We rescued Taffy from a Detroit shelter after she was relinquished by her owners for their inability to care for her medical issues. The shelter reached out to us, and we decided to intake Taffy.

I knew that in order to have a good quality of life, we had to dive into her medical issues head-on and tackle them at the root. Taffy’s ear is consistently leaking a yeasty pus, and her hind end is very smelly from the severe screw tail being constantly riddled with infection, also pushing on her anal glands, making her nearly impossible to keep clean and sanitary. Despite her current home doing it 3 times a day, Taffy is extremely uncomfortable, and it’s hard for her to settle being in pain, raw, and itchy.

We set up a consultation with Dr. Ruth at Riversbend, and this was our conclusion today:

Taffy WILL need surgery on her tail to have it removed. I want to get this done as soon as possible, as it’s bleeding and consistently filled with pus. It’s a severe screw tail that is causing deep-rooted infection, which we cultured today and got sent off to MSU because it’s still hurting Taffy, and she is vocal about that when you tend to it.

Taffy will require antibiotics before she can head off to surgery to clear it up the best that we can. She is also on ear medicine to clear up her yeast.

We also found that Taffy’s eyes are clouded because of a skin infection that is affecting her eyes, so that will be taken care of as well. We have Taffy on a veterinary-recommended shampoo that we picked up today, where she will require 2 baths a week in a 10-minute soak each time. She also has arthritis in her lumbar, which may require pain meds later on in life, but for now doesn’t seem to hinder her too much.

Taffy has a long road ahead of her medically, but I’m thankful for the thorough vet team at Riversbend.

Once Taffy’s culture comes back in a few days, we can make an appointment for her tail immediately to get her in for surgical removal. I would love to have that money ready to go because at the rate the bacteria is growing, the sooner the better.

If anyone would like to donate - Taffy’s estimate is our exact goal.

Our invoice from today and surgery estimate is posted in comments for transparency on our Facebook page @ Repo’s Rescues. (Along with X-Ray photos where her arthritis and screw tail are formed.)

Thank you, everyone! We’ll keep you posted and decided on a GoFundMe so you can all keep track with us of how much we’re raising as we make forward movement. Thank you again!