Sophie

10 yr old female Shiba, needs a yard

This precious girl is Sophie. She is 10 years old and suffers from recurring skin infections. What began as mild environmental allergies about 7 years ago, has become recurring antibiotic-resistant staph infections on her entire body. After years of inadequate and inconsistent treatment due to a lack of time or finances, her family decided to rehome her. Although they lived over a thousands miles away, they were willing to make a road trip to give Sophie a better life.

When she arrived in Colorado, she was in bad shape. Severely underweight, widespread alopecia, scaling/flaking dry skin, and painful sores from her tail to her ears and snout. Her entire body was red and inflamed. The sores on her paws, groin and inner thighs make it uncomfortable for her to walk or climb stairs. Despite all her suffering, she is incredibly sweet and docile girl. She has put up with so much handling at the ER, regular vet, and dermatologist’s offices.

Between the medicated baths, steroids, and finding an antibiotic that the infection is not resistant to, her overall condition has improved significantly. Putting her on a mostly fresh food diet (vs kibble) has helped to reduce her inflammation, she has gained a healthy amount of weight, her skin is softening and she has regrown a lot of fur. As she looks and feels better, we are seeing more of her spunky, silly personality come out. She has becoming playful with her foster mom, and we now see joy, as well as gratitude, in her eyes!

Although she is in much better shape than when we got her, we have more work to do to determine if it is an autoimmune disorder, food &/or environmental allergies, or both! Regardless, she is likely to have intermittent flare ups for the rest of her life, and her adopters will need to be very attentive to her physical and emotional needs.

Sophie was fortunate to be placed in a foster-to-adopt home experienced in caring for dogs with severe skin conditions. They have everything it takes to give Sophie what she needs, except a yard. With the medications Sophie is on, she need to go to bathroom more frequently. With active and recurring sores, getting leashed up for the frequent treks outside from her 2nd story apartment are proving to be too much for Sophie. We all agree that Sophie would have better quality of life with a yard of her own, and no stairs to get inside or out.

If you think you are the right home for Sophie, please complete an adoption application today. If you have already submitted an application, please email info@coloradoshibainurescue.org or text 303-498-7132 to let us know you are interested.