Hope is a 3 month old Australian Cattle Dog puppy who was turned in at FACE animal clinic in Indianapolis on Saturday December 19th, 2009. She was brought to the clinic by two kids who stated that they had found her in a carrier on the front porch of an abandoned house. Upon exam the Veterinarian and Techs found her to be severely emaciated, dehydrated, and covered in puss draining from several wounds on her shoulders and neck. They said they could smell her before they saw her, the stench from her draining wounds was so bad. They believe the wounds are from a large dog bite. The area of town that FACE is in is a very low income, high crime area,... one of the worst places in our city. It's also known to be an area where dog fighting is common. In the last few years there have been several dog fighting busts and confiscations of fighting dogs from this area, and there was recently even a semi truck found that had a dog fighting ring and seats set up in the trailer. Ofcourse, we'll never know what happened to Hope, or how she came to be found in this condition, but I do have a theory,... I wouldn't be surprised if she had been used as "bait" to teach a fighting dog to be more aqgressive to and bite other dogs. There have been several known cases where dog fighters will make a young puppy squeal and offer them to their dog to heighten the dogs aggression and prey drive.
My husband and I work as Nurses in a large Emergency and Trauma center in Indianapolis. We were working all weekend, so I didn't read the original emails to the Australian Cattle Dog lists that I subscribe to on Saturday. Apparently the Veterinarian that was filling in to help out at FACE animal clinic graduated Vet. school with my very good friend, Joanna. She knew Joanna had Australian Cattle Dogs and had emailed photos and info to her to ask if Joanna thought she was a purebred, and Joanna in turned sent an email for help to the Cattledog lists. By Sunday evening, while I was working, I received a private email from a concerned individual in Minnesota that had read about this puppy on the email lists and knew I lived in the area. This email had the photos attached of her wounds that are shown in Ben's "About Hope" post under "Hope Info" to the right. This puppy's story really upset me and I became physically nauseated to see her wounds, me a seasoned ER nurse who has seen humans with Decubitus ulcers, Scalp avulsions, massive Abscesses, and horrific traumas became nauseous. Who could do this to a puppy, or if it was in fact an accident that she was injured who would let her stay in that condition and abandon her in freezing temperatures outside? I was angry and heartbroken at the same time. I had to do something! I had to help this poor injured creature, and I felt that I could help her. I know how to change dressings and have helped patients with more complicated dressing changes than this puppy would need,... I thought. So, it was just a matter of my husband agreeing to help her also. I went to the area my husband was working in that evening but he was busy, so I told him in passing that I had to talk to him later and pulled up my email with the photos on the computer I knew he was working at, and went back to work. I recevied a phone call from him about 5 minutes later, "Where is this puppy and when are we getting her?"
So, one Monday December 21st I went to FACE clinic to pick her up. The Veterinary Technitions that work there are amazing. They were so concerned about the puppy and had her in their front office to watch her and offer her food and water as often as she would accept it. I'm not really sure what I expected this puppy to be doing when I arrived, I assumed, like any 3 month old Cattledog puppy that she'd be exploring or playful and therefore would need to be contained in a crate. She was not, this pitiful creature was laying on some blankets in the corner by the heat vents. She was bandaged from the back of her ears to the middle of her back with bulky gauze dressings and neon pink VetWrap. She didn't wag her tail or even look up at me, her eyes did move around to follow my movement but other than that she didn't even acknowledge my prescence. My 10 year old step-son was with me and had been told the story, I thought,... this puppy isn't going to make it through the night, how am I going to explain that to Nick when she dies? The girls at FACE clinic gave me all her medication and bandages, along with puppy pads and diapers and a bottle of sugar,... Sugar? They described her dressing changes and that they had taken her to the Emergency Vet clinic and were told she would require surgery on the wounds at some point when she was stronger and that she did not need wet to dry dressings as I had expected but she should have sugar applied to the wounds and dressings to help draw out the moisture and drainage and help fight the infection. The diapers were to go over the wounds to keep the sugar on them, then the diaper was wrapped in gauze and VetWrap to keep it in place.
