My amazing little Stewie, a hospice adoption, came into my heart and my home from Muttville just a few days before Christmas 2024.
Soon after arriving at Muttville last fall, Stewie received much needed urgent veterinary care and was then diagnosed with chronic kidney disease — a serious condition from which he would never recover. The Muttville vet team prescribed every other day subcutaneous hydration and prescription kidney diet soft food to keep him stable for the time he had left.
I fully expected to have Stewie for a very short period of time. He was frail, unsteady, cranky (oh so cranky!), and just not too interested in life. He required every-other-day hydration and was none too happy about that. Because I couldn’t administer his Lactated Ringers in a way that didn’t cause him discomfort, I enlisted the help of my veterinarian who set us up with vet techs to administer the Ringers to Stewie four times a week.
After a couple of months of intensive TLC, Stewie was reevaluated to see how his kidneys were functioning. Surprisingly and happily, the results indicated his kidney function had greatly improved and he was then moved to twice-per-week hydration. Soon after that change, Stewie and I received the awesome news that he could be pulled off hydration entirely until such time further tests indicated we needed to resume it. An incredible milestone for a pupper who had been in very sad shape when he was taken in by Muttville!
Not surprisingly (but still disappointing), a check up this past September reflected his kidney function was starting to deteriorate, and he needed to go back to regular hydration. He’s currently “getting juiced” three times per week. I’m hoping a recheck at the end of this December shows improvement so we can curtail the hydration requirements.
I’m beyond grateful to Muttville for entrusting Stewie to me. I know they wanted him to have a loving, safe, and happy place to land for the rest of his days, and that is exactly what happened. He’s brought me such joy and my two other fur kids think he’s pretty special (his crankiness drastically subsided a couple weeks after he arrived) — he was the best Christmas gift I could have ever received!
Cynthia Cotton
12/15/25
Are you the proud parent of a Muttville dog? Send us your story! Include three of your favorite photos and send it to success_stories@muttville.org with the subject line 'Success Story'.
