Chevy vol 1

So first I would like to give you a short introduction to Chevy:

Chevy is a black, with little bit of white, lab cross of about 5 months who was brought to us at the beginning of August having been presumably hit by a car. She had some nasty road rash on her hind legs and appeared shocky. We gave her some iv fluids and kept her warm (almost the most we can do in an emergency at the shelter) and sent her to a vet clinic who does most of our orthopedic work.

They took x-rays and found that she had many many broken bones in her hind quarters. Several spots in her pelvis, and a couple of major leg bones. She even had one sorta like this one, where the head of the femur is broken off in the hip socket.

They did a few of the surgeries trying to make her legs usable again, but in the meantime she caught a nasty nasty cold. She stopped eating. Between the cold and living her life in a small cage with no love and only casual contact, she gave up.

When another patient of mine died of depression for much the same reason the clinic sent her back to us hoping that we could snap her out of it. Clinic's can't provide daily nursing TLC like an owner can. That's why most clinics don't do long term boarding!!! (Yes dogs do suffer from depression, and they will go anorexic and stop eating!)

So poor Chevy came back to the Shelter looking very very skinny and very depressed and without much of an appetite.

We kept her going but just barely.

Two days ago, it was apparent to me, just looking into her eyes, that if she did not get out of the shelter she was going to give up and die.

I brought her home.

I put her on IV fluids and two types of antibiotics to fight the infection. I put her on cough suppresant and vitamin B. I force fed her baby food and gave her bacon, which she decided was well worth eating initially.

Then I gave her love and I introduced her to the BEST medicine. SAM :)

I let her sit with me in bed while I read for a while. She leaned up against me and, wheezing and coughing, snuggled up until she was almost on top of me.

Poor girl, every time she would try to lay flat she would start coughing. Like a baby with a chest infection that can't sleep, the lack of rest was eating at her.

Gradually over the past 48hrs I have seen her come alive. She still can't get quite comfortable flat. But if she is sitting up or walking around, she isn't coughing. She tries to follow Sam and I around the house, but her leg doesn't quite work perfectly. Her energy is up. Her appetite is improving. She ate a handful of kibble just to be like the big dogs, though she didn't touch her dinner of hamburger and butter. She likes it aged a bit and will probably eat it later tonight.

It amazes me to see how much she has improved just with a little love! The medicine is good, and its helping to heal her, but without the love, without knowing there was something to live for, she would have given up.

She almost had....

So now we have a long road to full recovery. She will need to completely shake this cold and gain some weight before she can go back to have her pin removed and her other hip surgery. Then she will have 4-8 weeks of further cage rest before she can go out for adoption. Perhaps once she is stable again I will find her a nice foster home.

I have been down this road before. Leo, my perhaps catahoula, perhaps smooth collie cross, was much the same as Chevy. He was taken from his mom at 4 weeks and thought that was simply too much to ask of a small one. So at 5 or 6 weeks, he too, stopped eating. He had nothing like her excuse. He was in a nice foster home, but apparently he was very unhappy. He lost most of his weight and was severely dehydrated. His skin literally hung off of his skeleton. Well, we brought him home and immediately he fell in love with Jason and they have not parted since. Leo improved and was eating on his own in less than 72hrs after coming to my house and participating in the same medical regime that Chevy is on now. These are the pics of Leo as he was just after his recovery and now 6months later.

So, watch this blog for Chevy's progress and to learn more about some of the "notables" at the shelter!