Author: Tyler Rhodes

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The Boston Dogs – Marley

The Boston Dogs - Marley

The story so far:

If you’re following us on Facebook, or look at our rehomed ridgebacks page on the website, you may have seen our story about the Boston Dogs; Marley and Marsha. 

You may remember that several people got involved to rescue this sorry pair of dogs from the Boston area of Lincolnshire, off a selling site.  Though Ridgeback Rescue is not able to purchase dogs, we did agree to take over the care of this pair once they had been bought and collected from their seller by a supporter.  We knew very little at all about Marsha and Marley other than their rough ages – about one and two respectively.  Marley was in a very sorry state being incredibly underweight and passing a lot of blood in his urine.

Marsha and Marley were originally in our foster care but it became apparent immediately that Marsha was in season and Marley, still very much an entire male, was VERY interested in her indeed.  Keeping them apart safely in the foster home was simply not possible.

It was decided that it would be best all round if they were taken into kennels where they could be separated while Marsha was in season.  Marley struggled in the kennel environment and so we found him a foster carer, who could look after him where he could be neutered as soon as possible with a view to getting the two back together again.

Marley went to see the vet this week to arrange his neutering but, on examination, he was found to have a serious heart murmur and a significant arrhythmia.  He would need further investigation with scans and an ECG and as such, we would have to wait to neuter him once we knew what was going on.  The vet is quite concerned for Marley’s condition and tells us that it is likely something that is hereditary.  

As always, we thank you for the donations we have had in for their care – to collect them, deliver them, foster them, kennel them, feed them and attend to their medical issues immediately and going forward.  We do our utmost not only in the care of the dogs who come to us, but also in our transparency to you our supporters to keep you in the loop and explain where your incredible funding goes.  We will continue to do both of those things and hope to be able to bring you news of their further welfare and happy rehoming sometime in the not too distant future.

For now, thank you all for your support and interest in these two lovely hounds.  They are smashing.  We are not asking for donations at this time but just wanted to keep you all abreast of what is happening with their care.  However, if you feel you would like to leave a little something for their care going forward, as always, we very much appreciate your help.

Marley - Recent Developments

Marsha, his partner in crime, has now been rehomed with a wonderful family. However, with Marley’s needs, we needed to investigate his medical condition further before being able to find him a lovely new home.

Marley is currently being loved in foster care and is reportedly the sweetest, kindest, loveliest boy in every way – if they could keep him themselves they absolutely would and in fact have moved heaven and earth to try to make that happen, but it’s just possible long-term.

Marley will be going to his new home soon, but before he does we would like to give you all an update on his condition.

Marley has DCM (dilated cardio myopathy) which means his heart is stretched and weak. A couple of the valves are leaking, and blood is going the wrong way and causing inefficiencies in it. He could have been born with this condition or it could have developed very soon after birth. We will never know.

The medication he is now on has stabilised him somewhat and improved the function and output, but the heart has NOT returned to normal and will never be cured.

He has also developed AF (atrial fibrillation) which is basically where the top two chambers of the heart don’t coordinate properly with the bottom chambers which reduces the overall efficiency of the heart, increasing the heart rate and blood pressure.

The medication he is on improves the contraction of the heart chambers, the blood pressure and effort the heart needs to make and it slows the heart rate down.

This is an unpredictable condition but if he remains stable and responds well to the medication, he could continue on for a few years, however the vets have advised that sadly he will not be expected to reach mid-life.

Going forward, he can have ostensibly a normal life for a dog his age with normal walks and running over the fields should he wish to do so. However, he will fade over time and the stresses on his heart will happen one way or another.

* We will support Marley in every way that we can.
* We will pay for his medication and scans for the rest of his life.
* We want Marley to have the best years of his life 💙

We are holding a online Quiz on 12th December to raise funds for Marley, if you would like to join us please find a link to the entry form below:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfC0v_LbZbWIRC9yLGjJCTAkm6_GtofrAbwZ5PfQEWXkfEfGg/viewform?usp=pp_url

Thank You for your support, without you we couldn’t help Ridgey’s like Marley

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2023 Fun Day

Rescue Funday 2023

After a long wait, the funday finally went ahead… Several years later than planned due to Covid, but enjoyed all the more for the wait!

Our show took place in Malton, North Yorkshire.  We had classes and games for all and the weather was super, and raised funds for our charity. Thank you all for your support!

