Oakley #5 Fox Red Labrador Retriever Female 2 Years Old ID #3134

July 17, 2022

Oakley has been matched to a new family

July 4, 2022

Oakley has impressed all of us with how well she’s recovering from her ovarian remnant surgery.  She still is on leash restrictions and has to wear the cone when not directly supervised, but she’s a good sport about both.  Her incision is healing well.  She’s handling the antibiotics without issue and I’ve been able to cut back on her pain meds.  Yay!

She’s really starting to show her personality with the two resident dogs.  While Pepper is disappointed that Oakley cannot run with her again, Colin has taken the opportunity to try to teach Oakley “bitey face” play.  She’s not great at it, but she’s trying!  Check out the video!

Oakley is still on a diet while we try to get her weight down.  She’s scheduled to have her sutures removed on 7/11, so she’ll get weighed then too.  She’s a good girl about only getting half of her food and she was not a fan of green beans.  She was spitting them on the floor next to her bowl. No more green beans for Oakley.  She also didn’t like the carrots that I often give as treats to the dogs.  She said she didn’t get chunky on carrots and green beans😉!

June 30, 2022

I just wanted to give a quick update to let everyone know that Oakley had her ovarian remnant surgery today and she is back in foster care recovering.  The surgery went well and the vet was able to remove what she believes was the remnant.  It is being sent off to the lab for confirmation.

Oakley is still pretty sedated, but she’s happy to be back in her foster home.  She is currently snoozing away dreaming of her dinner, I’m sure.  She wasn’t allowed to have breakfast as she had to fast for surgery.  Never fun for a lab!

We have some pain meds and antibiotics for her to go along with her dinner later tonight.  We’re all hopeful for a quiet and uneventful night.  The recovery time from surgery should be about 2 weeks since it was all soft tissue.

Thank you to everyone for keeping Oakley in your thoughts and sending mojo.  Both she and her surgeon greatly appreciate it!

Please enjoy a photo of Oakley enjoying a dip in the local stream the other day.  Since I knew she was having surgery again, we wanted to give her a chance to play in the stream before she was on restrictions.  Oh, and Oakley wanted me to tell everyone that she lost 3lbs since being in foster care.  She’s still got a way to go, but it’s a start!

June 21, 2022

Oakley went to the vet on Friday to have her progesterone tested.  The plan was to run it for two consecutive weeks to see what was going on with her body hormonally.  Well, after the first test showed her to have sky high progesterone levels, it was clear this girl was recently in heat.  No need to run another test in a week.  This confirmed the theory that she has an ovarian remnant.  Not ideal, but at least we have an answer now.

After discussing with the vet, it was decided that Oakley will have an ovarian remnant removal surgery on 6/29. Since she is a large girl, it won’t be an easy surgery for her or the vet.  We have been through this same surgery with another foster a few years ago with the same surgeon. It was completely successful for her.  We are all hopeful that Oakley will have the same positive results.

Oakley continues to do very well in foster care.  She is all healed up from her vaginal prolapse surgery.  No more leash restrictions and no more cone, yay!  Well, until the next surgery.  One thing at a time though.

Oakley loves to be loved.  She still thinks she’s a lap dog and lumbers her large frame up onto the couch to sit with (on?!) me.  She is very compliant though and if she squishes me, I just have her move over some.  She enjoys chewing antlers and bones here with the other dogs.  No more issues with any of them.  I think part of her issue was stress and hormones.  She has learned we have plenty for all the doggies and we share here.  Good girl Oakley.

She enjoys her walks and is a little too interested in the squirrels that cross our paths.  Nothing terrible, but I see a little prey drive in her.  Oakley has happily met and greeted some neighbors when out for walks.  She loves everyone!  She will alert bark if someone approaches the yard or house.  Of course, so do the other dogs.  There is no sneaking up on this house with 4 alert barking labs here!

Send some positive mojo for Oakley and her surgeon.  It’s going to be a long and difficult surgery, but a necessary one at that.

Here is a video of Oakley finally getting to run around and play with resident lab Pepper.

June 16, 2022

Oakley has been here in foster care for 8 days now.  She continues to do well acclimating to her foster home. We welcomed a Brookline alum, Vince, to the pack here for the week.  His former foster, now furever mom had to travel for work this week, so Vince came to hang out with Pepper, Colin and Oakley.  Pepper and Colin have been able to relax as Oakley and Vince have taken over following me everywhere in the house.  Even when I go to the bathroom, I open the door to the two of them looking at me like, whew, you’re still alive!😂

We got Oakley’s hormone test results back.  Unfortunately, that came back as inconclusive.  That does not give us any more direction to figure out what was causing the prolapse.  After discussing with the primary vet, we are going to track her progesterone levels for the next two weeks.  We are hopeful that will give us a clearer picture and tell us if her body went through another heat cycle even though she was spayed in November.  It is a process, but we’re working on it.

The good news is Oakley has no more discharge as of today.  No more fancy pants, which makes all of us happy.  She also now happily eats all of her food with or without a friend (aka me) nearby.  Now I see that labby appetite!

Oakley is a dream in the crate.  She goes right in willingly.  She even waits patiently for the comfy cone to be put on.  Only a few more days of the cone left too.  Yay!  She sleeps quietly all night in the crate.  If I have to go out during the day, she goes into the crate too.  Good girl Oakley!

