Hero was the name of my last dog. He showed up wandering around the grounds of a nearby church, making a nuisance of himself. They were serving food outdoors, so he helped himself to food too. He was not polite about it and people were trying to shoo him away.
He had gotten a little shy because of the unwelcome attention he got from his rude food-snatching. I persisted in following him until he realized I was not going to try to hurt him or chase him away. Once he got that, he was more than friendly. He plopped down on the ground and rolled over on his back and waved all four feet in the air. He was so grateful to be petted and treated kindly, it was painful to watch.
When he held still for me, I got a better look at him. He looked kind of like a spaniel except his ears stuck up too much. His fur looked terrible and very sparse and ratty. All of his ribs showed in spite of a belly full of his ill-gotten gains. He had sores all over him that were partly crusted over. Fur was matted into all of the wounds, so they were not obviously wounds until closer examination.
I was sure that whoever owned him could not possibly be taking adequate care of him. I decided to take him home and at least take care of his wounds before I tried talking to the local pound about him. I feared that if they got him the way he was, they would immediately euthanize him since they were overcrowded.
I used warm water to soak his wounds and get the embedded hairs loose. Many of the wounds were infected, so I treated that problem as well. The worst wounds were infested with maggots. I removed the maggots and treated those first. He whimpered slightly when I did anything that hurt him, but he did not even try to get away from me. He often licked me while I was working on him, as if to apologise for whimpering and thank me.
As I worked on his wounds I realised that he was much younger than he had appeared at first. He still had soft fine puppy fur and had not even gotten into the big feet stage. I was sure he was less than three months old.
It was necessary to cut his fur off very short in order to treat many of his wounds. After I cut off enough of his fur, a pattern appeared in his wounds. The ones on his back were clearly bites from a much larger animal. Upper teeth marks were on one side of his back and lower teeth marks were on the other side of his back. He had been nearly killed by a very large dog.
I could not imagine a responsible owner letting such a thing happen to a young puppy. Even worse, letting the puppy run around loose in such a terrible state and almost dying from the state of his wounds and starvation and dehydration, infuriated me.
I could not afford to take the puppy to vet the immediately, but did so as soon as possible. Our vet told me that I had done just about what the vet and his assistants would have done if I had taken the puppy to him sooner. It was a big relief to know that I had not made the puppy any worse by not getting him veterinary care sooner. The vet agreed about the puppy's approximate age.
It had taken me almost three days to thoroughly treat all of the puppy's wounds, since it had been necessary to resort to embroidery scissors to get the fur out of some wounds and because there were so many wounds. I had to lie down next to the puppy and rest sometimes, in order to keep working around the clock on his wounds. He liked me being next to him. He was so weak and exhausted that he slept through a lot of my treatment. He would wake up and thump his tail briefly before he fell asleep again. He also licked me a lot and snuggled up next to me when I slept.
He was so weak that he could not even stand to eat or excrete wastes. I put absorbent litterbox liners under him to make cleanup easier when he pooped or urinated on himself.
It was necessary to give him liquid foods at first because he had vomited on the way home with me. I knew from previous experience with very sick rescue animals that feeding him too solid foods would only make him worse. I found some recipes on the internet for what to feed him. The recipes looked and smelled disgusting to me, but he seemed to think they were great. He got better and was soon able to manage canned puppy food, and graduate to dry puppy food. While he progressed through his food, he became able to sit up, then stand and eat, then to go outside for toiletting. Both of us liked that much better.
Once the puppy was back on his feet, we had to contend with his idea that he should chase my cats and chew on them. We also dealt a lot with him teething on other inappropriate objects, lots of inappropriate objects.
It felt like forever, but he was learning incredibly fast. He got all the way through basic obedience training before he was three months old. He also learned to stop chasing my cats in less than three days. He clearly knew that I had saved his life and was trying very hard to do anything I wanted him to do.
He learned very fast that I hated it when my cats fought, so appointed himself cat fight referee. He didn't tolerate much of a fight and quickly broke them up. He prevented the fights from continuing after he broke them up as well. Things were a lot more peaceful once he started his self-appointed referee job. There were a few lapses into chewing on the wrong stuff, but even that did not last long.
I read that he actually needed to chew on things, so I exerted myself to find him safe outlets for chewing. Big beef bones and tree branches worked pretty well for him. I discovered a kind of new chew toy called, "Nylabones". He especially liked the flavored ones. He settled down to steady chewing soon after he got a flavored one. The only sound in the place was his gnawing sounds, except for an occasional cat purr.
Rude awakening. He not only gnawed on the Nylabone to massage his teething gums and clean his sharp puppy teeth, he managed to gnaw the Nylabone into pieces. I reassembled the pieces as best I could. There was a considerable amount of nylabone missing. There were no bits of Nylabone between his teeth and gums or under his tongue. He had to have swallowed some nylabone.
I called the vet and asked whether swallowed Nylabone might be a serious problem. The vet could not believe that my puppy had actually managed to eat some Nylabone, at first. Once the vet stopped laughing, he suggested that I give the puppy extra oils and fats to help him eliminate the Nylabone bits. He also called the Nylabone folks and asked them if the eaten Nylabone bits might be a problem. Once they stopped laughing, they suggested that I check his stool for bits of Nylabone to make sure they were coming out.
