BURGAW, NC.......Penny is a 5 month old adorable Pitbull Mix that was brought into the Pender County Shelter after being thrown out of a car window into a ditch. A couple witnessed her being thrown and then pulled over to get her out of the ditch. They weren’t sure if she had anything broken or what was wrong with her since she was in such terrible shape. The good news was that she was rescued. The bad news is that she was taken to a kill shelter that has to put down healthy animals. Injured, abused ones do not have much of a chance. Sweet Penny was lucky because we were contacted and had her immediately taken to our vet in Columbia, SC. So far we have not been able to find any broken bones. She is very sore and bruised from being thrown but that is minor compared to the demodex and skin infections she has. Her little body is a hot mess of infection and discomfort. She has the typical intestinal parasites and anemia for an abused animal but those are still minor. Our biggest concern is getting her infections under control. After we do that, we can then focus on the demodex. I hear from people all the time that demodex is so easy to treat. On some animals it is when it has not gotten as infected as this. You have to be very careful of the dose of medicine you use so you do not compromise their immune system any further. The cultures on Penny came back with E-Coli and Staph. Right off the bat, our little girl has a long road ahead to get over both of these. We see so many of these poor animals that we have just about seen it all. Each case is unique and should never be treated as one size fits all for demodex. There are always a lot more variables that need to be taken into consideration. The other issue Penny has is that she is completely DEAF. White pits with green eyes are very often deaf. She seems to be dealing with everything just fine, since we finally got her comfortable. She is on a strict protocol to ensure her safety and to get her over all of her conditions. All our little girl wants to do is be loved and play. We will be evaluating her personality more each week based on her deafness to see if there is anything in particular that bothers her. Right now she is as sweet as can be. What someone else discarded and abused is a shiny little Penny to us.
Our sweet girl is on the mend. Her fur is beginning to come in and the raw places are drying up. She is the cutest puppy and is so loving. Her bloodwork is normalizing and her infections are improving. She is not the hot mess of infection she was when we first got her. Penny’s eyes and nose seem to be telling her everything that her ears cannot tell her about the surroundings she is in. There are certain surroundings that she will not be aware of if she is in danger which is why she will have to always be a special needs little girl to make sure she is always safe. It will be months before Penny gets all of her hair back. Right now, she is on the right track to be a beautiful healthy little pup that will have a long, healthy life filled with lots of love and affection.
Look how great Penny is doing. Her skin has improved a lot over the last month and she is still the sweetest dog you will ever meet. She and Pilgrim are best friends and play together all day long.
