04/05/2026
Gerrard has had a whirlwind of a week, since arriving into our care.
Standard Poodle, Gerrard is almost 10 years old. He is the most beautiful, gentle, sweet boy and we are glad that he was surrendered to us. He has come into our care with 2 female Standard Poodles who we will introduce soon.
When he arrived, Gerrard was in desperate need of a haircut. He had awful diarrhoea, and he had a pungent smell that hung in the air, long after he had left the room. It was an indescribable blend of filth, infection, p**p and skin that had not had contact with the air for a very long time.
We had him at the vet and on medication for his tummy within an hour of his arrival and he was booked in to have all of his vet work done on Monday. Unfortunately, he was not yet clipped.
He was desexed and had a cyst removed from his eye. Our vets found a large lump in his mouth and massive infection. He needed a mammoth dental surgery, resulting in multiple extractions, including the canine tooth that was in the midst of his lump. Our vets were very concerned.
Gerrard had an x-ray of his jaw to rule out anything sinister and fortunately, it was all clear. It appears that the lump was a result of long-standing infection and inflammation. Gerrard was vaccinated, heartworm tested and wormed. Our vets noted that he was very underweight under all of his hair.
On Tuesday, he recovered from his surgery and on Wednesday, he finally had a date with the clippers. What we uncovered was very worrying.
Gerrard was thin and his body was covered in lumps. We counted at least 9, ranging from the size of a pea to bigger than a golf ball. Some looked similar to each other but some looked very different. We immediately rang the vet.
The next morning, we dropped him off and waited for news.
Unbelievably, and to everyone’s total relief, almost every lump turned out to be a cyst, filled with disgusting pus and dead cells but able to be lanced, squeezed out and fixed! Basically, it was a big “pimple popping” event!! There was only one lump that was of concern and that was the one on his hock.
The decision was made to remove it immediately and we waited for a call. When it came, it was not what anyone expected.
Although it looked totally different and our vet had never seen a presentation like it, this final lump was in fact, another harmless cyst!!
Poor Gerrard has been through the wringer over the last 7 days, and he has definitely thrown us some curveballs (and large vet bills lol) but we are so happy that we could provide him with the care that he so desperately needed. He is now being fed a high quality diet and is on 2 different antibiotics but he is already feeling heaps better.
Gerrard is dog and cat friendly and he is going to be available to take for an outing tomorrow so if you want to come and meet him, maybe take him for a walk or just tell him what a good boy he is, consider coming to our doggie outing event tomorrow (Saturday) 9am-12pm at 1 Ivins St Kingaroy.
Sam :)