We had stalls, merchandise, refreshments and a licensed bar. To keep both you, the kids and your dogs entertained, we also hosted lots of fun classes and activities such as our ever popular flat and hay-bale scurries, egg and spoon race for dog & handler teams, fastest sausage eater competition (for the dog, not you!), temptation alley, agility demonstration and Have-A-Go agility. Inter-spaced with all the fun and games throughout the day, we also be ran a companion show with classes including: best puppy, best rescue, most beautiful eyes, prettiest bitch, most handsome dog, best ridge and of course the coveted class of “the dog the judge would most like to take home”. People loved the stalls and we loved hosting it! 

Ann Gates kindly agreed to judge our dog show, and the wonderful ex-football star (Leeds and Hull City), and professional auctioneer John Hawley helped us auction off a range of items, experiences and prizes!

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Ridgeback Rescue Pub Quiz

Ridgeback Rescue Pub Quiz

Join us for our pub quiz on the 12th of December! With fun for the whole family and a prize for the winning team, we hope you come on down with up to three of your family or friends to participate in some Christmas cheer, trivia and general shenanigans! Christmas is a time for giving and this is a good cause and a good evening! We hope to see you there!


We will be holding the quiz online, and we will send a link to the online event to each team nearer to the event. We hope to see you there!

Entry

To book your entry please :

1). Complete the entry form Here.     

2). Pay for your entry at this link: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/RidgebackRescue

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Blade’s Journey – from pound to foster

Blade is an 8 year boy from Nottingham who’s been through a bit of a rollercoaster in recent weeks, so let’s take you through his story.

He found his way to a kennels in Nottingham having been picked up as a stray and after he wasn’t picked up for a week the kennels contacted us to see if we would rehome him.

Following coming to us we noticed some battle wounds around his ears, some sores on his feet that appear to be cigarette burns and an enormous perineal hernia (which was being a right pain in the bum… excuse the pun).

This got even worse the week after and the vet advised it needed to be fixed ASAP! He had to stay in the vet an extra night but he found himself healing and in a foster home shortly after. His surgery cost 2,723 but, with the help of our wonderful supporters, you all managed to raise a whopping  £6,332 for his surgery and all aftercare and he’s now recuperating with his foster family now he’s had his stitches out, ready to find himself a permanent home… 

We wanted to share his story and some photos with you so you can see the work we do, and the impact you all have. Truly without you all this wouldn’t work. Thank you, from all of us here at rescue, and from Blade xx

We are thankful for any and all support, as we are a volunteer led charity and do all of our work solely for the benefit of the animals in our care and to do the best we can for them, and give them the homes we feel they deserve. Any and all time spent working on Rescue matters is done in our own personal time and appreciate any and all help offered. If you need to get in contact with us please do not hesitate to do so, as we want to foster strong relationships with our community to further do our best for our dogs.

Thank you 

The Ridgeback Rescue Team 
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A thank you to Dorothy Grayson-Wood and the kind people at Crufts

ANOTHER THANK YOU!!!

As you know, the Ridgeback world does tend to have the most generous and supportive followers. Cast your mind back a whole 16 months (if you can remember back that far). That was Crufts, the last Championship Dog Show before Lockdown, at which the fabulous Ridgeback folks ringside donated to Ridgeback Rescue and the Rhodesian Ridgeback Welfare Trust. We haven’t been able to see Dorothy Grayson-Wood who collected the money due to Lockdown but I was delighted to be accosted by her at the Hound Association Championship Dog Show on Saturday, brandishing an envelope with £75 in it for Ridgeback Rescue. Many thanks Dorothy for collecting and hanging on to the cash for all that time and of course to the generous people who supported us with their donations.

Massive thank you from all of us at Ridgeback Rescue.

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Thank you to Sara Thompson

A huge THANK YOU to the lovely Sara Thompson of SONNYPRIDE RIDGEBACKS for the wonderfully kind AND HUGE financial donation! Sonnypride recently welcomed an incredibly beautiful litter of Ridgeback puppies into the world, all of whom have now gone off to start their exciting lives with new families.

We are very fortunate that so many responsible Ridgeback breeders have been so supportive of Ridgeback Rescue and what we do. We were absolutely bowled over to receive a fabulous £1,000 donation from Sara from the proceeds of her recent Sonnypride litter. Ridgeback Rescue does not receive any funding assistance other than that which comes through donations, and this outstanding generosity allows us to continue the work we do for the Ridgebacks we look after who have fallen on hard times.

With so much talk about bad breeders (and sadly we know all to well that there are many) I just wanted to make a personal public THANK YOU to Sonnypride and all of the responsible breeders out there who make sure the puppies they produce are healthy, happy and will always have a good breeder to rely on in the background. With donations such as this, it means Ridgeback Rescue can also be a safety net, if any of them ever need us.

