Success Stories

Dakota4, March, 2001

Dakota is a 6 month old yellow Lab-mix. He was brought to one of the vet clinics in State College, PA as a stray. This vet clinic is also a state licensed screening facility for stray pets which regularly works with Centre County PAWS.

PAWS took Dakota under their wing. They tried to find his owners - no luck - before getting him ready to be adopted. And it would take a bit more than average to get Dakota ready for adoption. The vet at the screening facility thought that Dakota had OCD in one shoulder and suspected hip dysplasia as well; a second vet agreed that Dakota may have hip dysplasia and OCD in BOTH shoulders. PAWS made an appointment with their regular vet for a final diagnosis.

Dakota did have OCD in both shoulders but this vet did not believe he had HD; his recommendation was to operate on the left shoulder which was worse than the right. The vet hopes that the right shoulder will improve without intervention once Dakota will be able to put more weight on the left side. PAWS contacted LABMED and asked us to fund part of the cost of the surgery. We were happy to be able to say yes; the vet offered a substantial discount and PAWS themselves will pay for a large part.

Dakota had to wait a while before he could have his surgery. The lady who had volunteered to foster him broke her foot and was unable to care for Dakota. PAWS found another foster home and Dakota had the operation on his left shoulder in early June. Dakota is doing very well and the vet determined during the first follow up visits that no further surgery would be needed.