Lady’s Island, SC......Adorable Harry is a 2 year old Llaso Apso that was hit by a car last Friday. He was picked up by a Good Samaritan that contacted Animal Control and was immediately taken to a vet in Beaufort. Harry was in complete shock when he arrived. He has 4 breaks in his rear section, nerve damage and extensive internal injuries. Animal Control put the word out to see if they could find the Owner of sweet Harry so he could be saved but they could not. He had no identification. The doctor recommended putting Harry down since he had such extensive injuries and no Owner could be found. The medical bills alone to give Harry a fighting chance were going to be astronomical. Right before they put him down, I was contacted by the AC Officer to see if there was anyway I would consider stepping up for him. They knew it was a long shot but wanted to say they had asked and made us aware of him. After getting all of the facts, pictures, x-rays, etc., I decided this little pup deserved a chance. He was hopefully young enough to endure all the surgery and critical care he was going to need to survive. I said yes and he was transported to CVRC in Charleston, SC. Harry survived the week-end. His rear legs and spine were such a mess that I now had to make a decision as to what kind of surgery to do first. The swelling was causing him to have lots of nerve disfunction. We couldn’t get a clear picture as to if he was going to be able to use both legs once fixed. We brought in a Neurosurgeon and did a Nerve Conduction Test. It was determined that one leg was great and the other had nerve function down to the Hock only. I decided to have them fix both legs and hopefully not have to amputate the worst leg down the road. Harry is still in Critical Care but is improving. He is heavily sedated to keep him comfortable at all times. We have a Physical Therapist that is working with him to restore the function in his legs and get the swelling down. I NEVER post for any animal until I feel great about them surviving. I now feel comfortable that the worst is over for Harry. He still has a long, long way to go but he will survive and improve with all of the incredible care he is getting. Harry’s Owner eventually came forward. She was told exactly what had happened and was glad he was saved from being put to sleep. She will not get him back because he was an un neutered male that kept getting out of his fenced yard and it had been reported to the AC in the area. Right now, all we care about is getting Humpty-Dumpty back together again. Harry is the most loving little dog. He has not growled at anyone through all of this. He is unbelievably sweet and loving and will make a wonderful member of any Family once he has recovered from this horrible ordeal.
Harry is still with us and improving each day. We can officially say the worst is over. He has had non-stop bloody diarrhea since we got him. Part of that is from the medicine but the bulk is from the injuries to his rear section and parasites. He is still in Critical Care and will be for the rest of the week until he is stable. His swelling is slowly beginning to go down. We are weaning him of his IV pain meds so he can start walking around. He will walk a few steps and then sit down. Any forward motion is a very good sign. He gets some form of rehab almost every day.
Wonderful Harry is just now beginning to use his rear legs. He can’t use them a lot but atleast he is putting weight on them. In the beginning all he wanted to do was walk on his front legs. He was in so much pain that he would not use his rear legs at all. He would just lay there with them in very strange positions. After extensive rehab daily, he is getting strength back in his legs. He has a long way to go but this is remarkable progress for him. We still feel confident he will be able to walk in the near future. It is just going to take a lot of rehab and physical therapy. Through all of this, Harry has not complained once. He is the sweetest little boy. He is going to make a wonderful addition to any family. We love this incredible little boy.
Our sweet little Harry is finally out of the hospital but still has a lot of rehab ahead of him. The problem right now is keeping his pain level down. His poor little sacrum is crushed so going to the bathroom is excruciating for him. We keep him with soft stools to make the process as easy as possible. It breaks our hearts to see him go through all of this. He would probably not be going through this pain and suffering if he had been neutered and the fence had been fixed. Unneutered males will do anything to get to a female in heat. This isn’t Rocket Science to figure this out. Spay and neuter your animals if your love and care about them. They will live a much longer, happier life that way. Sweet Harry is still as loving and caring as he has been from the beginning. He does not complain at all which is why this is so difficult for us. He tolerates the rehab with nothing more than a whimper and we know he is very painful. Thanks for helping us with our dear boy. He has a long way to go but we will be with him all the way to the end.
After lots of surgery, rehab, x-rays, rehab, more pain meds we finally came to the conclusion that it was time for our sweet Harry to go back to being a real dog without pain. We did everything to save his leg. We were able to correct his pelvis to where he no longer was suffering. The problem has been the leg. All the surgery in the world and the rehab could never get him comfortable. We decided the best thing for him in the long run was to remove the leg which we did last week. Within hours of doing the surgery, he was up and walking around like he was finally free of all the pain and suffering he had endured for the last 2 months. It is always hard to remove an animals leg until you know it is the only way for them to finally be pain free. Our little angel is running like the wind on three legs and is so happy. If you would like to donate toward all the surgeries and rehab we have done, we would greatly appreciate it. Our little boy is finally ready for his new loving home. He is an incredible dog that everyone will cherish and love for the joyful, brave little man that he is.
