Our incredible boy has defied all of the odds. The people that had him did everything they could to break his Spirit and destroy him physically. I am sure if they are looking at the updates (we do not know who they are) they are not the least bit surprised to see our dear boy surviving and thriving against the worst odds. It’s official, if his progress keeps going to way it is, FRECKLES is going to make it. Not only is he going to make it, but we feel very strongly we can save both of his badly damaged legs. We brought in the best team of Surgeons and Critical Care Physicians to oversee every bit of his care. No stone has gone unturned. At one point in his care, during the course of a 24 hour period, he had over 20 people all working on his medical and physical well-being. The cost for this kind of service and medical care is the highest we have ever seen and that is also with our big discount. The numbers are staggering. I am sure before I am done the medical cost will have caused me to either faint or develop a heart problem that causes your heart to stop several times a day from the sheer shock of it all since I am the one that guarantees all funds for animals we take in. Freckles is still in ICU and will be for another week until we can do a graft or are finally able to stretch what skin is left enough for us to sew up his final wounds. As long as they are still open, he will have to remain in ICU. People are always glad to donate in the beginning when the images of abuse and torture are fresh on their mind. What they forget is that the abused animal has months of medical care and then the rehab begins and after that the re-socialization and training before any of our animals can be placed in loving homes. Every animal gets this no matter what. It is what they all need to be re-introduced into a loving family. We do not set any of our animals up for FAILURE. We do everything possible for them to succeed and thrive in a loving Family environment. Please, don’t forget that FRECKLES bills will be going on for a long time. We need all the donations we can get so I can still help other animals that have been abused. We hope the worst is over for Freckles but he is still in a Critical Care Facility and will be there for probably another three weeks based on what the Doctor's said this morning. We greatly appreciate all that has been done for our courageous Little Boy Wonder. He is still here and his Journey to recovery continues.
Our sweet boy is exhausted after his early morning walk. The Vet Techs call the video below Hansel and Gretel because he is picking up treats along the little path they made just for him. Freckles had more surgery yesterday to begin the process of closing up the final wounds. They are slowly walking them in with stitches that are holding surgical ribbon so they can be pulled tighter each day and allow the skin to stretch. All of the infection is out of each wound and now the tissue is able to granulate and remain viable for this process. We are hopeful all remaining open wounds will be closed by the middle of next week. Freckles spirits remain good. As far as he is concerned, this is a pretty special home he lives in. Once his wounds are closed, he will still remain in ICU but he will be getting care that is one step below the care he is getting now.
Our Little Angel is stable enough that we were able to remove all IV’s and leave the Urinary Catheter only. Sweet Chelsea has decided that her care of Freckles requires her to cuddle up next to him and do all of his vitals this way along with doing extensive loving and massaging. This is a big step in his recovery. We have reached another milestone by him being off all critical care fluids and supplements. All his blood work has remained within the normal range since they have been removed. We will know more over the next few days if he can maintain a normal balance without supplemental care. As you can tell from the earlier videos, he is now beginning to use his legs more and is able to hold himself up and walk with a little bit of support. He is getting physical therapy all during the night and day to keep his muscles from atrophying. This coming week will tell us a lot about if he can go into his step-down care. It means he will still be in ICU but he will not be monitored on a minute to minute basis. If all goes well with his wound care today, we will be planning on doing a skin graft over the next couple of days which will be taken from his abdomen. It is hard to believe the Miracles we have seen since we first rescued sweet Freckles. He is definitely beating all the odds and winning.
Look who has decided he wants to walk right out of the hospital. I think our little boy thinks up ways to surprise us every day. As you can see from the video, he is still cupping under his feet a little. At this time we are not sure if that is a nerve problem or the fact his leg is bandaged or the ligaments are not strong enough to hold it in position. He is starting to correct it, which is good. The surgeons will be doing skin grafts to close up the final wounds. There is a point in healing when you need to do this to get the best possible outcome and that is where we are now. It will be 5+ hours of surgery and requires a specialist that has done lots of skin grafting which we have doing his surgery. Keep Freckles in your prayers for this procedure that the grafts take. We are expecting to have 10-20% tissue that will die off from the graft which is fine. It means we will have 70% that will be viable and that is enough to close up the major wounds on his legs. This surgery is another Milestone in our sweet boys recovery.
Sweet FRECKLES had his skin graft surgery that lasted 5 1/2 hours. He did great during surgery and has done well since then. Below are two videos that show you just how well he is doing. I have also posted a picture of him after all of the open wounds were finally closed up with the largest having a skin graft done on it. We are hoping to have about 80% of the graft that will take and are expecting about 20% die off which is normal. It is amazing to me how this little pup can go through all of this and still be happy and loving. I think it is important for everyone to have an opportunity to see all of the areas that were sewn up. With the bandages on, it is easy to forget all of the pain and suffering this little boy has gone through because he endures it all with the grace of a Saint. He amazes us every single second of the day with his strength and determination. Unfortunately, we got the final culture back from the exposed bone and it grew a very resistant Staph Infection. We are having a new sensitivity test done since it is resistant to all of the antibiotics we have and we are now reaching out to the Human Hospital in the area to get antibiotics to fight this. The good news is that his white blood count is going down instead of going up. He is back on Amikasin until the sensitivity comes back. Keep Freckles in your prayers that we can fight this.
Our sweet boy is doing wonderful. His bandages are being changed every second to third day so the skin graph can do it's magic. There is not going to be a lot of change as quick as it was in the beginning. I will be doing updates on him about every other day because of that. His wounds looks great and he is feeling good, not great but good since his last procedure. He needs to remain quiet so we can get the best possible outcome from the skin graft. His mood right now is like a little land shark with certain people. It is mostly men that he has a problem with right now. I am sure he has plenty of reasons to not trust people. Based on his reactions to men, we can assume it was a man or men that did this to him. When he gets scared, he lets out a horrifying scream that just breaks your heart because you know that is exactly how he was when he was tortured and there was nothing he could do. As you can see from a lot of the pics and videos, he is generally a happy pup. It is only when someone reminds him of something bad that he gets upset and that is not what we want. Our sweet boy has gained another pound and should start gaining more weight now that the wounds are not draining the way they have been for the last week. We have 38 abuse cases that are all in bad shape, that all need our attention. Please, give us time to post and know that if we haven't it is because we are way too busy saving animals. The surgical center right now is loaded with NAR dogs. I am too busy saving them to even have time to post for them or beg for funds. Enjoy the video and savor how far he has come.
Dear FRECKLES has another hurdle to cross over. He has come so far but the highly resistant infection he has has raised it’s ugly head in a terrible way. His spirits are good and he is up and getting around. Freckles is on a very powerful antibiotic that has a lot of side-effects. It is the only one left that is not resistant to Enteroccus. The Specialist are talking to the drug manufacturer Antech to see if there are any other drugs they can test for us against this resistant bug. Yesterday was when we noticed his ear becoming blue and cold from. The ear is becoming necrotic from a Thromboembolic Complication. We are now determining if it is from the Vancomycin he is on. We will know more today if he gets more lesions on his body. The next thing we are looking into is a Hyperbaric Chamber. The closest one is in Florida. We are determining now if that will help us with the systemic infection that is in his body. He will be stable enough to travel there with a Vet. Tech in one week. We have lots of variable going on with our dear boy. His spirits are wonderful and he is getting up and around which is always great news. Keep him in your prayers that we come up with another Miracle for our sweet little Angel.
