My name is Bruno!

Age: 5 years
Weight: 9 lbs.
Adoption Fee: $350.00
Fostered in Indian Trail, North Carolina
Email: yorkiemommync@yahoo.com

9/16/24 - Bruno's skin condition has been in remission for over a year. He no longer takes any medication for his skin. He is just on supplements for his joints since his hips are not the best. He is very sensitive to the food he eats and can get runny poo very quickly, but his foster mom has found a food that is working and he has no longer had any poo issues. He still loves to play with toys and likes to be chased, he crawls under blankets to nap, and unfortunately still has to wear a belly band because he will pee on anything at any time. He still always looks so happy and excited too.

11/30/22 – Today we found out Bruno has an autoimmune disease called Pemphigus Erythematosus that is causing all his skin issues. His dermatologist is going to start him on high dose steroids for two weeks to try and get it in remission as quickly as possible so we can back down and get him ready to have his torn ACL repaired. He will also be going on a medication called Mycophenolate for the autoimmune disease, and that will likely be for the rest of his life to keep it in remission. He is still going to physical therapy weekly and is still not too thrilled with the hydro treadmill. He just does not want to use his back legs to walk while in it. Might just take more time and hopefully once we can get the torn ACL repaired it will get even better. Despite all he has going on, he is still so happy and loving! He gets to spend more time out of the crate now that he is six weeks post hip surgery. Thank you to everyone for their prayers and support for Bruno!

11/2/22 – Bruno had his hip surgery on 10/18. We have been doing his exercises at home, but unfortunately he is not using the leg like he should, so we will be starting with physical therapy on 11/4. We are hopeful this will help to get the leg moving the way it should and build up some more muscle as it feels like he has lost even more muscle mass in that leg. He still needs the ACL repair to happen, but the skin needs to be figured out first.

Bruno has also seen the dermatologist and she initially thought his skin issues were from an antibiotic resistant staph infection, but he has had two negative cultures. She is now thinking it could possibly be an auto immune disease, even though she did not see the cells she usually sees when doing a skin scrape in the office. We are spraying him with a topical antibiotic/steroid spray and medicated baths every 3 days. We have a skin biopsy tentatively scheduled for 11/15. We need to get the infection cleared up more before doing a biopsy otherwise it could skew the results.

Poor Bruno has so much going on, but even through all of it he is so happy and loving. He will just stare lovingly into your eyes and snuggle into you.


10/12/22 - Bruno went in yesterday and was neutered and had his dental done. After dental x-rays were done, it was found that he had major bone loss around several teeth and the start of bone loss around others. Given they were so bad, as we suspected, he had to have the remaining teeth he had removed. He is doing good with no teeth and ate some food last night and breakfast this morning. The dogtor said as he was under anesthesia and she wiggled a few of the teeth his blood pressure would go up, meaning she could tell they were painful to him. His mouth should feel so much better now. We also went to see the specialist last week as his leg has become worse being on crate rest. It was decided that he will go in on 10/18 for an FHO on his worst hip and if his skin is much better at that time she will also fix the torn ACL. He cannot have any infection for that repair, so we are crossing our fingers. If not, he will have to go in when his skin is cleared up and have the ACL repair. He has been battling the skin issues since December 2021 when his savior took him out of the bad situation. The dogtor suspects it is still flea dermatitis. His skin is better, but not good enough. The hip surgery is estimated to be around $2500 right now. Despite all his ailments he is still such a happy and loving little guy.

9/21/22 – Bruno is a happy go lucky little man that you can just see the smile on his face. He loves belly rubs, lots of affection, and loves to play with toys now that he knows how to. He did not have a great start to his life by living the first years of his life in a building with several other yorkies that were just given food and water a couple of times a day and not having all the love and attention they deserved. A wonderful lady went to help his original owner clean up all the dogs and convinced her to let her take two of the pups in December 2021. When his savior brought him home he had fleas, was not using his back leg, and had a bad rash. She worked very hard to make him feel better. Due to her own health, she unfortunately had to surrender him, which is how he came to YHR.

We are still working on clearing up his rash, his bloodwork is slowly improving, but he has very bad teeth that need to be cleaned. He is scheduled for his dental and neuter on 10/12. We saw the specialist today regarding his limping and lameness in his left back leg. He does have bilateral hip arthritis, restricted mobility in both hips, but he also has a torn ACL in he left knee. He is going on crate rest for about 4 weeks to see if he can build scar tissue to naturally heal it and try to avoid surgery. If that does not work, then he will need surgery to repair it. Once we get that fixed, then we will see if his mobility gets better and if not, he may need surgery on the hip to give him mobility. With the issues with the back legs, he does put more pressure on his front legs and sometimes limps on the front legs, but x-rays show there are no issues with the front legs.

Bruno really is just the happiest little guy we have seen in a while. He looks like he is smiling a lot of the time. He does great riding in the car and has been doing so in a doggy car seat. His crate rest will be in a stroller, which he does not mind either. He went for a stroll last weekend in the stroller and did great. Given he is older and was never neutered nor trained to go potty outside because he peed where he lived, he does mark a lot. That likely will not change given his age, so he may need to remain in a belly band, which he is great with too. He has lost some muscle mass in his backend, so the bellybands will slip off his hips, but suspenders have worked great to keep it in place. We are not sure about him likely to cuddle given the pain he is dealing with in his knee and hips, so hopefully when that all gets fixed we can see if he is a cuddle bug too.