Saturday, March 31, 2012

3/31/2012 - Cletus Weighs 121.6 Pounds!!!

3/31/12 - Brought Magnum in for his allergy shot and brought Cletus in for a weigh-in. CLETUS NOW WEIGHS 121.6 POUNDS!!! Cletus has gained 33 pounds over the past 5 months since he went on his medications, 15 over the past month and a half. We are starting him on a diet plan. Somehow Magnum has gained 9 pounds over the same time period but his 55 pound butt looks scrawny next to chubba-wubba.

We knew Cletus gained weight being that his harness would not fit him him anymore and we had to special order him a harness (they did not sell one big enough for him in the retail stores). He is actually eating less than he did before this whole ordeal started but is still gaining weight.

Cletus is going to start taking a new heartworm medication due to the last one potentially causing seizures and I wanted to ensure he was set to take the correct dosage based on his weight. I thought he gained some weight but holy crap!! He does not get any table scraps, exercises pretty well, and does not receive an overexcess of treats, his weight totally blows my mind!

Monster dog in the Hazizzle!!

As far as Cletus' doctors are aware of, Cletus has the only known reported case of open lipped schizencephaly in a canine.  The key word here is reported.  Most vets are not aware that schizencephaly exists or they are not aware that this condition is possible in an animal.  Cletus is living proof of this possibility.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, there are 78.2 million dogs in the U.S. (http://www.humanesociety.org/).  Some sites state that schizencephaly affect 1.54 per 100,000 people. According to rightdiagnosis.com, schizencephaly affects 1 in 2719 people or 0.04% of the population (http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/lists/preval.htm).  The fact is that no one is sure how many people schizencephaly truly affects.  If we assume these same statistics in dogs, it equates to somewhere between 1,150 and 31,280 dogs out there with schizencephaly in the U.S. alone.


Please help me to get the word out about Cletus and schizencephaly.  Contact your local news organization about Cletus or have your local news organization contact me directly at dsilber27@hotmail.com

Thank you for your support,

Doug & Cletus

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