To donate to help Casino visit our donation page.

Backstory: Casino is from Pine Falls-Sagkeeng, Manitoba was identified as a pregnant mom that was due soon and we brought her into care.

Challenges: Casino is pregnant with a large litter of puppies but was showing signs of being lethargic and challenged health-wise. Casino’s heartworm test came back positive. The heartworm is advanced and the heavy load of worms on her heart is making it challenging to produce the blood needed to support her growing litter of pups. Casino symptoms are both anemia and lethargy and is currently on IV fluids in emergency care at a vet hospital in Winnipeg.

Success: Ultrasounds show that all pups inside her are alive and still developing. Casino is also responding well to IV fluids but is evidently stressed from the burden on her heart. She is 1.5 weeks away from giving birth to the puppies. Because she is heartworm positive she will be unable to nurse her puppies. Coordination for a surrogate mom is underway at Manitoba Mutts. Good news is that because it’s spring and we have a number of moms who have birthed pups as of late, we are confident to have a place for Casino’s pups upon being born.

Vet Bills: $2,000 for blood profiles, ultrasounds (multiple tests for checking on her heart and also the pups) , xrays and IV fluids. Money raised to date: $1100

Update: Casino is not due for another few days, she's out of the vet hospital and has settled in at one of our experienced foster homes. She's under close supervision and is kept very low key. Her belly is so full of puppies, and her heart so full of worms, after a few steps she lies down from exhaustion. Poor gal! You're almost there Casino! Just a few more days. We cannot start her heartworm treatment until after the pups are born.

Update: May 17th Casino had her puppies. A full update on her health will be shared when she's out of labour.

To donate to help Watson visit our donation page.

Backstory: Watson came in to care with Manitoba Mutts in January with some friends of his from Berens River. They were all strays, and as per usual one of their first stops was the vet.

Challenges: Watson came back positive for having kidney worms. His small little body was under severe attack of these worms and the surgery was higher risk. There was concern while in surgery that he might not make it, his little body working as hard as it could while in a surgery that removed his kidney.

Success: Watson made it through surgery, and the team at Manitoba Mutts that was on edge the entire day all breathed a sigh of relief. His recovery was quick as his little body healed and adapted to life with one kidney versus two.

Vet Bills: $1,700 for ultrasounds, x-rays, antibiotics and kidney worm removal.

Update: Watson, now on his way to being fully grown is living in his forever home and enjoying every minute of life.

To donate to help Naomi visit our donation page.

Backstory: Naomi came into care from Scanterbury, MB when she was surrendered to Manitoba Mutts by her owner. She appeared to be healthy, sure a little different looking, how often do you meet a Pug/Husky cross?

Challenges: Under routine tests for a new intake Naomi came back positive for having heart worm. Being a year old, she is healthy and strong enough to start treatment immediately.

Success: Naomi is currently in a foster home and has gone through the first round of her treatment. The treatment timeline has a staged approach and she is scheduled for her next treatment in the near future.

Vet Bills: $1800 for blood profile tests and heartworm treatment.

Update: Naomi is patiently waiting in the home of our foster to go for her next round of treatment.

To donate to help Peaches visit our donation page.

Backstory: Peaches was found as a stray in Poplar River Manitoba, way up on the north east side of Lake Winnipeg. He was brought into care and placed in a foster home, and immediately his calm, sweet and loyal personality showcased Peaches as an amazing family dog for any family (particularly ones with sweet kids that like pink umbrellas and snow forts!)

Challenges: Showing some signs that something wasn’t quite right, Peaches was brought in for testing where he tested positive for kidney worms. Kidney worms can be a devastating and intrusive parasite that have worm growth take over entire organs. The surgery s required is critically time sensitive, high-risk and has a high price tag.

Success: Peaches needed to have one of his kidneys removed entirely, and fortunately the worm growth had not started to affect any other vital organs. His foster mom reports that his spirits are up, he’s healing well and resting comfortably. Having the entire kidney removed ensures that there will be no further risks for additional kidney worms to grow.

Vet Bills: Blood profiles, major surgery and aftercare totals: $1,100 [Funds raised to date: 100% of funds needed]

Update: As of April 26, Peaches energy levels and attitude are fantastic and he seems actually happier than the months leading up to finding out he had kidney worms. We can bet that he’s glad they’re out of him. Peaches goes in on Tuesday April 30 to have the staples removed from the incision area, then we’ll be on the fast track to recovery (and getting that cone off his head!)

To donate to help Nina visit our donation page.

Backstory: Nina history starts in 2009 when she was given away. She showed up at animal services 10 months later, and was pregnant. The original owners took her back in and she had 6 puppies that all died from parvo virus.

Challenges: Extreme allergies affecting her skin, swelling of the face and painful ear infections that date back to 2007 according to vet records.

Success: Nina is now in a Manitoba Mutts foster home. She is scheduled to get a blood panel and ear cleaning, then starting treatments for allergies.

Vet Bills: $TBD - Still calculating, and they keep climbing.

Update: Investigating what causes allergies and prescribe the best treatment and on-going preventative plan.

To donate to help Rumo visit our donation page.

Background: Rumo came into care with Manitoba Mutts in late fall of 2012. He was a cute young pup without any apparent immediate health needs. However as Rumo matured it was confirmed that he had double hip dysplasia. This is something that sometimes appears later in maturity, but for Rumo even within his first year we knew he needed help.

