Some neighbors of mine had this Dane who they let wander around the neighborhood constantly. He drove my dogs absolutely insane because he kept coming in my front yard. He appeared severely neglected... very underweight, bad eye infection, gross skin issues. I bugged animal control until they finally picked him up - it's a rural area where there aren't really strict leash laws. The owners found out he was there, said they had gone on vacation and just left him outside with food and water, but that they'd come and get him when they returned home. That was about a month ago.

I went to animal control to take pictures of him a few weeks ago to try to network with Great Dane rescues and see if I could get him in anywhere and he looked pretty dang bad. I didn't feel comfortable leaving him and I felt like I had a responsibility to him, so I filled out adoption paperwork with plans to bring him home, hopefully get him healthy, and into a rescue:

On January 12, he was brought to a vet by animal control to be neutered so he could come home with me. The vet called and said she didn't feel comfortable neutering him in his current condition. She wrote out a certificate allowing me to bring him home not fixed and agree to do it in a few weeks after he had hopefully gained some weight. He got a bath, full blood panel run, and skin cytology, which showed bacterial infections on his skin. He weighed 86lbs yesterday, he was brought into Animal Control in late November at 91lbs so he had lost a little bit since then.

While waiting for animal control to pick him up so I could come get him, he started displaying symptoms of bloat. The vet was confident she caught it immediately and got him stabilized and called me. We discussed options and his likelihood of not surviving surgery right now. I really wanted to give him a chance because no one else has in life. I talked it over with her and I went and brought him to an emergency vet clinic so that he could be monitored full-time after the surgery. I dropped him and they did x-rays and went ahead and went through with the surgical procedure despite his likelihood of not making it. He survived the surgery - it's now about 15 hours later and he is staying stable but he's definitely not out of the woods yet. He had his stomach tacked to prevent further bloat and his organs were examined to make sure there was no bruising from the period when his stomach was twisted, but it's possible there was damage to his heart. Obviously, his emaciation is going to complicate healing.

This was a massive expense that I wasn't planning on undergoing and I did it because I felt like the dog deserved a chance. My dad passed away unexpectedly a few months ago and I received a small inheritance from that, so thankfully I did not have to worry about supporting myself or my animals if I chose to go through with a surgery for Sawyer, but it is still going to be $6,000-9,000 that I wasn't planning on having to cover. Several people on Reddit were asking about donating to support him and I'm so, so appreciative for all the concern people have shown for him and wanted to give people a chance to contribute if they wanted. All money will go towards his care.