We got a call from a volunteer from the Harbor shelter telling us about a sweet boy named Dougal who had been hit by a car and was sitting in the shelter with a broken leg. She had managed to buy him two more days but was not having any luck finding anyone to take him. We took one look at that face and you know what we said.
All of our normal transporters were full up so we sent out a facebook plea and one of our supporters, Gwin came through for us. She drove down to the shelter the next day and took him to Carolyn’s. From there he was whisked off to the vet for a diagnosis. It was not good. The first xray showed that his front leg was broken in many places and he needed surgery. They were not sure at first if they could save the leg. But the real concern internal bleeding and shock. He needed a transfusion fast. Poor Dougal, he had been without medical care for days sitting in the shelter but his sweet personality had never wavered.
Here is the log of his progress during all this:
8/14 update…Thank goodness for the wonderful staff at Menifee Animal Hospital! Dougal needs a transfusion to stabilize for surgery. That is happening now. Once he is stabilized he will have surgery on that leg. We have a surgeon on call for tomorrow in hopes he will be ready to go. Keep your fingers crossed, his bills are going to hit $2,000 at least but it looks like we can save him and maybe even the leg too.
8/15 update Dougal is resting comfortably. The surgeon decided we need to wait until Monday for his surgery. In the mean time Dougal is gaining strength, getting his blood count up and enjoying loads of love and attention.
8/16 Update: Dougal is doing so much better today the surgeon has moved his surgery forward to today at noon. We are waiting the results with baited breath. Send him good thoughts and we will let you know how it went later tonight.
8/16 pm update: Dougal’s surgey ended up being far more complicated than we originally thought. His humorous ( the big bone at the top of the leg) was broken at the top, the bottom, in several pieces in between and worse it severed a nerve. But after a long 3 1/2 hour surgery, the surgeon is hopeful he will be walking on it soon. A huge thank you to the vet tech Erica, who brought her own dog in to give Dougal a transfusion today. A well as all the staff who still haven’t gone home yet. They are staying hours and hours late taking care of Dougal. Manifee Animal Hospital Rocks!
8/18 update: Dougal gets to come back to Carolyn’s today. You should see his huge splint! We will get pics soon. He goes back in one month to get the splint off and three months to get the plate out of the leg. He should have 30% use of the leg in 30 days, 60% in 60 days then 100% in Dec….we are so happy. His surgeon, Dr Beeley rocks! His bills are now up to $2400 but worth every cent.
Donations to help pay for Dougal’s medical costs:
Zooey was sitting in the Orange County shelter. She was a sight to behold. Big patches of hair missing, a huge cherry eye, terrible skin and butter ball fat. We were not surprised that no one seemed interested in adopting her. She looked awful. But after so many years of doing cocker rescue we could see past all that and saw a miserable but adorable little girl.
We pulled her, shaved her down and whisked her off to the vet. She didn’t look much better, her skin was red and crusty, her bald patches were more obvious. Once we put her on the meds for a slow thyroid and antibiotics for the secondary skin infections she started to perk up in a couple of days. When she was ready we took her in for surgery on that eye.
After a few weeks then a few more her hair grew in and she started to slim down a bit and a beautiful buff girl emerged like a butterfly. Now we had the girl we knew was under all that mess. Wow, what a knock out she is too.
