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| Name: |
Lucius
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Age: |
Three years old
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| Gender: |
Male |
Breed: |
Labrador Retriever
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| Home: |
Derbyshire, United Kingdom |
Let me tell you about my Lucius! Well, he's my first puppy ever and I'm grateful my first puppy was him, we found him on an advert for Fox Red Labrador Puppies (he was five weeks when we first met him!). When we got him at eight weeks he was very skinny, had a large tummy and was a very sick puppy :(. We took him to the vet and they said he was healthy, except he was underweight and we didnt know why , he weighed 3.6 kg (7 pounds) and should have been double this weight. After a few weeks of trying to get him to gain weight, we tried changing foods, the vet suspected he had allergies to his food, and the first two foods we changed it to made it worse, so we eventually put him on a home made raw chicken diet, with fresh veg and rice. This helped him a lot and by the age of four months he finally caught up to the weight he was supposed to be. By this point he weighed 15 kg (33 pounds) and kept growing!
Now he's a healthy boy of 34 kg (75 pounds) and we're so glad we have him. His big sister, a Japanese Spitz called Lacey, passed away last year at a young age of nine. She had heart failure and after a long diagnosis it was decided it was better to have her put to sleep. Lucius was very depressed, slept in my room for a good few weeks until finally we went and got him a little brother! Little Pup the beagle looks up to him and does everything he does, and he's even taught Lucius a few things (like how to bark while playing :).
His allergies have been an issue his whole life, even though he gets hypo allergenic food. A month after Lacey passed, Lucius got severley ill, was dehydrated, couldn't walk, and was very clearly in pain. We rushed him to the vets - who were very good to take him in as he wasnt registered to them - and found he had some issues with his intestines (an infection). We had had this issue before, but never this bad. He was taken in overnight on a fluid drip and antibiotics. We were in tears, having just lost Lacey. The vets cared for him round the clock and we got him back after he got his fluids up, the vet had said then that we were lucky - if we had left it until the next day he may have become very dehydrated and we may have lost him. I think Lacey was watching over him that day.
Even though we have issues with his health, he is still a happy boy and is the best snuggler! He loves all his doggy friends at his daycare and his hydrotherapy (a new thing we tried with him as we know he loves water! and he cant wait to get into the pool, as soon as the swimming jacket goes on he starts getting excited!) and is sweet to everyone he meets (except people in fluorescent clothing - who he barks at and hides behind me). He can be a bit of a wimpy dog, a twig could snap and send him running XD, but we love him anyway!
Anyway, that's basically Lucius in a nutshell, hope you enjoyed reading. Lucius is doing much better now, loves life and his brother and tennis balls! Also I take way too many pictures of him, but he's really a little star, loves the camera!
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