Challenges: Rumo's diagnosis was that he needed two complete hip replacements. These expensive surgeries would require considerable recovery time and a devoted adoptive family who could take the time at home during recovery. Rumo underwent his first hip replacement surgery and unfortunately his initial adoptive family couldn't commit the time he needed and as a result Rumo was returned.

Success: Rumo was adopted to his second forever home and stayed there! After a successful benefit concert in January 2013 the funds were raised to have the second hip replaced. Rumo is now healing and ready to enjoy the rest of his life pain free!

Vet Bills: $3,000+ for both hip replacements [funds raised to date: 100% of funds needed]

Update: Rumo is in recovery from his second hip replacement.

Background: Pumpkin came into care from Nelson House with her littler mates in the fall of 2012. She was a young little pup who had some immediate health issues, along with some of her litter mates. At many other shelters, a dog in Pumpkin's conditional would have been considered too cost prohibited and would be put down. But not with Manitoba Mutts.

Challenges: Her health issues were apparent from the beginning with her first tackle being parvo virus. With a high fatality rate if left untreated, the investment to save Pumpkin from parvo was immediate and necessary. She spent multiple days in the hospital hooked up to aggressive parvovirus treatments via and IV. She beat the virus but that wasn't the end of her fight. Pumpkin also had a serious bout of pneumonia and found herself back in the hospital fighting for her life. Small things continued to bother Pumpkin, bladder infections (fairly common in pups) and being adopted and returned by a few different families - to NO fault of her own, but people realizing the responsibilities when adopting a puppy.

Success: Pumpkin received top notch veterinary care and had the support of the entire Manitoba Mutts community. Her health issues are far behind her and now she's waiting for her forever home.

Vet Bills: $5,000

Update:After some tough luck in health, Pumpkin had touch luck in finding the right forever home. But she's finally beat it all! She's healthy, her vet bills are paid off and she's living the life in her forever home.

Backstory: Dooley came from Washagamis Bay in Ontario as a stray. He grew up fighting for his life. He came to us extremely malnourished, face abscessed with porcupine quills, a broken back leg and a large laceration on one of his front paws.

Challenges: Dooley also had kidney worms which are treatable, but surgeries can be dangerous and put vital organs at risk. One surgery removed some of the worms, but another has to be tracked via ultrasounds and removed at the right time to ensure it is fully removed. In addition to this, a hind-leg that was injured continues to be a challenge in the healing process. A leg amputation appears to be in Dooley’s future.

Success: Dooley was adopted out to a forever home, even with on-going serious medical conditions. Quills and lacerations were removed and healed. Weight was gained and Dooley underwent surgery to remove the kidney worms. Surgery required the full removal of a kidney. Dooley came out of the first kidney surgery successfully.

Vet Bills: $4,000

Update: Dooley was recently featured in the Winnipeg Free Press. His vet bills paid for, he is adapting to life with three legs, and living in his forever home. Dooley is officially in our Super Trooper Alumni group.

Backstory: Came into care from northern Manitoba hungry and cold. It was discovered she was pregnant and due in about 10 days with 7 puppies! Vet tests also found Button to be heartworm positive which meant she wasn’t able to nurse her puppies as her heart couldn’t handle it.

Challenges: Giving up her litter of puppies at 2 days old then starting heartworm treatment.

Success: All 6 puppies survived and were nursed by 2 different surrogate moms. Button was featured in the Winnipeg Sun and was adopted to her forever home in February 2013.

Vet Bills: $1,500 for heartworm treatment.

Update:In the midst of Heartworm treatment Button is doing amazing, her vet bills are paid off and she's adopted. © Chantelle Dione Photography

Backstory: Came into care pregnant and given the name Filly. She gave birth to a small litter of puppies, who were all given names of horse breeds.

Challenges: After stepping in to be a surrogate mom for Button, Filly developed mastitis (can be common in dogs, particularly those who may not have had the immune strength to fight off any infection). Mastitis progressed to a point where she needed a mastectomy. In recovery of surgery Filly then caught a case of bronchitis. In treatment of her coughing x-rays show that a bullet from a pellet gun was lodged in her chest cavity.

Success: All her puppies are healthy, strong and ready for adoption. Filly is healing well from surgery and on medication for bronchitis.

Vet Bills: $1,200

Update:Healthy and Adopted!

Backstory: Backstory The Sagkeeng Spay\Neuter Initiative Program brought Quake into Manitoba Mutts in mid-January 2013. Quake had been found living at the dump, and from what the vet could tell, he was about 6 months old.

Challenges: Quake was initially treated for mange and not much later did the original foster parent notice Quake staring to walk with a limp. After weeks of x-rays and various veterinarian opinions as to why Quake was limping and in pain, it was discovered that Quake had elbow dysplasia. By this point Quake was on daily pain medication and had been moved to a new foster home with less dogs and other activity.

After understanding the low success rate for surgery to correct the dysplasia, and to ensure Quake starts his pain-free life as quick as possible, we have made the difficult decision to amputate the affected leg.

Success: Quake has been in two different Manitoba Mutts foster homes where he’s done extremely well with small dogs, big dogs and children (in particular one very active toddler!). The mystery of why he has been limping and in pain has been identified.

Vet Bills: $1,695 to cover existing pain medication, x-rays and antibiotics as well as the pending leg amputation surgery. [Raised to date: 100% of all funds needed]

Update: Quake had his front leg amputated and was quickly adopted out to a family where he'll learn to adapt to live with three legs. Quake's vet bills are covered and he continues to steal the hearts of anyone he meets.