My sister's dog doesn't seem to be very healthy. I was out visiting the other day for the first time in a while and I couldn't help but think the dog was sick or at least, not very healthy.
For starters, I'm almost positive the dog is stuck in a crate for most of the day/night. Jade is a lab/border collie mix, and has a TON of energy. I tell my sister constantly she needs more exercise, but she denies the fact that the dog is locked up a lot. When I came over the dog was bouncing around in her crate, and once let out was running around very excited. This seemed to annoy my sister and the dog was once again banished to the crate.
One of the first things I noticed about the dog, however, was that her entire underside has no fur. At all. Her belly, and inner legs. That seemed a little odd, so I asked her if she had taken the dog to see a vet. (Last I spoke to her, she told me the dog smelled really bad and they were going to take her in) Apparently she has not taken the dog, and claimed Jade never had fur on her belly :confused: Funny, she wasn't like that the last time I saw her? I checked the dogs ears too. There was something wrong with them too. It didn't really seem "infected" as they weren't red and inflamed...but the entire ear had something blackish or gunky on it. Don't think it's anything I've ever seen on a dog. It looked pretty bad to me though...Certainly wasn't the normal pinky/clean color. She told me the dogs ears were also always like this :confused:
The dog also seems skinny to me. I know border collies are skinny normally, but she just seems like she could have more weight on her. She claims to feed the dog 1 cup and a half 3 times a day...but with the dog getting no exercise I can't see how it's not putting on weight?
I took these pictures of her last year sometime...
http://tainted-sky.net/jade/n703800183_1133079_404.jpg
http://tainted-sky.net/jade/n703800183_1133081_742.jpg
She seems a little skinnier now then here. Also, maybe I'm just crazy but I could swear there is fur on her belly/legs.
My friend was telling me it could be Mange. What do you guys think? I called my sister and told her this anyway and told her it's contagious so she should get the dog to the vet before it spreads to her cats (not sure if this is even accurate but she seems to love the cats so I hope this will get the dog some vet care...)
I'm probably making it out to be worse then it is. My sister isn't a bad person. I'm just pretty annoyed at her at the moment after seeing the dog so I might be making her out to seem worse then she is...however, I just don't see the excuse to let something like that go so long. Poor dog. I even was going to set up a home for the dog with someone I used to go to flyball with, but my sister insists she loves the dog, and the kids would be so sad if she was gone. Funny way of showing it?
