RPAW – Medical Cases

Ruffles was a 1 year old purebred bulldog that came to us with “Cherry Eyes”. “Cherry eye” is a common term for prolapse of the third eyelid gland. Many mammals, including dogs, have an “extra” or third eyelid located inside the lower eyelid, also referred to as the “nictitating membrane.” The third eyelid serves as an additional protective layer for the eye, especially during hunting or fighting. The third eyelid also contains a special gland that produces a significant portion of the eye’s protective tear film. When this gland prolapses or “pops out”, the condition is known as “cherry eye”. We were able to get her the surgery she needed to correct her issue. This is a very common issue with the smushed face breeds and needs to be addressed for longterm health.

Hi, our names are Walter and Flynn. We are brothers as you might have guessed because we look so much alike. You may also have noticed that we are special. We are poly-dactyl which means we have an extra toe on our front feet. We bet you noticed our back legs too, but they don’t prevent us from running, playing, climbing, and just being normal kittens. We love scritches and cuddles and we hope you will give us a chance to be your kittens.

Bella has a very sad and unusual story.

We were contacted originally by a friend of the owner who was being an amazing friend by finding placement for a young, healthy, intact dog. His friend was going through some really rough times and needed to get somewhere safe and Bella needed to be moved from the situation. She had always been loved dearly and taken care of. Unfortunately the help that her owner needed was not able to happen with Bella in tow. Sometimes life happens and surrender is out of your control. We hear things all the time like “I would never give up my animal for any reason” but unfortunately after doing this for over 15 years… there are circumstances where a. It is your only choice and b. It is what is best for your animal.

That was Bella’s case. So we had arranged a time to pick her up and move her to foster. Unfortunately, the night we went to get her she had ingested some human muscle relaxers. The type happened to be one of the most dangerously toxic meds to dogs. It suppresses the central nervous system so much that a dog will just stop breathing.

The photo on the left shows what Bella looked like when we got her. We rushed her to the emergency vet and they got to work on her. Pet poison control was called and they informed the doctors how to save her life. She spent the next 2 days there and thankfully was one of the very few to survive. She moved to her foster home where she recovered beautifully!
Next she went in for her spay procedure and was found to have many severely fractured teeth. Some of these were addressed at that time and the rest in a following procedure.

Her foster home loved and doted on her for weeks. They ended going on vacation this past week and another volunteer was watching her. She happened to be one of the emergency vet technicians the night she almost died.
Well… Bella is now home ? Her photo on the right shows she is right where she needs to be. She has a lab sister and a kooky golden brother.

Bella wouldn’t be here today without a host of people. The friend that helped the owner, the owner, the evet, the fosters, the regular vets and of course the donors ❤

Thank you all!

Baby Groot took a quick flight from TMAR down to us ? He joined us and will be getting all the medical care he needs for his puppy Strangles.

He is on a few different medications and we will make sure he gets regular check ups with our vet.

Meet Bazooka Joe ❤

This guy joined us a couple weeks ago. When he was impounded locally. This is one cool dude! He is about 8 years old.
We named him this because it looks like he has bubble gum in his teeth. Unfortunately it isn’t, he has a condition called Gingival Hyperplasia. This is excessive growth if the gum tissue. It is common in the bully breeds… but not to this extent.
We have already sent out biopsies and they have all come back benign. This is great news and means that we can do surgery to remove the tissue and extract the problem teeth.

Joe was adopted by an over the road trucker that wanted a buddy!

Amigo <3 Some people have asked for a post explaining his story. Well its a sad one. He came to us as a "stray" but it was blatantly clear that this guy was severely abused. He had burns over 80% of his body. Someone likely threw boiling hot water on him. He was in excruciating pain, he could barely open his eyes and all he wanted to do was lay in one spot and sleep. We got to work right away treating his pain and his burns. Slowly but surely things began to turn around for him. He now just has a small spot on his back leg that is healing. A couple months after coming to us, Amigo started having seizures. We got him right into our Neurologist and they did an MRI. Unfortunately they found a brain tumor. After everything he had been through, we ended up having to say good bye. He knew more love in the 3 months he was with us, then he had his entire life thanks to his amazing foster mom!

Meet Wendy!

This little beauty came to us in atrocious condition. She had untreated skin allergies for so long that her skin hurt even to just look at. She is an 11 year old purebred Fox Terrier. She had deep skin, ear and eye infections. Once we were able to get the infections cleared up, we were able to get her on some prescription food designed for allergy dogs along with daily medication. She will need these life long. We also addressed her severe dental disease.
Wendy has found her forever family.

Creech came to us as a stray. He was in horrible shape and we did not even know where to start. Our first stop was the Neurologist who did an MRI and discovered that he had massive head trauma, likely from being beaten with something hard like a bat or pipe. He had many skull fractures and his face was so swollen it was almost unrecognizable. It had ruptured one of his eyes and caused temporary vision loss in the other. It had fractured his jaw and multiple teeth. Over time, we were able to address his ailments and he was able to find a forever home. He is not a therapy dog in a nursing home that his mom works in.

Edith came in as a senior stray. She had horrible dental disease and was in rough shape. When she was impounded they noticed that she had a large abdominal mass. These are typically bad news… but again, we test everything! This was simply a fatty mass that had grown to a very large size. It was impacting her daily life and we called in the specialist to remove said mass. It immediately changed her life! We addressed her teeth and finally found her a forever home.

Maxamillion came to us after being hit by a car. He had significant bruising all over his body. He also had a dislocation hip and elbow. He would eventually need orthopedic surgery to correct both the hip, with an FHO and the elbow. He required months or rehab with our physical therapist as well. Thankfully no internal damage was sustained. He is happily living life in his adopted home.