RPAW – Medical Cases

Meet Scuba Steve (orange/white) and Julien (black and white) ❤

These are the brothers from the live video earlier this week. They came into the emergency vet with likely abuse injuries. The second picture shows pink marks where there is a fractured bone… they each also have cataracts from trauma. All of the injuries are at different stages of healing which means the abuse happened over time.

We have consulted our orthopedic surgeon and are getting a plan together to fix the pelvic and rear limb fractures. The ribs and spinal fractures should heal on their own. They likely will have some vision issues.

You would never know anything happened to them as they are the most loving little boys ever! They don’t ever stop purring.

Corazon ❤

This sweet girl joined our hospice family last week!

You would never know it now that her medical issues have been addressed and she is on the appropriate medications.
She was found as a stray with a freshly shaved front leg as if she had just seen a vet… unfortunately she was never claimed from impound and was growing sicker by the day. Cora has congestive heart failure caused by degenerative mitral valve disease. It has caused both her left and right side to fail. When this occurs fluid builds up on the abdomen.
When she arrived she didn’t want to eat or walk and she had a hard time even breathing. We were able to get her an echocardiogram right away and discovered the problem. She was started on medications right away and overnight she list 2# of fluid. She was like a completely new dog!

CHF is terminal… there is no cure and we will make whatever time she has left amazing. It could be a few weeks or a few months. She is 6# of happiness and snuggles.

We will continue to update you on her journey with us in our “Angels in waiting” program ❤

Bison is a wonderful, adorable young (~2 years old) cat! He loves human affection and lounging in the sun or on a cozy blanket near his people. Great with kids, his sweet demeanor and laidback personality make him a wonderful companion for a forever family that will commit to giving him lots of affection, feeding him a high quality diet, and proactively and consistently monitoring and managing his health.

Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is a virus that affects only cats. It is similar to HIV in humans, in that it is progressive, has a long incubation period, and suppresses the immune system. So far, treatment to cure FIV has proven elusive; however cats with FIV often live normal, healthy lives. This doesn’t mean they will never become ill; they are, after all immunocompromised, so illnesses can be easier to catch and harder to fight off. Because of a suppressed immune system, they are more vulnerable to conditions like dental disease, ringworm, and other infections. They have the same needs as any other cat: high quality nutrition, a clean, stress-free, strictly indoor environment, regular veterinary visits (two times per year), and lots of love. If they should become ill, they are generally treated earlier, longer, and more aggressively than non-immunocompromised cats (meaning they need to see the vet at the very first sign of illness and may be on a stronger medication or on medication for a longer period of time).

Peggy came to us from a very rural shelter in Missouri City, Texas. One of our followers shared a video of her with us and we just had to help. She is about 4 years old and she was likely hit by a car. It dislocated her hip as well as fractured her pelvis. This injury would have required immediate surgical intervention but then she came up heartworm positive. This put her at a greater risk for anesthetic complications so we chose to treat the heartworm first and come back to fix the hip second. Her pain is being closely managed while she is going through treatment. The whole treatment for heartworm disease will take 60 days.

Heartworm is easily prevented with a monthly prevention and it costs around $10 per month. Treatment for heartworm disease is around $2000.

Total cost for care: around $2000 for the heartworm treatment and hip surgery.

Cocoa arrived at animal control as an stray who was likely hit by a car. She was immediately brought to a partner veterinary clinic for radiographs and it was determined that she has a fractured femur in her left rear leg. She was also bleeding from the nose, has road rash in her right groin and inner thigh area, a wound above her right eye, and conjunctivitis and episcleral hemorrhage in left eye. Thankfully we were able to have our orhtopedic surgeon fix her leg with a pin and screws.

Cost for care: $2200

This guy is about 9 months old and everything a heeler should be! He came to us after being run over by a car and fracturing his pelvis in multiple places. Thankfully he just needed to be on cage rest for a few weeks and did not end up needing surgery.

Little Tally has made an incredible transformation! This little lady had an incredibly rare reaction to her distemper vaccine which caused her eyes to turn blue. We thought we would need to take her right eye out but incredibly the reaction has reversed on its own. We will keep a close eye on her and make sure her vision returns as well?

She still has a nasty skin infection due to a bad case of Demodex mange. She is also going through a second round of treatment for a parasite called Coccidia.

Yuki came to us after facing euthanasia. No 4 month old puppy should have to be worried about that! This little guy broke his elbow in an accident and his owners could not continue to care for him. They chose euthanasia but the emergency clinic asked them to consider sending him to rescue which they agreed to.

He is so sweet and just wants to run around with the other dogs but for now he is on strict rest. He had orthopedic surgery right away to place pins to stabilize the fracture.

Cost for care: $1800

This little guy joined us earlier this week when he had a rectal prolapse. We have fixed that issue but during his exam the doctor noticed a fairly loud heart murmur. At his age this is very concerning.

So we had an echocardiogram done today and unfortunately Abe has a condition called Pulmonic Stenosis. We have had a couple cases of this in the past. This is a congenital issue from bad breeding where there is constriction of the pulmonic heart valve through which blood must pass on its way from the heart to the lung.

He will need surgical correction. They will thread a balloon catheter through an artery in his neck and into his heart. The balloon will be expanded to break open the valve.

This should allow him to have a full life with the help of some medications.