CHARLESTON, SC......Sir DUTCH is a beautiful 3 year old Pitbull with gorgeous blue eyes. He was brought to Charleston Veterinary Referral Center to their emergency facility because of vomiting, discomfort and overall distress. He had been this way for several days and was getting worse. The hospital suspected he had a bowel obstruction but the young people that had him did not have the funds to take care of him and wanted to put him to sleep. We were contacted and he was signed over to us. Sir DUTCH had emergency surgery to remove a bowel obstruction. The cat scan clearly showed he had something lodged in his intestine. Once they got him open, they removed a two inch piece of rawhide that was going to kill him. We talk all the time about not giving any of your animals raw hide. Dogs chew on them until they are small enough for them to swallow and then the object swells and becomes dislodged. Too many animals die each year because of this. This was not a large piece. This is one more example of a sweet dog that was going to be PTS because he was given something that he shouldn’t have had. Any large breed dog should be closely monitored with anything they are chewing on that could be swallowed whole or bit off into a chunk big enough to become obstructed. If you care about your animals, DO NOT feed them any form of rawhide. I have done so many of these operations that it is not about if it will happen but more about when it will happen. Do not take a chance on your animals life, especially if you cannot afford to pay to have it removed. Sir Dutch is still in critical care. He was allowed to be this way without medical care for far too long and by the time we got him, he had complications. We are now dealing with lots of swelling and cellulitis. Once he is well, he is going to be the greatest dog. He bonds with people quickly and wants that person to be his person. We will have to work with him on that. He has been in so much pain that the first couple of days he was very sensitive and didn’t want anyone to touch him. He is now settling down and beginning to feel much better. As soon as he is well enough, he will be transferred out of critical care into a regular hospital. We are so glad we were able to save Sir Dutch. Most of the time the animals die a horrible death and they are never given medical care. Don’t let this happen to your dog.
Our sweet boy is finally beginning to get over his bowel obstruction surgery. Every time we turned around, his life seemed to be in danger of him losing his battle from the obstruction. Just because you do the surgery, doesn’t mean the worst is over. Sir Dutch had one complication after another. What should have been a few days in Intensive Care turned into a very expensive two week stay for our dear boy. Sir Dutch is a beautiful sweet boy that loves companionship. He really bonds with humans and delights in the fact that someone thinks he is special. We ALL think he is special and an incredible dog.
We are still not even close to what we need for his surgeries. We always find it so strange that certain dogs do not raise the funds we need and others do. They are all abused or neglected animals in one way or another. The fact that he had an owner that abandoned him during his time of need does not make him less unfortunate than all the other dogs., Dead is dead any way you look at it and sweet Sir Dutch did nothing but be a good dog when his life suddenly took a turn for the worse. We are so glad we stepped up for him. He will make some lucky family an incredible, loyal friend that will be cherished and taken care of this time around.
We are now calling Dutch by his original name which is Professor Pudding. We discovered this later on and found out that he responds to this better than Sir Dutch. All we have to say is Professor and he sits down immediately. Our sweet boy is doing wonderful. He has healed from his bowel obstruction and other than having to change his food to one that is easier on his digestive system, he has not had any other problems from the surgery. The Professor we are happy to say is now ready for his new home. He will make a wonderful addition to any Family. We love this sweet boy.
