Reba's Recovery
Page 
Latest updates 4/4/2010
UPDATE (4/3/2010):
Today I received the sad news that after a long and VERY happy life with
her forever human, yesterday Jan had to make the painful decision to let Reba
go to The
Rainbow Bridge due to a brief but painful bout with pancreatitis. Our thoughts are with Jan during this time of
grief. We couldn't have asked for a
better home for Reba. THANK YOU, JAN!
On this page you will find information about Reba, a once sadly overweight dog, and our efforts and adventures in getting her back down to her healthy normal weight. Comments, questions and info are welcome at nancy@corgidogs.com
On Thursday July 16, 1998 my wife Nancy and I became a foster home for Reba. Reba was a two year old female Pembroke Welsh Corgi with a terrible weight problem. According to her breeder, Susan Strickland sstrickland@del.net , she should weigh about 25 pounds, however due to gross neglect of her previous owner, she weighed 70 pounds. :( :( She was a pitiful and heart wrenching sight to see. She could hardly move around, preferring to lay around as much as possible. She weighed 280 percent more than she should.
Nancy and I were challenged with managing her in that state, getting her on a SAFE diet, SAFELY exercising her and getting her back down to as close to her normal weight as possible.
This is Reba at the time we started fostering her. Yes, she is standing up.
We have noticed that this page was getting overly long. To fix that we present Reba's Recovery Page V2.0! Below the navigation bar you will find the latest updates on Reba.
Simply click on the appropriate box below for easy navigation. Enjoy!
[
History | Obese Dog
Management | Diet and Nutrition | Consequences of Obesity ]
[ Exercise | Weight
Tracking | Vet Visits | Pictures | Disclaimers
| Main | Updates ]
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Reba Updates
4/4/2010 - with a heavy heart I publish the email I received today:
Hi Nancy-
I hope this gets to
you.
I am so sorry to have
to tell you that I had to let Reba go today. Last week she suffered an attack
of what the vet diagnosed as pancreatitis. She was very sick but
managed to come out of it. After several days at the vet's, I
brought her home. She appeared to be doing well, but then she suffered
another attack.
She went up and down
for the last two days and rallied last night. I thought I would be bringing her
home today. Instead she crashed this morning, and I couldn't let her suffer any
longer. I sat with her for quite a while this morning and held her when she
left.
She was a terrific
dog, friendly to everyone, smart and sassy and funny. She always looked a
little funny, with the extra skin she never lost, but everyone who met her
loved her. She went with me everywhere, going to dog shows and corgi picnics
from
Jan Reynolds
Thus ends the story of Reba's rehabilitation. She got her Happily Ever After that she deserved. A very long, happy, and healthy life with a Mom who adored her to the end. Godspeed, Reba! You were an amazing dog with an amazing story. Thank you so much for letting us be part of your journey.
11/2/99 - First of all, Reba is alive and well and living her much deserved storybook "happily ever after". Sorry to make many of you worry about her health. In March 1999 we were able to place Reba with a permanent owner (corgi@tds.net). She is living on 13 lovely wooded acres in central Maine with the most perfect doggy 'parent' we could have ever wished for. She has maintained an ideal weight of 30 pounds for many months. Quite a bit of her extra weight is loose skin which unfortunately has not tightened up as anticipated. She is extremely happy and healthy. A few months after her adoption she was given a 'baby brother' to play with. Her baby brother is now a seven month old (Nov. '99) male Pembroke Welsh Corgi named Owain. Owain and Reba are best of friends. Having each other to play with is certainly helping Reba keep fit and trim. We will have some new pictures up soon. Until then, you can see her on the following links:
http://savoiefaire.com/savoiefaire24.htm - The official Corgi-L Calendar winners
http://38.168.214.174/flufftopia/toc.htm - The Flufftopia saga (Her picture is in chapter 6)
2/2/99 - News Flash!! We have *finally* placed the most recent set of Reba pictures on the site! Check out the pictures link for the latest. In other news Reba is down to a svelte :) 37 pounds!
