PEACHTREE CITY, GA......Adorable Minnie is a two-year-old Minnie Aussie that was hit by a car after a family member left the dog outside on a busy street. The person when back inside, and when he came out again, he noticed Minnie was limping. He later noticed she had blood on her body and took her to the vet. The Family could not afford the medical bills for her surgery, and the only option they had to save her was to sign her over to a reputable group.
I always help people with unfortunate situations and work something out with them if possible. I DO NOT give animals back to neglectful families by allowing an unleashed dog to roam free on a busy road. Accidents happen, and when they do, you need to be prepared to take care of the innocent pup or keep them on a leash.
Minnie was in the worst shape you could ever imagine. She had a right radius/ulna fracture which needed plates and screws, and a right calcaneus fracture, which required a pin and tension band. On top of this, her pads had been poorly damaged and were beginning to sluff off. Adorable Minnie was in terrible pain but could not have been sweeter.
I had Minnie picked up and taken to CVRC in Charleston, SC, where the ER Team awaited her arrival. Minnie is another Humpty-Dumpty case where she is lucky to be alive. Her poor body is broken and bruised, with wounds on her feet. The ER Team stabilized Minnie and did all the necessary measures to stabilize her so she could have surgery in the next couple of days.
Dr. Steve Garnett was the surgeon on call the day Minnie was able to have her surgery. He went into great detail with me about Minnie's injuries' complications. Our sweet Angel needed to be fixed, and money was not going to get in the way of her getting the best possible care. I approved for him to do whatever he needed to give her the best possible outcome.
What Owners don't realize is timing is critical when it comes to significant injuries. Scar tissue begins to form almost immediately, and nerve damage becomes permanent. Each day a spinal injury is not treated, it is one day closer to the outcome not being good. Blood supply is cut off, areas begin to die, and infection takes over. By the time we got our hands on Minnie, it had been almost a week, and she needed surgery yesterday.
Minnie did exceptionally well with her surgeries but had to stay in the hospital for almost a week. The injuries to the pads of her feet had become necrotic and were infected. We opted to have her stay in ICU to ensure this area was healing before bringing her to our Rehab Facility.
Minnie required daily wound care to stay on top of her infection. The surgery she had was healing beautifully. The only hang-up was the infected feet, a constant battle to keep on top of. After four weeks, we finally began to breathe a sigh of relief. Minnie is now in the Rehab part of her Journey, which will give her back the ability to walk as normally as possible. She has a month of rehab, and then we will know if she lacks in any area. We hope she can run around and play and return to being a puppy.
If you think one orthopedic surgical procedure is expensive, try doing two on the same dog. You end up with thousands of dollars for plates, pins, and screws, which does not even include the surgery to put them on.
We have done the hard part, and now we need to pay for her surgeries and medical bills. Please, DONATE whatever you can for this very special two-year-old mini Aussie.
Have a safe Memorial Day weekend.
