I am happy to report that dear Bentley is slowly improving. His Journey to healing has been a long hard one since we have had one complication after another. On top of all that, he is scared to death in the hospital and has bit several of the Vet Techs. He is not a vicious dog but a dog that was so vulnerable that he is fearful of everyone.
Dr. Kristin Welch has been over-seeing his Medical Treatment and Dr. Rachel Seibert has been his Surgeon throughout all of his procedures. He has had his stitches removed from his exploratory intestinal surgery but still has stitches from his leg wound. The staples have been removed but not the stitches. The leg wound has a lot of tension surrounding the closed area which is why the surgeon felt it was wise to wait longer before removing the stitches. Those will be taken out on Sunday by Dr. Welch.
The good news is that Bentley has been able to keep his food down and has been able to use the bathroom without any straining. His food has to be blended to a fine past to ensure the area that was repaired has time to heal before anything larger is given to him. Our hope is he will eventually be able to eat regular food. For the time being, he has to remain on the Recovery Food that Royal Canin and Robin Beller so generously donated for his Care.
Bentley has gained a small amount of weight but is still way behind. We are past the point where Re-Feeding Syndrome is an issue. It is just a matter of him being able to process a larger amount of food without it causing him complications. Each week his food volume is increased. We have just added two more cans per day which he has been able to tolerate. Dr. Welch will calculate his weight on Sunday along with his caloric value to determine how much we will need to increase to get more weight on him.
Sweet Bentley has a long road ahead before he will be back to a normal weight. It is going to be months of special care. The good news is he has survived and is healing. The surgery he had was Life-Saving. It is just a matter of time before he has regained all of his weight. His energy level has improved dramatically and can pull you all over the yard.
I wish I could say, the worst is over. I am reminded by his Surgeon and Critical Care Physician how he could take a turn for the worse if the area they repaired became obstructed. That is the reason for blending his food and only giving him food that is easily digested. Both Vets are hopeful he has made it this far. We are cautiously optimistic this sweet boy will have a full recovery.
Bentley's Bills for Surgery and Critical Care in ICU for two weeks are right under $20,000. That is a big hit for us at Noah's Arks Rescue given all the other dogs we have and continue to have that are abused and neglected. What started out as a gaping wound soon became emergency intestinal surgery. You never know when you rescue an animal like Bentley what you are going to get. When we commit to a dog, we do it to save their Life. Any other Rescue would have let him go a long time ago.
Our Mission is always the same for every animal we save. If the animal is fighting to be here and there is a Medical Condition we can fix, we are going to do it. Quality of Life is the ultimate Goal for every dog we take on. Please, Donate toward Bentley's Massive Medical Bills so we can continue our Mission of saving Abused Dogs that are scheduled to be Euthanized.
