Lamby's page

Lamby (pronounced Lammy) was a underweight, sad-looking stray taken to the New York City shelter February 2010 in horrible health. She had an awful case of demodectic mange, a non-contagious skin condition caused by common microscopic mites that  produce disease and infection in dogs with weakened immune systems.   So much of Lamby's coat was missing, we were not even sure what color she would turn out to be...... brindle with white?  black and white?  tri-color?  

Hair was gone from well over two-thirds of her body, in its stead painful, scabbed, bleeding skin.  Infection had reached all parts of her body, from her ears and eyes to her paw pads.  Lamby also had classic symptoms of a zinc deficiency, caused by her body's inability to absorb enough of the mineral at the cellular level.  How anyone could ever let a dog reach this condition is beyond our comprehension, but Lamby is the sweetest "lamb" ever: even in her pain and discomfort, her tail was always wagging. 

Naturally, we were delighted to find out that Lamby's prognosis was very good and indeed it has been.  We will continue to update the site with pictures of her recovery.  We anticipate her being spayed in late July or early August, after which she will be ready to go to a new forever home.
 
If you'd like to help Lamby, you can donate to us via Paypal (even the smallest donations are greatly appreciated) or by sending money directly to her veterinarian (email us for info).

Lamby's shelter intake photo.  It's hard to tell from this photo, but she has almost no hair...all the light spots are raw skin.   She weighed only 29 pounds, even though she is an adult bull terrier.  She is on the small side, but we think her growth may have been stunted by a zinc deficiency. 

Her paws don't even look canine....they're so scaley and bird-like, with lots of open sores, including on her paw pads and in between her toes. (Large pic, may take a few seconds to load)

This is Lamby's left side in February for comparison to the photo at right.  Look how much smaller the hairless patches are in the more current photo.

Here's her back, where you can really see the improvement!  Her legs are still a mess, though; it may take months before they start sprouting hair.   

 

Happy Lamby, early April. Compare her face and what you can see of her body to earlier pictures and you will notice more improvement! Lots of hair growth, slow but steady.

Look at all that nice new dark hair on her back and side. (April 2010)

 

July 2010:  46 pounds, and the vet says she's a chubby little thing and would like her to lose a couple of pounds. <grin>  That's a problem we think we can live with!  Click to enlarge.  She looks great.

Here she is at her foster home after spending a snowbound week at the shelter.  You can see how large the hairless patches are, but she had already shown improvement.  With regular meals and healthy treats, she is gaining weight.  You can get a sense from the picture how runt-y she is and that her paws are splayed and oversized (possibly due to the zinc issues).  Large pic, may take a few seconds to load)

And here you can see the painful oozing wounds and hair loss on this portion of her back. Larger pic will take a while to load.  The shine on her hair is a soothing coat spray to help promote healing.

 

This is Lamby in the beginning of March.  You can see how she got her name:  she looks very "ovine," don't you think?  Although she's still in poor shape, the sores on her side aren't bleeding anymore.  And some hair is starting to grow back on her face.  Her nose still is scab-ridden, but not nearly as bad as it used to be.

Here's her right side, which is worse than the left but healing nonetheless.  The sores aren't bleeding anymore and she's off the painkillers.  This pensive pose belies the report from her foster home that she is full of "piss and vinegar!"  She is learning to stand at the door when she wants to go out, and has barked for the first time!

Another early April photo.  Her nails before were gnarly and her feet scaly and almost hairless. Hair is starting to come in, and the zinc supplements are normalizing the nail growth. Look at the difference between this photo and the paw picture above!

July 2010:  Just a few tiny little patches left where hair still has to grow in!  We remember when she first came into rescue, we didn't even know what color she was, she had so little of her coat.