Shannon from Idaho called us about a three yr old girl she had seen on line in the Downey shelter. Shannon wanted her to adopt her but need help since she was so far away. Shannon told us this girl just had a litter and all the puppies died and she was sick too but the shelter didn’t know exactly what was wrong. We said we would commit to pulling her if Shannon would go through our normal adoption process.
When we sent, Meg, our transporter to pick Hope Meg called us immediately and said Hope was so weak she could not walk and had to be wheeled out of the shelter in a wagon. She couldn’t even lift her head. We phoned the vet to be ready took her straight there. When Dr Card called with our first update she said Hope had a horrible case of fleas and lice and she was so anemic she needed a blood transfusion immediately or she would die. Her core temp was down to 91 degrees and she was very close to dying. Dr Card had already sent for the dog who will be donating and he was on his way to the clinic as we spoke.
This severe anemia turned out to be a severe case of flea infestation, they were that bad. Dr Card confirmed that is what is most likely to have killed Hope’s puppies. When we took blood for a blood test to see if anything else was wrong her blood was so watery and diluted the machine did not recognize it as blood. They had add in a plasma transfusion too. After the transfusions her blood cell counts started to come up. The first one was 5 and as the vet tech said, anything under 8 is not consistent with life.
When Hope came in she was too weak to lift her head or scratch at a flea. After her transfusions she was picking her head up and her nub was wagging. Krista and Amy stayed late with her that first night trying to shave off her moldy dread locks because they were worried she might have maggots underneath everything.
When the staff got in the next day Hope was standing on her own and she had stolen the staff’s hearts with her brave determination and fight. It was amazing that she was even alive. That morning her PCV count had gone up to 20.
Even though they had given her a Capstar to kill the fleas when she came in, they had to shave her, bathe her and give her another Capstar before all the fleas were dead.
We want to thank Dr. Amy Card for being such an awesome vet, Nicole (front desk) and Krista ( RVT), Amy’s sister for bringing in her personal dog for the blood transfusion, and her mom for running down to CVS Emergency Room to get Plasma for Hope. They ALL played a part in saving Hope’s life. They all stayed late last night to get the moldy dreak-locks off Hope and gave her a bath….and to make sure she didn’t have a bad reaction to the transfusion, etc. As Dr. Card put it…”we are in this with you” and that is one of the many reasons we followed her to her new practice. We accept nothing less than the best from our vets and Dr Card has delivered every time! The name of the practice is Sycamore Creek Animal Hospital and we LOVE them.
Hope will be ready to be spayed in 2-4 weeks then Shannon and her family can take her home.
Donations for Hope