1/20/99 - Whew! The holidays are well past and it's high time for an update!
Reba broke 40 pounds on 1/1/99! Horray again for her! She
continues to do well. She's as active as ever, probably more so and is
busy trying to be the alpha dog. She has lost so much weight now she has
a fair bit of excess skin which we hope will firm up in time. Since Reba
is now below 40 pounds we are starting to reintroduce her to regular
food. We think that her dieting should now be done at a more gradual
pace. We don't want her body to try and start drawing on muscles well as
fat for energy as her fat reserves deplete. New pics soon! We
promise! Our scanner died and we had to obtain a new one. Check the
'More Info' tab above for information such at all of
Special Note: Reba's breeder has
another Pembroke Welsh Corgi looking for a good home. Reba's Uncle,
Paddywhack, is a delightful 6 year old finished Champion who is ready to retire
from breeding and settle down with a nice family. Located in
12/3/98 - Hello all. Sorry about the long lapse in updates. George is going through a bad time at work (His new manager at work is doing everything he can to get him fired. :( :( George is looking for other employment because if this.) But we digress... Reba continues to do very well. Her weight as of 12/3/98 is 44 pounds! Thus far she has lost 26 pounds to date. Her shape is more like a corgi and less like a pillow. Her hips and shoulders are visible now. Rebas big breakthrough in the past few weeks has been getting up on the sofa under her own power. And since we do not have our bed up on a frame she can get up there too if she's motivated enough. No place is safe from her now. :)
10/22/98 - Reba's down to 51.5 pounds today. Several weeks ago we instituted a walking program in the evenings for her (and us) and it is showing on Reba. The first several walks left Reba really exhausted and flagging with several breaks needed. Now she is doing much better for it. The walk is about 1/2 hour long around our hilly neighborhood. Reba also enjoys playing fetch with her stuffed cow, and usually has 2 or 3 sessions a day of about 10 throws down the hallway. Reba is back in her at night and when we aren't home as she has taken to chewing on non-doggy permitted 'toys' when we are away. Reba's health continues to be good. And her activity level is certainly better than ever.
9/15/98 - We have the photos back. Now, to get them scanned in, cropped and posted... Oh for a digital camera! That would make the whole process of getting pictures posted so much easier! But I digress... Pictures should be up in a day or two. Reba is still doing fine. We are now experimenting with leaving Reba out of her pen during the day and evening with our own Corgis Casey and Pepper. If Reba behaves we will keep this up. The big benefit here of course is an increased activity level not being penned will grant her, and therefore burn some more calories and helping maintain muscle tone.
8/27/98 - Reba broke the 60 pound barrier this week!! Hooray Reba! She is now at 58.5 pounds. As Reba loses her weight she has become more and more active. It is quite heartening to see her run around (albeit quite chubbily) and hop up and down as best she can. She still has a long way to go but her improvement is quite noticeable. We have adjusted her intake of r/d to 1 1/2 cans per day per a Hills r/d chart we now have. She's getting along much better in the "pack", being obedient to the humans, and better with our dogs. Casey and she even play at times! What a delightful, happy, smart girl she is. Even if she does knock over all our trash cans...
8/17/98 - Reba continues to do well with her weight loss. We have her on Hill's r/d only with a vitamin supplement. Now that she is well over her suspected bout with Cystitis her appetite is quite healthy and will try to eat anything presented to her (except celery :) ). Her weight continues to drop and her appearance is changing. Her hips and shoulders are now showing as she is loosing the bulk of her weight from her sides. We will take photos on this upcoming Thursdays weighing. Click on Weight Tracking below for the latest losses.
8/1/98 - We have had Reba for over two weeks now. She continues to do well and is much more adjusted to her new foster family. She has had her third weigh in. See the Weight Tracking section for an update and results. Also the results of Reba's bloodwork are in. All tests were normal, she does not have a thyroid problem.
Comments, questions, and info are welcome at:
Webmaster: George M. Stephens, geos@corgidogs.com