[Skipper]

Hello dog lovers. Our basset, has only been with us about a month now. He was found wandering. So we brought him home. He was dirty, and had fleas. His inner ears were really dirty. He got an immediate home bath, and I removed much ear goo. The next day he went to our regular groomer for a deeper bath, and flea treatment. He wasn't skinny, and has been nuetered. It also appears he has had declaws removed. Is this common with the breed?
Surely he is full grown, he is huge and weighs 55 pounds. He has no tarter around his teeth, and his teeth are nice and white.
He also has a burn mark on his muzzle or snout whatever you call it. Like a cigarette burn. A perfect small round circle. It has healed now, but it is a scar now.
He is a perfect dog. He is housetrained, and likes other dogs and small kids.
He taught us that just because he is short, doesn't mean he can't reach food on the kitchen counter. He ate an enitre bag of powdered donuts in less than a minute.
We have checked the local newspaper, lost and found ads, and there is no one looking for him there. The small weekly papers from our surrounding area-also nothing. No flyers around town, nothing on the vets bulletin board.
I have even checked online for lost dogs in this entire state area and there is nothing there either.
His hanging neck rolls have been red and raw-ish on the inside area since he came. Sort of dry looking, and the hair is gone. Maybe rubbed off, I'm not sure. He had no collar when we found him. I have applied neosporin to it, and left his new collar off, but it hasn't healed much.
He is now part of our family. If we take him to any of the vets in our area, what if they know him? Or if he has a chip? Would they know who originally had him and call them?
Someone must have invested some money in him and care, but strange no one is looking for him. What do you all think?
We would really like to keep him here as part of our family.

 

[vb3]

and I removed much ear goo[/b]

:lol: Yup get used to that.

As for the chip, if you take him to a vet they can scan him for a microchip. When we got a chip in our puppy, we had two options: pay more money to have the chip's code associated with our home address and phone number, or only pay the vet the 15 bucks to inject it and keep the chip's code associated with the vet (and have them call us if our dog ever got lost and found). If this dog has a chip in him any previous owners may or may not be able to be located, depending on whether they have moved since getting the dog chipped or notified their vet, etc. It sounds like he may have had some level of abuse in his life, or maybe just got into something to have the burn mark on his snout. Whether or not it was abuse, and if it was from any previous owners or not isn't something you can know. Whoever had him before at least house trained him, so that indicates some level of responsible ownership. There may not be anyone looking for him since there are no ads in the paper or online, because if I lost my dog that would be the first thing I did.

At the very least, it sounds like his neck ought to be checked out by a vet, and if you plan on keeping him you will probably need to go to a vet anyway to get rabies vaccinations (unless you plan on thumbing your nose at that law, or live in a state that doesn't require them). I would probably get him checked for a chip at that point - it may not give you the answer you want, but at least you won't always be wondering if you are keeping somebody's lost dog. And who knows, he may not have one and at that point you can decide whether or not you want to post ads on your own to try and find the owner or just keep him with your family (which sounds like a good deal for him, as he gets free donuts and baths there).

Either way, good luck!

 

[2hounds]

Just like vb3 said a vet can scan for a chip and look into the neck issues. It's a shame that no one is looking for him. That's how I got my boy Gibbs. He was found by animal control as a stray. They kept him for 15 days and no one came looking for him...lucky for me, he's a wonderful boy. Both of mine are rescues so I don't have much to go on, but it seems to me like they know they have a better life now. Hopefully it'll be the same for you! Good luck!