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A MASSIVE thank you to Newark Dog Training Club

A massive thank you to NEWARK DOG TRAINING CLUB.

We really cannot say a big enough thank you to the Committee of Newark Dog Training Club. The Club recently disbanded and have made the very kind gesture of donating their remaining funds to worthwhile causes – and that means the whopping portion of £1060 has been received by Ridgeback Rescue.

As a Charity we do not receive any external funding so such donations will help us to continue to re-home Ridgebacks who, through no fault of their own, need to find a new forever home.

Please join us in giving an enormous round of applause to Newark Dog Training Team …….. Thank you

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Dermoid Sinus: The Yorkshire Vet Explains

We went to the Sandbeck Veterinary practice recently and spoke to our patron: Julian Norton (The Yorkshire Vet) about Dermoid Sinus (DS) so we can provide everyone with more detail on what it is and how to detect it. He was kind enough to talk a little bit about it and demonstrate on Coda (a Ridgeback puppy aged 22 weeks at the time of recording) how you would search for a DS. A big thank you to him for the demonstration and for using one of his consulting rooms to film it!

In terms of what it is, Dermoid Sinus is a potentially very serious problem that, while not EXCLUSIVE to Ridgebacks, is predominantly found in Rhodesian Ridgebacks – hence why we wanted to give you as much information as we can on it. The scientific explanation is “Dermoid Sinus is a tubular skin defect caused by incomplete separation of the skin and the nervous system during embryonic development.” Essentially meaning that there are noodle-like bits of tissue connecting the upper layers of skin to the more important bits below, they form during the development of a pup inside its mother and are there from birth. These noodle structures could be as thin as a thread of cotton in a pair of jeans so it is often very difficult for everyone except those very experienced in looking for them to find (vets included). Any dog that has a Dermoid Sinus (or who had one that has been surgically removed) should never be bred from as the chances are likely that the pups would be genetically likely to also carry DS.

For more information on Dermoid Sinus you can find a post about it on our Owners’ Advice section of the website and you can find an in-depth blog courtesy of Rhodes2Safety about everything you could possibly need to know about DS (Including gory pictures) here: https://rhodes2safety.com/canine-tip-of-the-day-dermoid-sinus/

Without further ado: here is the video demonstration with a little introduction from our chairwoman here at Ridgeback Rescue: Kerry Rhodes

 

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Amazon Smile, Easy Fundraising and the Weather Lottery

Due to lockdown, a lot of the fun ideas we would normally embark on haven’t been possible. But it’s not all doom and gloom!

There are three things that are easy (two are even free to do) that help us out massively to provide the level of care and support our rescue’s have grown accustomed to receiving.

EasyFundraising

Easyfundraising is a free add-on while you’re shopping that you might not even notice – choose our cause, visit shops and retailers online (something many people are doing right now, especially with restrictions) and shop as normal BUT Easyfundraising will donate a small amount with every purchase you make. They add up quickly and people have managed to raise a whopping £5,600 so far.

To set us as your charity follow this link and click “Support this cause” on the right of the page: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/ridgebackrescue/

Amazon Smile

Do you use Amazon regularly? In the same way Easyfundraising works Amazon Smile will donate to us for every sale they make with you from the entire Amazon site.

All you have to do is follow this link, click the yellow “Get started” button and slect “Ridgeback Rescue (Eckington, EW)” as your designated charity and start shopping: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/chpf/homepage?orig=%2F%3Ftag%3Dgooghydr-21%26hvadid%3D232361766627%26hvpos%3D%26hvexid%3D%26hvnetw%3Dg%26hvrand%3D13448881245658210391%26hvpone%3D%26hvptwo%3D%26hvqmt%3Dp%26hvdev%3Dc%26ref%3Dpd_sl_88t6ja85j9_b

Weather Lottery

We are part of the weather lottery: a small lottery with a not so small prize! You have a chance to win the top prize of £25,000. Step one is signing up and step two is getting lucky! Part of the money for entries comes directly to us so every person who enters is helping us.

The lottery results are calculated by using the temperatures from selected destinations around Europe on a particular day each week, players are assigned 6 numbers when registering that are then checked against the last 6 digits of temperatures in Fahrenheit that are published in the Daily Mail on the day of the draw.

Entries are just £1 with a max payout of £25,000, sounds like a no brainer!

Click here to join: https://www.theweatherlottery.com/charitiesHomepage.php?client=RIDGE_OTHER&NoOfLines=1

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