I will continue more about Hero later.
He had gotten a little shy because of the unwelcome attention he got from his rude food-snatching. I persisted in following him until he realized I was not going to try to hurt him or chase him away. Once he got that, he was more than friendly. He plopped down on the ground and rolled over on his back and waved all four feet in the air. He was so grateful to be petted and treated kindly, it was painful to watch.
When he held still for me, I got a better look at him. He looked kind of like a spaniel except his ears stuck up too much. His fur looked terrible and very sparse and ratty. All of his ribs showed in spite of a belly full of his ill-gotten gains. He had sores all over him that were partly crusted over. Fur was matted into all of the wounds, so they were not obviously wounds until closer examination.
I was sure that whoever owned him could not possibly be taking adequate care of him. I decided to take him home and at least take care of his wounds before I tried talking to the local pound about him. I feared that if they got him the way he was, they would immediately euthanize him since they were overcrowded.
I used warm water to soak his wounds and get the embedded hairs loose. Many of the wounds were infected, so I treated that problem as well. The worst wounds were infested with maggots. I removed the maggots and treated those first. He whimpered slightly when I did anything that hurt him, but he did not even try to get away from me. He often licked me while I was working on him, as if to apologise for whimpering and thank me.
As I worked on his wounds I realised that he was much younger than he had appeared at first. He still had soft fine puppy fur and had not even gotten into the big feet stage. I was sure he was less than three months old.
It was necessary to cut his fur off very short in order to treat many of his wounds. After I cut off enough of his fur, a pattern appeared in his wounds. The ones on his back were clearly bites from a much larger animal. Upper teeth marks were on one side of his back and lower teeth marks were on the other side of his back. He had been nearly killed by a very large dog.
I could not imagine a responsible owner letting such a thing happen to a young puppy. Even worse, letting the puppy run around loose in such a terrible state and almost dying from the state of his wounds and starvation and dehydration, infuriated me.
I could not afford to take the puppy to vet the immediately, but did so as soon as possible. Our vet told me that I had done just about what the vet and his assistants would have done if I had taken the puppy to him sooner. It was a big relief to know that I had not made the puppy any worse by not getting him veterinary care sooner. The vet agreed about the puppy's approximate age.
It had taken me almost three days to thoroughly treat all of the puppy's wounds, since it had been necessary to resort to embroidery scissors to get the fur out of some wounds and because there were so many wounds. I had to lie down next to the puppy and rest sometimes, in order to keep working around the clock on his wounds. He liked me being next to him. He was so weak and exhausted that he slept through a lot of my treatment. He would wake up and thump his tail briefly before he fell asleep again. He also licked me a lot and snuggled up next to me when I slept.
He was so weak that he could not even stand to eat or excrete wastes. I put absorbent litterbox liners under him to make cleanup easier when he pooped or urinated on himself.
It was necessary to give him liquid foods at first because he had vomited on the way home with me. I knew from previous experience with very sick rescue animals that feeding him too solid foods would only make him worse. I found some recipes on the internet for what to feed him. The recipes looked and smelled disgusting to me, but he seemed to think they were great. He got better and was soon able to manage canned puppy food, and graduate to dry puppy food. While he progressed through his food, he became able to sit up, then stand and eat, then to go outside for toiletting. Both of us liked that much better.
Once the puppy was back on his feet, we had to contend with his idea that he should chase my cats and chew on them. We also dealt a lot with him teething on other inappropriate objects, lots of inappropriate objects.
It felt like forever, but he was learning incredibly fast. He got all the way through basic obedience training before he was three months old. He also learned to stop chasing my cats in less than three days. He clearly knew that I had saved his life and was trying very hard to do anything I wanted him to do.
He learned very fast that I hated it when my cats fought, so appointed himself cat fight referee. He didn't tolerate much of a fight and quickly broke them up. He prevented the fights from continuing after he broke them up as well. Things were a lot more peaceful once he started his self-appointed referee job. There were a few lapses into chewing on the wrong stuff, but even that did not last long.
I read that he actually needed to chew on things, so I exerted myself to find him safe outlets for chewing. Big beef bones and tree branches worked pretty well for him. I discovered a kind of new chew toy called, "Nylabones". He especially liked the flavored ones. He settled down to steady chewing soon after he got a flavored one. The only sound in the place was his gnawing sounds, except for an occasional cat purr.
Rude awakening. He not only gnawed on the Nylabone to massage his teething gums and clean his sharp puppy teeth, he managed to gnaw the Nylabone into pieces. I reassembled the pieces as best I could. There was a considerable amount of nylabone missing. There were no bits of Nylabone between his teeth and gums or under his tongue. He had to have swallowed some nylabone.
I called the vet and asked whether swallowed Nylabone might be a serious problem. The vet could not believe that my puppy had actually managed to eat some Nylabone, at first. Once the vet stopped laughing, he suggested that I give the puppy extra oils and fats to help him eliminate the Nylabone bits. He also called the Nylabone folks and asked them if the eaten Nylabone bits might be a problem. Once they stopped laughing, they suggested that I check his stool for bits of Nylabone to make sure they were coming out.
I will continue more about Hero later.
