Greyhound Crossroads

Adoption Status: Adopted in memorial by the Doby family, 3.1.16
Pet/Kennel Name: Zola
Age: 3
Color/Gender: Black Female
Cat Tolerance: Testing
Small Dog Trainable: Yes
Good w/ Children: Yes
Fostered by (location): Doby in Salisbury, NC
Additional Details:

ON VET HOLD! Zola retired from racing at the Birmingham Race Track at the end of March 2015 after racing 78 races. She turned 3 on June 1st. She was a good racer and her last race was at the top A level. She must have already getting sick in her last race because she trailed pretty far back and was retired. Shortly after arriving at the track adoption kennel, the workers came in one morning to find Zola completely paralyzed on the back end. The vet wasn't sure what caused it and treated her for tick paralysis at first, then decided it might be FCE and treated her for that. She recovered really well after a week or two on prednisone (a steroid) and was running and hopping around. She was still unstable on her back end and looked like she might be a little drunk because her back end would get away from her sometimes. She was transported from the track adoption kennel to Pro Greyhound , a greyhound rehab organization, that takes special cases and gets them the treatment they need. Zola took a turn for the worse and her paralysis returned, when our vet tried to slowly wean her off the prednisone. She had an MRI and a spinal tap and inflammation was found in her spinal cord and she was referred to a neurologist. Her diagnosis is Granulomatous Mengingoencephalitis (GME) The prednisone that keeps her from being totally paralyzed has bad side effects. The neurologist has tried her on chemo drugs in hopes those would help wean her of the prednisone, without any luck. She can't stay on this dose of prednisone and live. The prednisone has caused her to have thin skin and patchy hair, her abdomen is very distended. She has to wear coats and boots to protect her because just laying down or bumping into something will tear her fragile skin. The drug also causes muscle wasting so her body has no muscle and she looks like a very old dog. The picture below was taken when she first got sick, before the prednisone had affected her skin and body so much. In her "other photos" the picture of her in her jammies is what she currently looks like. Zola requires about twice as much food as she should and is still thin with a big pot belly because of the medication. Help is needed for Zola's very high medical expenses that are around $5,000 at this point. Please contact Pro Greyhound, to make a donation if you can. Zola has stayed happy during her treatment and doesn't seem to be too stressed by anything. Even when she was totally paralyzed she loved the extra attention and never struggled or seemed freaked out by not being able to move. She will figure out how to get what she wants and go where she wants no matter how hard it is. She is very smart and has figured out how to open doors and gates. Zola is currently on medical hold and is not available for adoption because she does not have a good prognosis. Zola has been fighting this since April and her foster dad is trying to keep her quality of life as high as he can for as long as he can. Zola's sire is Red Rooster Bonz and her dam is PK's Abbey.

UPDATE--  We're sad to report that beautiful Zola survived in foster care for a year until March of 2016. She continued to go downhill in spite of the best efforts of Carl Doby and Pro Greyhound and our vets and specialists she was referred to.  She is now part of his pack forever, and we share in the loss as he eased her across the Bridge. 

Her Pedigree

Tag: Adopted
Picture: Greyhound_Zola_McBones-big.jpg
Image Gallery: GC-Dog-Photos-2016/Zola-McBones/