Poor Luke has got to be one of the saddest cases we have had in a long time. All of the pups we save are sad and desperate but his reaches down into your Soul. Luke was so distraught and scared that I decided we needed to go ahead and get him out of the Hospital for a couple of days to get him settled down. The good news is within a couple of hours of being with us at the Rehab Center, he began to relax and was no longer fearful.
He is so starved that it is hard to believe he has the strength to take two steps. He looks like a dog that is not going to live past the end of the day. His eyes are sunken into the back of his eye socket. His nasal cavity and eyes are infected and drain constantly. I have seen a lot of sick dogs but what has happened to Luke is beyond inhumane.
Luke has gone back and forth to the vet to have his bandages changed because that is one place where he does not like us fooling around. His leg hurts even on his pain meds and is horribly infected. Even though he is on the proper antibiotics for the bacteria he is growing; his leg drains continuously. I finally decided it was too risky to keep the leg with the nasty infection he has.
Luke is going back to CVRC tomorrow to have his damaged leg removed. Keeping it any longer in hopes we can come up with a prosthetic that might work is too risky. His infection appears to have invaded the bone, and that can cost him his Life. We are not going to risk it which is why we have made this decision. All of Luke's Specialists have gone over his values, and they feel it is now or never with his surgery. He is strong enough to survive the surgery to remove the leg but not strong enough to withstand the infection if it continues up his leg.
The only good news we have is Luke's intestinal biopsy did not show any cancer. We believe his issues are from being starved almost to death. The medication we have him on for his constant diarrhea is working, and we have been able to increase his calories and change his food to a high-quality kibble which he loves. Luke is still in danger of Re-Feeding Syndrome which is why we have to regulate his food and slowly increase it.
We have only had Luke at the Rehab Center for a couple of days but what we have discovered is he loves everyone and does not have a mean bone in his body. He needed a place where he felt safe, and that is what he has with us. We hate taking him back to ICU tomorrow but we have to so he can have his bad leg removed. We knew it was only temporary when we took him out, but it still breaks our hearts to see how scared he gets.
We are hopeful he will bounce back, and we can bring him back in a couple of days. A lot of Specialists have to be involved in his surgery on Tuesday to make sure he pulls through his procedure. Luke's bills are already over the top. Please, continue to Donate and share with your friends so he can get everything he needs to survive the horrible Nightmare he had to endure to survive. Luke is a fabulous dog that should have never been in the horrible situation he was put in. He is a sweet, loving, Gentle Giant that wants nothing but Love.
