Leo

Leo was an 18 month old male purchased over the Internet by a family in New York from a puppy mill in New Mexico. I took him for the east coast as they had no foster homes available. He arrived here 02July06, a sick, terrified animal. He was intact, emaciated, ears were so bad you couldn’t get meds into the canals, part of his tongue was missing, he had a cataract and a bit of pneumonia, wound hair all over his body – and a valid AKC certificate. He developed an umbilical hernia and a trip to the ophthalmologist revealed his cataract was growing and he has some other anomalies in his eyes, likely caused be the dam’s malnutrition while he was in utero.

In the past 19 months that I have fostered him, all his medical issues have been addressed, I’m most pleased with the progress we have made with his eyes. I elected to give him a new medication which had shown to shrink cataracts in young dogs and it has done its job. The cataract is much smaller and the fuzziness around the cataract is gone. He is now on a maintenance dose of the medication – one drop every other day, down from three drops a day and his vet says he doesn’t have to come back for a year unless there are any changes.

At this point, we don’t know if he will need to be on the drops forever as the medication has only been on the market for two years. He also takes a grape seed extract capsule twice a day for general eye health (get a health food store) and the vet feels he is no more likely to get glaucoma than any other dog as his eyes are no longer irritated. He does have some mild allergies; I do have him on fish and potato food, but believe he is most bothered by contact type, i.e. dry grass bothers him a lot. However, I think here is a behavioral piece to the puzzle as well – if he is bored, he will chew his feet, but not to the point of getting them infected. His yearly bloodwork showed a decrease in thyroid function so we are regulating him on Soloxine. The rest of his blood work was terrific.
He is housebroken and has become a very friendly and loving guy. A couple of times I have seen him become nervous and concerned around a man, but mainly he likes everyone now. Leo is a big boy at 50 lbs., but quite handsome with a beautiful head. He walks nicely on leash and is not a puller.

Several days after the above message was posted on the Wheaten-L, Leo’s new family inquired about him.

Tina Thomas

Leo made the long trek (over 800 miles!!!) from Illinois to Ottowa, in Ontario, Canada in the first part of 2008. His new home had just lost their dear Mulligan and felt they were ready to help a Wheaten in Need. He was given an honorary ‘M’ name, like his siblings, Max and Maude, and is now known as Myleo.

Update from Lynne, Myleo’s new mom:

We (a friend and I) arrived at the restaurant where we were to meet Leo a few minutes after 12:15pm. We drove past and had to turn around, and as we pulled in Donna Lea said, “There is a beautiful Wheaten! I wonder if that is him? If it is I think I will take him home and you can have Hunter (her 1 year old wheaten).”

After a good trip back we arrived back in Greely around 4 pm, where Leo meet our other 2 Wheatens, Max and Maude. This meeting went very well. We decided we would change his name to Myleo so we would have 3M’s again. Myleo was a bit nervous and unsure especially around Chris (my husband) but after the two of them spent hours sitting on the floor together, Myleo is much much better.

We took him up to the stables (where I work) and from the moment he saw the horses he was in love. All I have to say is “do you want to see the horses” and he is at the door. When the horses are in the barn he loves going from horse to horse giving them kisses. He is a bed hog, so it is a good thing we have a king size bed and Chris works the night shift. We have started obedience training and he is doing great.