She rode home on my son's lap, and I texted my husband who was in class to let me know we were on our way home with the puppy.
When Ben got home from class we changed her dressings for the first time:
We were all very emotional, the puppy was in pain and whined and cried during the whole process. Ben and I were very sad and I was on the verge of tears, Nick watched but didn't want to come too close and he had to leave the room for a while. Nick has never seen wounds like this, and never seen such an injured dog, he was very upset. But we all made it through this rough start and got her tucked into her new doggie bed.
At that point, Nick and I decided to call her Hope.
Hope couldn't stand, and had trouble stretching her neck down to drink or eat. We started out with giving her water from a plastic lid because we could hold it under her mouth and tilt it to make it easier for her to lap up, and she had to eat from a spoon or our fingers. She was moved to a puppy training pad on the floor to urinate and she could not stand or squat to pee. She laid down and stretched her back legs out a little to urinate. And she still had not deficated (3 days after she was found) but who knows how long she'd been without food. But the good news was, the wounds were pink and moist, and although there was some necrotic tissue and dead skin to slough off we could tell most of the necrotic tissue that we'd seen in the original photos was gone now. She is on two different antibiotics and a pain medication, so after taking her medicine she fell asleep for the night.
The next day, December 22nd, was better for everyone. We knew a little more about what to expect when we changed her dressings, and we discovered she likes soft Bil-Jac dog food and chicken meat. She was lifting her head to drink more and we started giving her water from a tea cup. She did well with that and her mucous membranes became more moist and had a better pink color throughout the day. In the evening she stood for about 30 seconds while we changed her dressings. She quickly became attached to us and began watching us as we moved about a room, and would acknowldge our arrival in a room by wagging her tail a few times. And we all received our first puppy kisses from her. Before bed that night I put one of the cat's Christmas collars on her to snap a photo:
She seems as thrilled to be wearing it as the cats are! She sleeps on our bed between myself and Ben. (We tease that the dogs are always coming between us) and that night was a restless night for us all. She had trouble getting comfortable in her pink bed, and finally scooted her way out of it to lay between out heads and use our pillows or our shoulders for her pillow. If one of us got up in the night though, she would scoot to face the door and cry and whine until we came back into the bedroom.
December 23rd was a big day for Hope. We made the hour and a half drive down to Bloomington, Indiana to see her new Vet. Joanna. Joanna and her staff were excited to see her, since they knew all about her story and had seen the original photos of her injuries. Hope did very well during the exam, she weighed in at 9 pounds while most 3 month old Cattledogs weigh around 15 pounds. She stood on the exam table for a long time so we could see and photograph her wounds. Joanna was very optimistic that the wounds could be closed sooner than we had anticipated and we set up her surgery for the Sunday after Christmas. We got a different prescription for pain medications to add to what Hope was already taking, and changed her dressings.
She was wiped out after all that and slept all the way back home in her dog bed.
Later that evening we went to the first of our three family Christmas gatherings, and Hope sat in her doggie bed on the couch while we opened presents. She got some chicken and roast beef to eat, and we finished the evening laying in front of the fireplace for a little nap.
December 24th, a pretty laid back day for us all. We spent most of the day spending family time with Hope on the couch and bed. She watched as we wrapped presents. And made a few small but significant steps to recovery. This morning she actually stood on her own without being lifted up, she took a few steps and repositioned herself on the bed to be closer to Ben and his pillow. She really likes to lick his beard also. When he went to the pharmacy to pick up her medications and get new non-adherent dressings for her she laid on his pillow. When he walked back in the room her tail went wild and she became very excited to see him, she sat up and wiggled all over and when he leaned closer he got a complete face washing from Hope.
She also played with a toy for about a minute, she was laying with the toy and started chewing and moving it before resting her head back down on it to use it as a pillow.
She ate much more today, although I would like to see her drink more. She would take a few laps of water when I asked her but didn't seem very interested in really drinking like she was yesterday. And after a large meal of chicken she finally had a bowel movement, 5 days after she was found.
She's now sleeping on the bed and waiting for Santa to arrive,...