Rat Terriers : we rescued this dog....long

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we rescued this dog....long

Posted by sarahthb on 5/11/2008, 8:47 pm
172.129.88.39

Hey everybody, I used to post here, don't remember what my name was though. Well, I have a toy rat terrier, Abby, she's going to be 2 years old in a few days.
Well, on Friday we rescued a rat terrier, blue heeler/australian cattledog mix. We saw him on petfinder and just fell in love with him. We went to see him and of course we just had to take him home. The shelter said that he was going to be shy for awhile and needed a lot of love to come around. What happened was a backyard breeder bred them to hunt squirrels, but Buddy (or T-Boy as the "breeder" called him) wasn't a very good squirrel hunter. Neither was his brother (also T-Boy). Someone adopted his brother and he had been depressed ever since.
Well we brought him home, and I'm pretty sure he was hit while he was with the breeder. He's always cowering, and peeing. He didn't even walk with a leash (he's learning now), well, he didn't really walk at all, really. But anyway, Everytime I would pet him he would pee. So the first 2 days I was constantly cleaning pee. That's actually the least of our problems though. He has really bad diarhhea and I think he might have kennel cough. They didn't vaccinate him at the shelter. It looks to me like his diarrhea has blood in it. He's been eating a little and it looks like today it's thickening up to a paste like texture. Still reddish. We're taking him to the vet asap tomorrow, to get his shots and an exam. He's not neutered yet, we have a certificate for that, but the lady at the shelter said don't bring him in for that yet since he's so scared and shy. His first day home he started getting better, and walking around, wagging his tail, etc. He's in no way lethargic or anything. He eats a little, but he should probably be eating more.
So, my questions are.... what do you think could be wrong with him? It seems like more than just his nerves... I just hope it's not serious, cause we love the guy already.
And, Abby is up to date on all of her shots, is on heartworm meds and flea meds. Is Buddy a danger to her anyway or is she safe from whatever he's got? He's 11 months old, the lady said it's unlikely that he has parvo (I asked before we brought him home, I had a dog die of that already). I'm just worried that she might catch something from him. They are eating and drinking out of separate bowls, but still. We sat with him for about 30 minutes at the shelter, but had no way of knowing he might have been sick.
Sorry this is so long. I'm just searching for opinions on what it could be... I'm getting worried and I need to hear from experienced dog owners what it might be until we bring him to the vet tomorrow. Even though Abby seems fine, I worry about her too.
Oh, one last question... do those diapers for male dogs really work? It would take a lot of frustration away if we could stop the piddling. It's getting better but he still does it alot.
Thanks in advance!
Sarah