Urgent Care Needed for Rescued Puppy

Hello everyone, my name is Cadence. Yesterday, on may 8th my boyfriend Noah and his dad discovered this pup in horrible condition in a cage that was maybe 24 inches if not smaller.

After Noah’s dad, Tim, noticed a dog in a cage in the neighbors back yard while he was picking up sticks, his concern grew. This pup was in a cage in the backyard of the neighbor and he was unsure if anyone was feeding the dog or taking him out if the cage throughout the day, so Noah and him decided to go over there and ask if anyone was checking on him.

This cage was in the farthest back side of her lawn where it was hard to see much. The lady who lived there claimed the dog was back there in this cage because her landlord would not allow her to have animals and that someone left the dog there for her to take care of sometime before last December (which is an absolute insane excuse for doing this to an animal- but let me not go there right now) It was clear to see that the poor dog was left for dead in this cage with no water, food or shelter from weather conditions.

After Noah and his dad saw how bad the dog looked they asked if they could take him and give him a better life and the lady surrendered the dog. When this happened, they called me and while I was driving over to them they tried to give the dog a bath cause it was covered in mud and feces from head to toe. They told me there was worms coming off of the dog in the shower which I saw when I got there, and the dog looked really weak. He was doing okay at first in the shower but with the amount of matted fur it was hard to tell the extend of his condition. He was unable to hold himself up and ended up collapsing. After seeing how critical the dog was I decided that we needed to act fast because this dog didn’t have much of a chance to survive much longer without immediate treatment.

The pups fur was completely grown out and matted, and there were several deep gashes filled with maggots and larvae eating away at the pups body. This is the most horrific thing any of us had ever seen. We rushed to angels for animals first, who actually refused to help the dog because they claimed we were not able to give consent for treatment for the dog since we were not the owners, even after telling them the dog was surrendered. They let us walk out the door with this pup who was dying and in complete agony- which is just unbelievable and disappointing as I have been bringing my pets there for years. They gave us the address to the humane society instead (which was actually closed for another 4 hours) so we moved on to finding another vet.

We then found a very helpful and kind vet who saw the severity of the situation and took action. Because of the severe malnutrition, dehydration, and deep wounds and infection were initially told euthanasia might be the best option. We told them we wanna do anything we can to give this dog a chance, so with further examination, and after discovering this pup was only somewhere around a year old there was a lot more optimism for recovery at the vet.

The vets managed to shave him down and give him dewormers, antibiotics, and sterile flushes for the wounds. Unfortunately the place we went to doesn’t do overnights so we then took the dog home and would closely monitor him through the night. (I wanna mention- They did everything they could for him and we are extremely grateful for their help) The dog was hypothermic when we left, with a body temp of 96 degrees (for reference- dogs should be between 101 and 102).

After taking him home, we put him in a warm bed with blankets and a heating pad, and a space heater in the room. We then carefully worked together to remove all the remaining maggots and larvae we could see that resurfaced since leaving the vet, and pulled out about 50 in total. After removing the rest of these maggots, and using the heating pads long enough the pup started to perk up a little. I checked his temperature and it was back in a normal range, sotting just above 101!

The pup started taking sips of water and a couple bites of food, which was of absolutely no interest previously. Overnight, he also peed a couple of times and had a BM this morning which is a good sign. We are hopeful in his recovery, but we do still have a long road ahead from here. He is very malnourished and weak. He has no muscle mass or fat on his body and his skin is bright red and raw.

We were only able to do the minimal amount at the vet yesterday to save his life. He still needs bloodwork and scans done to check the function of his organs and the condition of his body. He also may end up needing surgery on his face, as the tissue is blackening and may be necrotic.

We are looking to raise funds to help with his vet bills as this was very unexpected and we want to do everything in our power to help this guy make a full recovery. He’s also going to need to be on the prescription diet for awhile to gain some weight back, which racks up in cost very quickly, so we could use any help possible. It’s amazing just to see the progress he made overnight from a full night of rest, fluids, food, and removal of the maggots.

He’s been a fighter and we believe he can pull through this. No animal deserves the kind of suffering he’s endured. We wish we found him sooner, but we know we are so lucky to have found him in the time we did, because he probably wouldn’t have made it another night as the temperature dropped into the 30s last night.

We have him safe and comfortable and are monitoring him very closely. We are going to do everything we can do for him, so anything helps, thank you for taking the time to read! ❤️