04.25.09
Dogs are coming so fast, I don’t even have time to write!!! – Say hello to the Baton Sisters!
What the heck is going on in the pet dog world? In the past few weeks, since just April 1, we have been asked to take in a HUGE number of puppies and breeder dogs!! What does that mean?
The first week of April, we took in four breeder dogs – all females – Connie, Flora, Annamarie and Aliana.
Connie had a shrunken eye and was severely underweight at 5.6 pounds – she should be at least 8.
Aliana also had a shrunken eye, most likely from a dog fight, and a HUGE hernia.
Say hello to Flora Baton.
This is Aliana and here….
is her hernia – big enough to be an entity in itself.
This one is Connie.
And finally…..
this is Annamarie!
They were all a total mess – but with about three weeks of good food and supplement and lots of love…meet the new dogs…
This is Flora – at first glance, she seemed to be in good health.
As did Connie. Other than her shrunken eye.
Annamarie seemed in fairly good health. Here she is with Aliana after Aliana’s surgery.
Ok, so they all look great and once their immunizations were done, we started getting them ready for adoptions. But, we immediately sent Aliana to our vet for surgery to correct the hernia. Our vet is very conservative when it comes to hernias that are NOT umbilical hernias – other hernias could actually be the intestines pushing out through a tear in the stomach wall and can easily turn and become necrotic. His philosophy in this saved Aliana’s life – not because the hernia was her intestines, but because as he did her spay along with the hernia repair, he found a massively infected uterus. It was the size of a large hot dog and full of pus. She could have easily died of this horrible infection.
Then, the adventure this week. We sent the other three for their spay this week. Bloodwork was good so the vet went forward – we always screen for kidney and liver disease (I know, it’s not a critical rescue expense, but is absolutely worth while). Both Flora and Annamarie’s spay went fine, but 10 minutes after they were closed up, they started bleeding heavily into their abdomen. After redoing the internal stitches twice more, the vet was finally able to get them to stop bleeding. Turns out their uterus had been used so much, the blood vessels were extremely large and difficult to keep sewed together. The vet said they looked like the uterus of a boxer, not a nine pound shih tzu – Thankfully, both were repaired and are back with us.
Then, almost tragedy. Connie started crashing under anesthesia. She started breathing in a very labored manner so the vet opted to pull her out of anesthesia. Thankfully, he was able to pull her out of the crash and saved her life. He x-rayed her abdomen and chest and found….drum roll please…. a collapsed lung. Or missing lung, or something. Just not a lung full of oxygen.
See above, the dark area is a lung full of air – there is nothing on the other side. They believe it is collapsed and/or may be full of fluid.
As you all know, we try to raise funds from our newsletter supporters only for the unusual, extraordinary vetting. We do lots of other fundraisers – photoshoots, etc. But, our veterinarians have had to raise their prices this year – this is the first time in 4-5 years since the prices have gone up, and he does need to make a living. But, this is going to cause us to have to do one of two things – either cut back on the number of little fluffers we take in or ask you all for a tiny bit more per dog. We’re going to start by asking for a little bit more in donations – I know you all are hit hard by the economy too, but these dogs are being dumped left and right – so I just have to try!
We’ve just about figured out that the breeders are having trouble selling their “merchandise” so are now dumping the dogs so as not to have any more expenses. I’ll be telling you soon about a few more.
But, back to the Baton Sisters. For their vetting, they need the following…
Aliana Baton – $700 for the hernia repair, removal of her shrunken, damaged eye and her pyometria. If you can help this little puppymill survivor, CLICK HERE FOR PAYPAL, or to send a check, let me know HERE. Or, to use a credit card, DOWNLOAD the FORM HERE and fax it to me at 713-583-7816 or 281-754-4851.
Connie Baton – $400 for the ICU, X-rays and the consult with the Gulf Coast Radiologist. Another $400 for the ultrasound and consult with the internal medicine specialist at GC which is scheduled for TOMORROW. I may need to ask for a lot more if she needs speciality surgery. But for now, she needs a total of $800. If you can help this little puppymill survivor, CLICK HERE FOR PAYPAL, or to send a check, let me know HERE. Or, to use a credit card, DOWNLOAD the FORM HERE and fax it to me at 713-583-7816 or 281-754-4851.
