We are honored to present Sadie Ward as Companion Animal of the Month for April 2007. Sadie is a twelve year old blonde Cocker Spaniel, who is a loving and energetic companion animal to Sandy and Mike Ward. Sandy and Mike adopted Sadie from a pet store in Cincinnati, Ohio when Sadie was just a puppy. As a puppy, Sadie proved to have remarkable skills at identifying and retrieving 13 similarly colored and shaped toys from another room, she would rarely make a mistake which would impress the Ward's friends and family.
Sadie has many other hobbies that keep her and the Ward's
busy. She has a unique interest with wildlife in the Ward's yard, s
he
loves to bark at trees to see the birds fly away and to watch the squirrels run for
cover. Sadie also loves long car rides with the Ward's as they travel back and
forth between their homes in Ohio and Florida. During these rides she
remains on the cars center console to watch the world go by, she rarely sleeps
on these trips because she is afraid of missing something important along the
way. When she is not chasing birds and squirrels or traveling up and down
the east coast, she will spend her days relaxing and sleeping, or taking a walk
down the beach. Even on the beach, Sadie likes to chase birds along the
surf. She is also a finicky dog when it comes to the
types of food that she likes to eat. She doesn't like traditional dog treats,
instead she prefers rye bread crust. She also looks forward to her morning
banana that Mrs. Ward shares with her at 5AM. They split the whole banana, with
one bite for Mrs. Ward, then one bite for Sadie until the entire banana has been
eaten.
Sadie has become a frequent visitor to Atlantic Animal
Hospital since August of 2006. She has a long history of
hypothyroidism, allergies, and osteoarthritis, which have been managed with a
thyroid hormone supplement, antibiotics, omega acid supplements, and
non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications. Then in November 2006, Sadie
was brought into the hospital because her eyes were rolling back into her head. Upon
initial examination, Dr.Sukhija discovered that Sadie had mature cataracts in
both eyes, Horner's syndrome, and an eye lid infection in both eyes. Sadie was prescribed
ophthalmic antibiotics for the infection. A few weeks later, she was
presented for a dental cleaning and mass removal. She recovered well and
the histopathology showed the mass to be benign. Soon after this recovery,
her eye issues returned and had now progressed to glaucoma. Dr. Sukhija
started treatment for this problem and also referred Sadie to the
Ophthalmologist. Sadie has slowly improved and although she will never
have normal eye sight, the Wards have continued to make sure that she is always
comfortable and has a great quality of life.
Sadie is sweet and loving companion animal who has tenderly graced and blessed the lives of the Ward's. This family's bond and love for each other is what makes our hospital strive to achieve medical excellence in the lives of all of our companion animals and their families. We are glad to be a part of Sadie's life, as she is a model companion animal in our care.
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