Words cannot even begin to describe the pain and suffering this sweet dog has had to endure at the hands of his so called owners. Duke is a 4 year old boxer mix that has been living outside in Lee County, Virginia. He has been chain up, living outside with a surgical orthopedic rod sticking out of his hip. He had orthopedic surgery in 2007 and the owners never took this poor dog back to the surgical center to get the pin removed. They have even tried to cut the pin with a bolt cutter. Whatever good the pin was originally doing, it has now become this sweet dogs worst nightmare. He has endured harsh winters outside and has not been given any medical care for this problem. We are shocked he is still alive. His entire hip and leg is terribly infected and he has a terrible cough from the life he has lived outside. He has been picked up in Virginia and is on his way to South Carolina to a surgical center where we are trying to save not only his leg but his life. We do not know anything else about his health except what we have physically seen. These people should be locked up for allowing this to happen tot his dog. We have had the vet that originally saw him contact the sheriff and the animal control in that area.
We need everyone to donate to help save this dog. If you haven’t donated, then please donate now so we can save his life and find him a loving home. If you can’t, then please crosspost to everyone you know. We have to get the funds to save him.
Duke will be having his surgery today Friday instead of yesterday. We wanted to get his blood count up from his infection before we went in and worked on his leg which is quite extensive surgery. He is doing great this morning. We will post an update after his operation.
Friday April 30, 2010
Duke had his surgery this afternoon. The plate was removed from surgery he had in 2007. The infection he had was so bad that his femur head was completely destroyed. The did a femur head osteotomy during surgery. It is going to be a long time before Duke will be able to use his back leg because he has so much atrophy in the leg. He will be at the surgical facility for two weeks doing rehab several times a day to see how quickly we can put some muscle back on the leg. We have raised up his chip-in because his rehab is between $200 & $250. depending on what they are able to do with him. He is very lucky to be alive and have his leg. Through all of this he has been the sweetest dog. He hasn’t growled or caused anyone any problems. He just wags his tail and is happy to be out of his horrible situation. This boy knows he was saved.
Duke is still at the surgical facility going through rehab. He has started to barely touch the floor with his bad leg. We will keep working this leg until he starts to use it again. It is going to be a long slow process but we will get there with this incredible boy. How anyone could have allowed such a sweet animal to be in this kind of pain and not taken care of him is just terrible. We love Duke. He will make a wonderful member of the family for some lucky person.
Duke has gone to his foster home while he recovers. He will be going into the surgical facility to have rehab three days a week. He is putting a little bit of weight on the leg which we are glad to finally see. He is doing great otherwise and is a wonderful dog. Really, really sweet.
Duke is still having some issues with his leg. The atrophy is so bad that it is going to be a while before he gets the use of his leg back. We are doing lots of rehab and desperately still need funds for this boy so he can get the rehab he so desperately needs to get over this.
