DECATUR, GA....Sweet Belle is a 7 year old beautiful Pitbull / Staffordshire Terrier that was hit by a car in Dekalb County. She was taken to the Emergency Clinic where it was determined she has head trauma, multiple lacerations, an acetabular fracture-Left with dislocation of femur, right fracture of ischium at acetabulum and a left sacroiliac separation. She is all broken up in her rear area and needs major surgery to put her back together again. On top of all this, she is loaded with parasites and is heartworm positive. Belle waited at the shelter for someone to come and get her. We waited and waited for another rescue to come and get her. During all this time, she was as sweet as could be. With all the pain she was in, she never did anything but give lots of kisses to anyone that would stop and pat her on the head. The day came when her hold time was up and she was going to be euthanized. It bothered me all day. I sent her around to lots of other rescues because we have our hands full with the dogs we have. NOTHING. NO ONE WANTED HER BECAUSE SHE IS A PIT. They didn’t even care that she is sweet and loving. It was a quick NO. By the end of the day, I was so upset that no one was willing to help her (even if I personally paid her medical bills) that I decided I was not going to be like everyone else and had her picked up and taken to the veterinary hospital. Belle is scheduled to have surgery tomorrow to start her road to recovery and hopefully a wonderful new home where she will be loved and cherished for the beautiful sweet dog she is.
Belle is NOT DOING WELL and has been taken to the surgical facility. She is experiencing neurological problems from her accident and appears also to have a bone infection that is causing her to have paralysis in her rear section. We will post more when we know it and put up a new chip-in for her at that time. Right now she has a very high fever that we are having a difficult time controlling. She will remain at the Surgical / Emergency facility until we find out what is causing this and how to get her well.
BELLE.....Out sweet girl has really been through it. She still has a very high fever but we know more this morning than we did yesterday. After an MRI at Carolina Vet. Hospital the neurology team discovered that Belle has a terrible infection in her spine that has gotten into her spinal fluid. She will have surgery this morning to save her life, otherwise she will die from the infection. I will send around a full report and chip-in once she is out of surgery and we know what what her prognosis is. Say lots of prayers for our sweet girl.
SWEET BELLE’S health went from good to bad to terrible in the course of two weeks. We thought the worse was over for her once we did a Femoral Head Ostectomy to correct her shattered femur. Her pain was getting better and her blood work was normal. All she had to do now was continue her restricted exercise and she would be as good as we could get her. About 10 days ago she started running a high fever. Cultures were taken, antibiotics were administered based on the culture results but our wonderful girl did not improve. She felt so bad she didn’t want to eat or go outside. During all this time, she is being closely monitored at the vet and under medical care all the time. She progressively got worse and Friday of last week she was taken to the Surgical Facility in Columbia, SC to see if they could help her. A Cat Scan was done and they surgically went in and took a sample of an area that looked suspect on the scan. The Culture came back negative because she had been on antibiotics for the last two weeks. During all this time, her fever was getting higher and higher. The surgical facility was as frustrated as we were and now Belle was losing her ability to walk. The surgeons ordered a wheelchair for her but that was not going to keep Belle alive. After several phone calls from lots of surgeons to other surgeons to Neurologist, we finally found a team in Charlotte that thought they had an idea what was going on but she needed to get there ASAP and have an MRI done. Once the MRI was done on Wednesday, they discovered lots of pockets that appeared to be an infection in her spine. She was scheduled for spinal surgery the next morning. When the surgeons opened her up, they soon realized that her body had become septic from an infection in her blood and it had burst a disc in her back. They physically removed the infected fluid in her spine and removed scar tissue they was caused from her original car accident that was putting pressure on her spinal column. Her fever is down and now we will just have to wait. She will be at the Charlotte Surgical Facility until next week and is on IV antibiotics while she is there. She is still very sick but at least now we know what we are dealing with and have a chance at saving her life. Once she is released, she will have to be on antibiotics to rid her body of the infection that almost killed her for several months along with supplemental support to holistically build her system back. We adore this wonderful girl and are determined she is going to get the life we wanted her to have when we rescued her. Please, help us with these enormous bills so we can continue to help other animals in need.
BELLE is hanging in there at the surgical facility in Charlotte. She is still real weak but is improving. She will be there in to next week. She is walking a little since the surgery.
Our sweet Belle survived the operation and is still at the surgical facility in Charlotte, NC. She will be there into this week and then will be transferred to a rehab facility in Aiken, GA where she will begin the process of restoring her ability to walk again. We cannot guarantee that she will be able to use her back legs again but after the surgery her prognosis is very good. She has already started to use them but cannot do it for very long without falling down. This is good news for her because she could have been paralyzed from her ruptured disc and the infection. We will do whatever we need to do for her to be able to walk on her own again. If she is not able to walk on her own after exhausting all possibilities, only then will we resort to putting her in a cart. Animals do wonderful in carts if that is their only hope to get around. Belle still has normal function of her kidneys and bowel which is wonderful news for her. That part of her body has not been affected by the infection or the surgery. Her fever is staying down from the IV antibiotics and we are hopeful the worst will be over for her once this part of her treatment is completed.
Belle is still at the surgical facility. She hasn’t changed any and is still terribly sick. We are getting her up and down to do therapy on her leg and to keep her moving so she doesn’t atrophy but she doesn’t feel like doing anything but sleep. She has been through so much and her body’s immune system has go to be build up before she can fight this. We consulted with a holistic physician in Oregon and we have a protocol we will be using on her to help her body fight the MRSA infection. She is a long way from surviving this and now needs a lot of prayers.
BELLE is doing 1000% better. She is not out of the woods but is doing better. She walked down the steps and into the yard by herself in this picture. YEA...BELLE.
BELLE is back in the hospital. Her MRSA staph infection is not going away and we have started her on another medicine. She has more compressed disc in her spine but we will not do surgery unless we can get rid of her infection. Keep BELLE in your prayers.
BELLE is finally improving. Keep saying your prayers for her.
Belle is finally over her MRSA staph infection. She still has to walk a little crippled because of the injury to her spine from the infection but she is well and doing great. There were a million different times we thought we were losing this wonderful girl but we never gave up. Look at her sweet smile below.
Adorable BELLE is finally ready for her new home. She is over her staph infection and loves being around people. Because of her back injuries we do not want her with any other animals. She loves being around family and will give you kisses all day long.
Our wonderful girl is finally ready for her new home. Look at that smile. She is a dollbaby to have around. Belle needs to be placed with submissive dog and then does not feel threatened. She is all healed and ready to go.
