Natural PawPals: The Curious Case of ''Windy''

This will be a post by Mom to update all her friends (& others who wishes to know the story of ''Windy'', the mongrel bitch that lost her right foreleg) as all of them has been askin' her & she has to repeat the whole story non-stop =p which is very tiring for her. So she thought... she'd just type it out somewhere so everyone can read it. Oh she brought me and Cotton along. So we're the only other witnesses (apart from Mom's friend whom came along) LOL. (cuz she's afraid we'd bark at home at 430am... yea that's the time Mom left to fetch her friend).

There's really been alot of assumptions about this case & some ppl have even ''scolded'' Mom through some private messages & stuff. We'd really really appreciated it if ppl would bother to know the ENTIRE story first before commenting ANYTHING at all, much less scold or try to teach us anything. Mom is always being misunderstood by many & she's really sick of it.

I'll let Mom continue on with her story...

We've been feeding packs of strays in different locations for about 3 years now, almost daily. These strays are extremely street-smart & DO NOT allow any human contact at all which is how they're able to survive without being caught & culled (unlike all their naive pups). This is both good & bad. Good - they're survivors. Bad - we can't catch them if they require any medical help.

For about a month ago, this particular female bitch (let's call her Windy) walked around with a limp. A limp so normal that we thought she'd heal naturally on her own as many of them used to limp around & healed within days. Injuies like these are extremely common amongst them, there're WORST ones & they still healed on their own.

We also couldn't see her injuries properly without any natural light at all. A few weeks passed & her leg swelled as the days went by. Again, not an uncommon sight amongst them at all. Morever, we really couldn't do anythin because of their personalities. On the 28th June, she got up from a lying position for her food & that's when we saw her leg was GONE.

But on the 27th, it was still intact, just very swollen (again, couldn't see properly due to lack of light). We know many assume this case to be a wild boar trap case. But lookin' at the nature of wild boar traps & how they work, we seriously doubt it due to the fact that she had her leg still intact & lookin VERY normal initiall, just limpin around only. A wild boar trap would I guess 95% of the time severe the leg off instantly, or cause MASSIVE injury to it even if they manage to escape from the trap.

Mom sought help from a few shelters to capture her as it would require quite a few ppl to do it, not to mention the experience. But sadly, they all couldn't help us capture her except provide sedatives (of which we heard from another shelter that it doesn't work at all from ALL their attempts using it). Couldn't loan a trap cage too as time was runnin out & we couldn't get a van or lorry for the big-ass cage. So we modified our crate into a ''trap cage'' by tyin' a long string to the door, stand far behind it, when the dog enters the cage, we pull it shut TIGHT & quickly.

Reached the place at 0530 before fetching a friend along. Obviously the trap cage didn't work at all. Another method we tried there also didn't. Basically, nothing worked & she's really able to still run quite fast despite her injury. Not to mention the huge forestry area where she ran in MANY times.

It started to rain & things was made worst for us. Out of desperation, I even called another animal welfare grp for their dog-catchers to help assist us, but to no avail which is expected.

Finally, we waited in the car and she emerged time & again to test water & eat. After 3 hours, I told my bf that it was now or never... that we chase non-stop, keep throwing a towel over her head & try grab her & loop her up with our loop-leash. If she runs into the forest, that's it. So we did so under the rain.

Chased her for quite a distance, threw towels, she bared teeth (scared) etc. I guess she was really spooked this time. We chased her til she fell into a drain. That's where she was really spooked out & couldn't get out due to her injury. We then slowly manuverued the loop-leash unto her neck as the area was really hard to work with & she wasn't cooperatin at all. Finally did it & we rushed her to a 24 hours vet at 0830.

Reached there & waited. The vet gasped when she saw her in the crate. She's sufferin from gangrene so amputation is the ONLY way now & it has to me immediate. The maggots on her wound is not only externally, but also internally up her shoulders eatin up her flesh up & inside there. So amputation really needs to be quick & it has to be VERY high up before bacteria from the wound enters her bloodstream, suffer from blood poisoning & ultimately attackin her vital organs & then, she'd die.

BUT, after we did two bloodworks on her, her Red Blood Count (RBC) was SO LOW at only 1.96 (minimum to be 5.5). Amputation means she would die instantly from loss of blood during surgery. Her White Blood Count (WBC) was at a high of 64 (maximum of 16) which means her blood is very toxic. Livers and kidneys are fine, but it's really just a matter of time..........

Her heartworm test was a FAINT POSITIVE because her blood clotted on the device. Did Lyme disease test too.

She has lotsa things going on her... being anaemic & emaciated, most likely to have heartworm, intestinal worms, tick fever, she's also LICE-INFESTED, extremely low RBC, extremely high WBC...

At this point of time, we also asked our friend over the phone to quickly consult with her overseas friend, whom is a dog-rescuer cum Animal Communicator (AC) cum top breeder) for her views on that. She adviced us to put her down considerin her bloodwork as much as she wants to live. If we want to put her through surgery, we'd first have to be VERY VERY rich. It's not only about physical recovery, but mental recovery as well which all in all would take 1 to 2 years for her to have a 100% recovery. She also cannot be housed in a shelter during that period, but fostered in a home environment. When she is 100% recovered, she'd have to have an adopter.

This vet briefed us on the total cost. FIRST, she'd need blood transfusion to ups her RBC. This alone would cost S$700-$800, excluding hospitalization $200+ per day (just for blood transfusion we need four days of hospitalization). After that, amputation would require about another week (tops) of hospitalization. That is IF she can make it through the transfusion period & not reject the blood. Her bloodtype is DEA 1.1 NEGATIVE.

All in all, we need about S$5k ups at this vet. Many ppl suggested that we can make her case viral & appeal for public donations. But we've to really consider the ENTIRE case properly before makin' a decision. First, if we couldn't raise the funds, we'd have to bear it all ourselves. Secondly, we can't house her during her recuperation period. Thirdly, finding a home for her. It's all a long process.

Another option - Put her down.

So I decided to hand her over to a shelter (we had already discussed her case with the shelter yesterday). So they couldn't provide transport to transfer her over to their vet, & so we did it & collected all information about Windy from this vet & handed them all over to the other vet.

We are thankful that the first vet gave us a huge discount (even tho' it still amounted to quite a sum) for Windy's case. They even covered her Heartworm & Lyme disease tests.

This vet commented that the injury could've resulted from a simple fracture which caused the blood to clot there & subsequently, she's able to chew her hand off because it has simply, died. But through AC with me, I got that it was from a snake bite & infection set in from there slowly. Whatever the case is........... she lost her leg slowly.

The vet gave her painkillers, anti-inflammatory & antibiotics jabs & Frontline for her lice-infested body. Cleanin up her maggot wound was really useless at this point as maggots are all INSIDE her remaining hand up to her shoulders area hence, immediate amputation is the ONLY way to save her life before bacteria enters her bloodstream, suffer from blood poisoning & ultimately, attackin her vital organs & causing them to fail totally.

Ok here are the pictures. I only uploaded the pix on the first day (280611). I forgot to snap a pix of her bloodwork results, heartworm & lyme disease test results before passing them over to the other vet.