The Schwarzman Animal Medical Center’s weekly blogposts are a snapshot in time of what is happening on East 62^nd Street. Because they are just a snapshot, they are often incomplete stories of patients with health challenges that help to educate, alert or update the pet owning public. For a different approach this week, I am going to follow up on three patients highlighted in previous blogposts to close the loop and let you know the outcome of their stay at AMC.

Shelby’s Total Hip Replacement

This blond cutie was highlighted in the feature photo for a blogpost on finding the right dog for your family during the pandemic. A rescue pup from Last Hope Animal Rescue in Long Island, Shelby needed a total hip replacement to correct a prior hip injury before she could be adopted. AMC performed this surgery thanks to the AMC to the Rescue fund, one of AMC’s community funds that subsidizes specialty care for rescue animals whose health is an obstacle to their adoption. Since leaving AMC, Shelby was quickly adopted into a loving family, including a 12-year-old boy, a 16-year-old girl and a dog sibling too! She has been featured in a news article and loves to hang out at the dock. In case you had any doubt about how well her new hip is functioning, watch this video of her playing in the snow after the recent blizzard hit the eastern seaboard.

Parvovirus Puppy Finds a Forever Home

A blogpost post in February of 2021 asked the question “Is There a Parvovirus Epidemic in New York City?” That apparent parvovirus epidemic continued throughout much of 2021. I reviewed ten cases of canine parvovirus hospitalized in AMC’s isolation ward between June and October of 2021. Most of these dogs spent days in the hospital and on the critical list. Despite the severity of parvovirus infection, all but one of the ten dogs survived their ordeal and were discharged from the hospital. AMC is happy to report one of these puppies, who was under the care of Muddy Paws Rescue found a forever home after recovering from the infection.

Little Leo Beats Leptospirosis

The youngest patient featured in this series is Leo, a 13-week-old Labrador puppy. Leo was also the sickest. Little Leo developed an acute kidney injury because of a leptospirosis bacterial infection. The kidney injury was so severe that Leo required two dialysis treatments to replace the blood filtering function of his kidneys while antibiotics controlled the leptospirosis infection, allowing his kidneys to resume normal function. Despite this rough start, AMC’s care allowed Leo to become quite a “looker” and here you see him at his first Christmas, wearing his holiday best.

These three dogs represent only a tiny sliver of the 55,000+ patients AMC’s specialist veterinarians care for every year. Their successful treatment also represents why AMC employees show up for work every day, ready to take on the next challenging patient.