care packages, she loves getting them and appreciates the toys and sweaters she gets, typical girl!

For those of you that sent money via check, we are sorry that we can't send thank you letters, time is short and the mailing expenses high. So please pass this on to everyone you told about Carina and let them know how much we appreciate their donation. If they need a donation receipt have them send me their e-mail address and I will send it. Thanks everyone!!!

Tina Seri - Pugs 'N Pals
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August 22nd
BEAUTIFUL CARINA!

Hi guys!
So sorry for the delay in reporting, but we've had a rash of critical dogs and we lost two of them, which is devastating to us, we just can't handle losing them. So we have been working around the clock with them.
Carina is doing GREAT!! As we expected she is going to be one that most likely have issues. Her condition was too critical and God knows how much internal/immune system problems her condition has caused, we may never know, just take it a day at a time. Her skin is looking great. There are places where her hair has not grown and may not. Specially on top of her head there are a lot of scars. Nonetheless she is a BEAUTY. We finally got a negative on the mange. We will re-check in 1 month and hope for a second negative.
We took her to the opthomologist and the neurologist. The eye Dr. said she is mostly blind on the left eye, some vision on the right. We are putting meds daily in the hopes that it will help or at the very least not have the blindness progress. Due to her tongue issue when she licks the tongue lands straight in the middle of her eye which is causing problems. The neurologist says that the paralysis on her left side is most likely trauma, a hit or a drop on her head. At the moment it is not bothering her, but it might affect her nerves in the future. The reason her tongue is sideways and not working properly is due to a deformity of the inside of her mouth, we thought it might be the paralysis, but it is not. So she will eat liquified food for life so there is no danger of chocking.
Just as we thought we got things under control, she got vaginitis and a Urinary Track infection. We treated and cleared it. A month later she got it a again. So she is being treated again. We are hoping this is not going to be an on-going thing, but it might as Pugs are very prone to UTI'S. We continue that two times a week bath sas she has very sensitive skin and we are trying to keep any infection at bay.
All in all she is happy, making up for lost time as a puppy and being one all day long. Gets into a lot of trouble, but can't get mad at her, she is not only too cute, but making up for lost time, she gets away with a lot and she knows it :-)
This picture shows you how well she is doing and how beutiful she is :-). Thank you all for caring for her so much and for all your support. We would appreciate your continued financial support, as this little girl is costing a bundle and with the others that we have in critical condition we are really hurting financially.
As I said before, her journey will be long and hope we can stay ahead of her problems and try to care of them as they show up.
Thank you again! you guys are the best!
Tina Seri - Pugs 'N Pals
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Sept. 3rd
Well Ms. Carina got her mange back. ARRGGHHH, her immune system is just shot so no big surprise. We got it just as it started again as we watch her like hawk. So she is back on antibiotics and Ivermectin and hope we can clear it soon. She also got her vaginitis back. Never ending. Which we expected, but were hoping we were wrong. She is still happy and crazy little girl that has a foot and ear lobe fettish :-)
We were asked to take in an 8 month old that has a liver shunt. This is a tricky and expensive surgery and our fund have been depleted with Carina and all the other critical dogs we've recently had. But Sunny, the little Pug will die without the surgery and no other rescue group will take her. The owners just can't afford for her care.
When we get her I will send you a picture. We hope that you guys will help once again. You have been wonderful to us and we so appreciate you. The cyntigraphy will be $385 and the surgery around $4,000.
Have a safe Labor Day weekend and once again thank you for being there for us.
Tina Seri - Pugs 'N Pals
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Oct. 6th
Carina is still battling the last bout of Mange. Can't seem to get it under control. She is back on antibitics and Mange meds. Guess he system is so shot that she can't fight things very well. She is happy and active and being a typical puppy and getting into lots of trouble :-). We will continue doing all we can to get her healthy!
Thanks every one for your support!
Tina Seri - Pugs 'N Pals

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Dec. 8th

Believe it or not we are still struggling to clear Carina of her second bought of Mange.  He immune system is so shot that it is hard for her to heal fast.  She went into heat a month ago as we couldn't spay her due to her condition. After her heat she went into a false pregnancy mode and her tits got large and swollen.  Then the hernia she came in with started strangling the intestines, so even though she was not well enough to go under anesthesia we had no choice but to spay her and fix the hernia before it did major damage. She had that surgery yesterday, Dec. 7th.  She did very well and is nor recuperating from it.  Most likely her Mange will flair up even more after surgery.  As I said at the beginning she will have a long and expensive journey.  But we are here for the long ride and will do whatever it takes to fix her.  Your support is appreciated.

Happy Holidays every one!!  We appreciate you!

Tina Seri - Pugs 'N Pals
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January 26th

Hi every one!

Carina is doing very well, but still struggling with health issues. It seems never ending .We fix one thing and another thing comes up.  The infection she came in with really did a job on her body.  As you know we had cleared her of the Mange.  A month later it came back, not bad, but there.  It has been 5 months since the last bought and she is still not cleared. We have tried different medications, but it is just her immune system being shot.  She also got several Urinary track infections in the last few months and several Virginity's issues.  At one point she became incontinent. We now got that under control.  As I say when we first got her, she will have a long journey ahead of her, and unfortunately it has been true.
On a good note, she is active and happy and a loving little baby, that doesn't let anything get her down. She has a tremendous zest for life. As any young dog she gets into a lot of trouble :-)  She rips about 2 toys a day, so I have to constantly stock on toys as she MUST have them or gets very upset.
Needless to say she has cost us a bundle and one of the reasons we are tapped out financially. So again any help you can give in a way of donations to continue helping Carina it would be much appreciated.

Thanks so much!
Tina Seri - Pugs 'N Pals
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March 12th

Carina is doing very well, we ust FINALLY cleared the second bought of mange.  We hope nothing else pops up. She goes for a month with everything find, then something comes up.  Her immune system is so shot that things just hit her.  Her sister Carisa, who is much healthier, just came down with her second bout of mange too. Never ending with these girls. Cost us a forturne.  But what cuties!

Tina Seri - Pugs 'N Pals