Dog Ranch Rescue

Rex

Adopted!
New Name:
Age: Puppy
Sex: Male
Breed: French Bulldog
Weight:
Current Location:
Adoption Date:
Adopted by: Jessica Kozloski
Latest Update:

This is going to be a very long good night post, a very long adoption post.
Today we are just 4 days shy of Rex being with our rescue for one year. Hands down the longest foster we have ever had, he came in Jan 3rd of 2023 with his brother Rocky, both filled with Giardia, diarrhea, and Rex had prolapsed his rectum with his previous owners a couple of times already. They had had it with both of them and surrendered them and walked away.
The medical nightmare that he is began right away, chronic diarrhea, prolapses and Giardia that seemed to never respond to treatment. Months and months of care, specialists, surgery, scoping, biopsies. Rex was taken to stay with Millie who meticulously cared for him, treated, him and loved him. He was diagnosed with a Boxer colitis which is a form of IBD and worked so hard to get him as healthy as could be, we would take two steps forward and one step back, with bloody diarrhea, and the constant fight to conquer Giardia.
Over the last couple of months we finally seemed to get him to a place that we felt was going to be as good as it gets, he will periodically have a couple drops of blood, but we are dialed into his flare up and what meds he needs to get him over the hump.
The question was who would ever adopt this dog, this will be lifelong issue with Rex and would need someone willing to tackle this task.
Enter Jessica Kozloski from Fenton Missouri, and guess what ? she adopted Rocky Rex’s brother months and months ago. She had always kept an eye on what was happening with Rex, would we ever get him healthy? and she wondered if she might be able to rejoin these brothers again together someday. She reached out a few months ago as we felt we were headed down the right path with Rex and said she would like to commit to him. We had a couple more issues with him but this past few weeks we felt he was ready.
The drive was hard for her, the holidays were problematic for her, but Ricky stepped up and said he would drive this boy to his new long awaited forever home to go live with his brother. The next obstacle arrived when Ricky went down with this horrible flu/covid that is striking all of us around here. Jessica was so disappointed, she wondered if we perhaps had someone that could meet her halfway, we didn’t …as the ranch is packed and we are already short handed. I asked Millie to ask for help on the volunteer page and see if we might have a volunteer able to help and guess who raised their hand?
That would be Terrie Barnes, because both of these people are amazeballs. Terrie drove to Millie’s house early this morning and picked up Rex to head out on the road. I’m sure that all of you can imagine how hard this adoption is for Millie, to have a foster this long, to care for them when they are so ill, to nurse them back to health he feels like one of her own dogs at this point. This was a very hard goodbye.
Off Terrie went to meet Jessica, Rocky came along and of course these boys remembered each other and initiated play pretty quickly.
I don’t think a story could come more full circle than this one only 361 days later, sometimes we just cannot believe how things turn out, it feels like destiny and divine intervention sometimes. We just do our work and put it out in the universe and let the chips fall where they may. This time the chips feel in a pretty mazing way.
We thank Millie for her dedication, it cannot be understated she was the hero for Rex, and I know this was hard for her but she is a top notch professional foster and knows that by saying goodby to Rex she opens the door to help future dogs just like him. We thank Terrie for stepping up and making this adoption happen, and we thank Jessica for hanging in the wings for Rex when he went through hell and back.
We are pretty happy about this story and we hope you will enjoy it as well, happy life boys may you enjoy each other for the rest of your lives.
Good night everyone

 

About Rex:
FEB 2023———————-
Rex has so far been a challenge for us to try and get a handle on his bloody diarrhea, he lost his home because of it, and so far it’s been two steps forward and one step back for us too. All medication has been given, several times. We put him on a raw diet and everything firmed up and he did well, and then he didn’t. We are now using prescription food and we will plug away at that seeing if we can rectify the problem. We don’t care what it takes to make it work, we will do whatever it takes to get him to healthy normal.
April 2023——————
We finally got the biopsy report back on Rex, I will include the report or those of you that like to read it all, I love reading medical reports so I can try to absorb it all and I’m sure there are many others like me.
Turns out Rex has a very specific kind of colitis called hystiocytic colitis commonly referred to as “Boxer colitis” but Frenchies get it too.
He will be started on the new medication today and we then hope and wait…
May 2023————————
Here’s Millie with a Rex update…
We continue to try and resolve his diarrhea issues … but in the mean time he really is a very happy, sweet boy and does not appear to be in any pain or discomfort.
He weighed in today at 26.2 lbs so he has gained a little since his scope. He takes his medicine like a champ and has a great appetite.
Rex is now sleeping through the night in his crate/pen area with no diarrhea incidents. He really loves to be covered up and loved on before going to sleep. Rex goes to bed about 8:45 pm and gets up about 5 am and goes right out and does his business. He loves to roll in the morning and has started doing zoomies after he poops.
This guy is a great little walker and checks everything out. He needs to build his muscles back up so the walking helps. He also really loves chasing the ball when you throw it. He’s fast and sometimes (hard to catch in video) he actually flies through the air to get it!
June 2023———————-
I hope everyone hasn’t forgotten about Rex. We have been caring for him for 6 months, he just tuned a year old and this boy has been through hell. I cannot even guess how many times we have treated him for Giardia, probably close to 10. We just recently got a negative fecal for him but we will get again in a couple of weeks. He does have a condition and type of IBS and that isn’t going to go away, we now have medicine to treat him for it when it flares and Millie reports that he has solid healthy stools the majority of time. Rex will need an adopter who understands this and knows how to take care of it when it happens.
If we get a negative Giardia test in a couple of weeks we will be actively seeking an adoptive home for him, he has waited a very long time and we hope we can find the right person for him.
Millie:
“Rex just checking in….
He loves playing with Pill Bug. The chase is on!
He’s up to almost 30 lbs, Rex is the bigger Frenchie in the video running and playing with little Pill Bug…
He’s building muscle and getting stronger everyday.
July 2023——————————–
Such a long haul with Rex, but I certainly don’t want anyone to forget about him. Rex is in this pic with the tiny Pill bug at foster mom Millies house.
Rex came to us in January with his brother who has long since been adopted. Giardia, proposing, straining, bloody stool, diarrhea, that is what plagues him.
We have worked tirelessly for months and months and months to try and get him healthy, let me say Rex came to us at 7 months old and is barely over a year old now. He has had two GI scopes, is diagnosed with colitis, IBS, bacteria in the tissues in his intestines, this second scope has him on a new path with many, many medications that Millie is now giving him daily and we have our fingers crossed that we can solve his issues once and for all.
Rex will always be special needs, he will always be a dog that requires an adopter that is willing to stay the course with him for all of his needs and we are sure the person is out there somewhere.
He isn’t ready yet, I just want to keep everyone up to date on the work at hand with him so he isn’t forgotten about..

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