I wish I had good news for this sweet, sweet dog but sadly I do not. We were prepared for the next week to be hard on him after the major surgical procedure he had, but the way he is now is heart-breaking.  His Albumin Level dropped critically low, and I had to either say Good-Bye to him or keep going forward and give his body time to catch up.  The Albumin is very costly at close to $1400. all by itself.  I went ahead and agreed to it and to keep going.  His albumin levels have gone up and are improving.  This has to happen for him to heal.

That was the good part but getting food in him and out of his body has not corrected itself.  Right now, he has so much inflammation that swelling is causing his body not to function appropriately where the surgery was done.   We were told in advance his surgery had risks, but we felt he should be given this opportunity to survive.  He is going to need at least two more weeks in the hospital to allow his body to adapt and his bill is already at $13,000.  We are doing everything in our power to save this sweet dog.

I reached out to his Owners to get more information to see what happened and got a different picture than what we had initially thought.  The Wife had to go into the hospital suddenly, and they asked their neighbor to look after Bentley. Their neighbor was to keep him in the owners home, go over, take for walks and feed him.  During the time they were doing this, the neighbor decided to bring Bentley to their home to stay since they had a yard.  Someone left the gate open, and Bentley got out.  

During this time is when he was hurt but does not explain his weight loss.  The Owner swears he was never sick with them and was healthy.  I can tell you this:  it is almost impossible for a healthy animal to get emaciated in ten days.  He had to have been losing weight before he got out.   The reason why owners have to sign a dog over is so the Rescue can make Medical decisions on the dog's behalf.   To get the dog back, they have to fill out our Adoption Application, so we can get enough information to make sure we are not putting a sick, neglected animal back into the hands of someone that neglected him.

I was feeling good about this Family at the beginning and thought it would be good for Bentley to see them.  She came by briefly, and I have heard very little from them since. If someone had stepped up to save MY dog that was critical, I would practically live at the hospital loving on him and would be so grateful.  Instead, none of that has happened.  They pretty much have washed their hands of him.  I am so disappointed in this Family and what this sweet dog is going through.  They should have known there was a problem prior to him going missing.

I have no one to blame but me for wanting to see the good instead of the bad in people.  In the meantime, we are all sweet Bentley has, and we are going to do everything possible to save him, but we need your help desperately to stay on top of his bills and keep treating him.  I wish I had a magic ball to look in to see how this would turn out, but that is never going to happen.  All we can do is listen to his Specialists and do what they say.  This procedure is one, even I have never done before, and that is saying a lot.  Please, please, please PRAY for Bentley, and you can spare anything, give to this sweet dog.