Today Brookline foster Luna came to the house.  She will be here for 10 days while her foster family is away.  Oakley was very excited to have a new friend, but she’s still on leash restrictions for a few more days.  I promised her that soon enough, she will get to run around the yard and play.  She is only 2 years old and her youthful energy shows itself periodically.  Of course, she’s still rather overweight, so she doesn’t have much stamina.  But we’ve been taking short walks in the neighborhood to help with that.  She starts out trotting, but by the end moves to plodding.  Ahhh, Oakley!

June 11, 2022

Oakley continues to do well here in foster care.  She still doesn’t love the “fancy pants”, but who can blame her? I keep telling her it’s temporary.  We have an appointment for her with a primary vet in 2 weeks.  She will need to be brought UTD on the rest of her vaccinations and be heartworm and tick disease tested.  The surgeon did not recommend doing any of this until she healed from the surgery as it was a major stressor on her body.  So, she’s just hanging out in foster care here resting and recovering for now.  We should have the test results back by the vet appointment which will hopefully give us a path forward to figuring out Oakley’s continued prolapse and probable heat cycles post spay.

Oakley is getting along with resident labs, Pepper and Colin very well.  She did have a moment where she got testy over an antler.  We have about 100 of them around here, plenty for all the dogs.  I corrected Oakley with a firm voice and she kind of pouted.  She is learning and we have had no more issues since.

She was only eating about half her meals for the first day or so, but she’s cleaning the bowl now.  Good girl Oakley!  She does prefer to have a human friend nearby when she eats.  I feed her first separated from the resident dogs, as I do with all my foster dogs.  Then I go and feed the resident dogs.  As soon as I step out to go feed the resident dogs, Oakley is more interested in what I’m doing than her food.  So, once I put the food down for Pepper and Colin, I go back and hang out with Oakley until she finishes her food.  It doesn’t take long; she is a lab after all!

She’s doing fantastic in the crate at night and when I have to leave.  She has to wear the dreaded cone when not directly supervised, but she’s a good sport about getting it on.  She just relaxes in her crate while I’m gone.  I have been checking in on her with the camera.  She also sleeps at night in the crate without issue.  Foster dad is back upstairs in bed and Oakley is content snoozing away in her crate downstairs.

All is well here and Oakley wanted to thank everyone who donated to help cover the costs of her surgery.  She is so much more comfortable now!  Thank you for helping us to help Oakley!

June 10, 2022

Oakley had a good first night in foster care.  She lived in a house when she was a puppy, but spent her adult life living outside with her previous family.  She has acclimated to our home very well.  She even lumbered her 99lbs up and onto the couch today to snuggle.

That’s right, this big girl is 99lbs, she needs to lose some weight which shouldn’t be a problem.  Right now, she is on leash restrictions only as she’s healing from her surgery. She doesn’t seem to mind as she prefers to be near her people anyway.  She follows me around the house settling when I settle and moving when I move. The only place she’s not following me is upstairs.  She’s only put her two huge front paws on the first step and then decided nope, no stairs for her.  Which is fine for now, as she’s still on restrictions.  Once she’s healed, we’ll work on the scares, I mean stairs! 😉

She is quite the snorer.  Foster dad slept downstairs with her last night and she made beautiful music all night long! 😴 I told him it was payback for the years of snoring I endured next to him!  Either way, it was good to see her so relaxed and snoozing away.  Her body needs rest to recover and heal. She didn’t even mind the cone she had to wear in the crate overnight.  She’s a good sport.

Oakley is better about getting her “fancy pants” on too.  Yesterday she was just plopping herself down when I would try to get the fancy pants back on her after a potty break outside.  Maneuvering her mass was not the easiest. She likes treats though so I’ve been using a small treat as a reward for standing while she gets the fancy pants back on.  So far so good there!

She was a little constipated after her surgery, but today with the help of some pumpkin, she had a large bowel movement.  We all felt better after that, especially Oakley!

Stay tuned as we learn more about Oakley and get her healed up and healthy again.

June 8, 2022

Meet Oakley, a 2-year-old female fox red lab. She came into rescue as an emergency case yesterday. She had a severe vaginal prolapse and needed emergency surgery with a specialist. She has been having this issue for a while and even with the corrective spay surgery in November, it came back.

She needed an expensive surgery ASAP. The surgeon was very optimistic that with corrective surgery, she could live a happy life without prolapse. She had that surgery yesterday. She spent the night in the hospital and did very well.

She was released this afternoon to her foster family. She is now in foster care with foster mom, foster dad and her two lab foster fur siblings, Pepper and Colin. The meeting with the dogs went well and everyone is getting along.  Good labs!

She is having some discharge so she’s sporting “fancy pants”.  She’s barely fitting in the size XL.  She’s as big as she is sweet! I love her speckled tongue too! 😛

We are waiting for some test results for Oakley as it is highly unusual for this prolapse to keep happening after she was spayed in November. The running theory is that she has an ovarian remnant. We have fostered another dog with this issue, my former foster Katie. So, we are quite versed on the process and the vets that can do the surgery. One thing at a time.  Right now, we wait for the test results, we get her acclimated to her foster home and healed up from her surgery.

Stay tuned for updates about sweet Oakley. She was a vet staff favorite as she’s so sweet, giving kisses and tail wags even through all the pain and discomfort. Such a testament to the lab temperament!