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King George the Third is a three-year old, rescued purebred British Bulldog, but he is all meatball, as we like to say. He brings us joy and makes us laugh every day, Unfortunately, he also has severe medical issues, which were left untreated for so long, that it is a miracle this comical, stoic soul survived this long, in that much pain.
Four months ago, my cousin mentioned an acquaintance who wanted to rehome his dog. The dog apparently had a "sore near his tail that would not heal." We have rescued countless dogs in our time and have heard every story under the sun about why people want to relinquish their dog, so we have learned not to judge but to take things at face value.
Because we feed a raw diet, we figured that we could help a dog who had, what we suspected, was a persistent skin allergy. We knew that Bulldogs were prone to skin issues and our research has proven that raw diet helps skin problems.
We finally arranged a time to go and see the dog in the RDP section of Montreal. The owner sounded concerned about the dog but unable to handle the medical aspect of caring for a small open wound.
When we arrived at the house, the dog was in the backyard on a deck. We began to smell him about 30 feet away. When we saw him, it was love at first sight. He humped our legs to say hello and generally was a snurfly, loving thing.
My attention was drawn to his back end. He had a little nub for a tail. Around his tail, the area was shaved. He had open sores around his anus and about one inch away on the left side of his tail. Though the smell of infection was horrific, we could not see any discharge. I also glanced in his ears. Truly, even I knew at that point that the dog was likely deaf from recurrent, severe ear infections.
Every instinct told me that this dog had serious medical problems. We could not walk away from him though. We could not leave him with this man. Why? Because when we asked the owner how long the dog's back end had been infected like that, he said ONE AND A HALF YEARS. We both thought we had heard wrong. Sadly, we had not.
So we put George in our car and the owner and his wife cried and said goodbye and told us how glad they were that we were taking him because he deserved a chance. At this point, we were still not sure of true horror of the dog's suffering and so I reassured the owner that we would care for him. As we were about to leave, the owner said that he knew the raw diet would cure the dog and that was all that was wrong. He even scoffed as he related that some vet had recommended a tail amputation. We waved goodbye and left.
Five minutes into the car ride, the true depth of George's problems started to become known. Aside from choking on the smell of infection, his sores began to drip and then openly weep blood and pus. They had obviously cleaned him right before we walked in the door in order to present him as good as a light as possible. This is when I started to get upset and when I knew we were in for a tough haul with George.
Once at home, we cleaned him regularly, but the discharge was so heavy and so continual that we needed to put a diaper on him at the end of the first day. We could not even tell which holes the blood was coming from as his whole back end was sticky and scabby. We were afraid to have him outside for more than one minute in case someone saw him and thought he had chemical burns on his backside.
Even though the dog was obviously suffering, from the moment he walked through the door, George was a friendly, kind fellow and tolerated all kinds of cleanings in area that must have hurt. He could not even sit and would lie down to rest.
We knew we had to help George. He had lasted that long, in that condition, with a neglectful owner, at best, and we could not let him down after crossing the finish line. So even though our car had problems, within four days of getting George, we had him at Ste. Hyacinthe Companion Animal Hospital.
That emergency visit cost us $1500. When I called the owner to see if he would contribute, he told me I should not have brought him there as they were not good. Not good? They are a TEACHING hospital. They have specialists.
Turns out the reason they were not good, in this owner's estimation, is because he had brought George there when the problems started and they had dared to suggest a follow up. This gentleman, who had a nice house, a good job, and a decent enough car was offended that they were trying to rip him off by daring to suggest that this problem needed to be tended to. This is the same man who passed us George's belongings, including Dollar Store dog shampoo for a dog whose skin was sore.
Some people in Dermatology remembered George from that first visit and had the date of it recorded. They could not believe that the man left the dog like that for so long and that George had gotten so bad. They were outraged and though professional at every level, made it clear that that original owner was unworhy of such a dog. It would have been impossible to charge the owner with cruelty since he did make some half-assed attempts to bring the dog to see regular, non-specialist vets, and tried antibiotics every now and again.
In the end, we were sent home from that first visit with an armload of meds, because George had superbugs at that point, and a daily cleaning regimen that involved getting in the shower with GEorge and cleaning and flushing his wounds.
Once things were finally under control, it emerged that George had a screw tail which means that it was buried deeply into his body. It telescoped in on him, in effect. That left a tail pocket, as it is called, of skin around that imbedded tail. Because that pocket never gets air, it is prone to infection. Attentive Bulldog lovers clean the tail pocket regularly to avoid this problem. Not so George's previous caretaker. Once George had an infection in there, it dug in deep. The pus and blood would leak out directly from under his tail, but also it ate through his flesh and made fistulas, or channels, so that the infection could drain out in holes up to an inch away from his tail. In case any of you are wondering, it is heartbreakingly painful.
Eventually George stabilized somewhat. He began to leak less and he could sit! He became best friends with our gas-chamber rescue Cane Corso. Still though, he needed to be put under for a surgical flush of the wounds. He was sent home again with a new protocol of meds after the cultures were done.
At the same time, George's ears were being followed as well. They were so bad when we brought him in initially that it was thought he would be permanently deaf and that his canals would need to be removed to stop the horrific pain. However, a combination of cleaning, oral antibiotics, and drops have helped him somewhat and he even has a bit of hearing. The levels of yeast, fungus, and bateria vary and we do our best to manage them all.
Both the pain in his ears and that in his rear end were such that it is a miracle that the dog was so good-natured. The Dermatology and Surgical Deparment at Ste Hyacinthe have fallen in love with the gentle dog and have followed him with us closely since last April.
We have spent about $2500 for George since April, simply to bring him to this point.
The plan is as follows:
TODAY
George is having an amputation of his tail today. There is no way to save that diseased skin in there now that he had infection for so long and he will never be free from pain. There is a risk as there were still bacteria.
FOLLOW UP
George will need a week of hopitalization and meds.
ESTIMATE
$3600
LONG-TERM PLAN
Try to save GEorge's ears or another surgery, to remove his canals, will be needed.
WHAT WE NEED:
DONATIONS!! We are committed to George. We could not leave him with that piece of crap who did this to him. The dog did not survive a year and a half of crippling pain only to be put down. He did not deserve any of this. We will end up spending about $7500 all told when we are done with George. We have a son, other rescues, and a car that needs fixing. Any little bit helps. We didn't choose to save a dog who was so ill, we HAD to help him. We are glad we did but if everyone can help share the burden, the world will be a better place for animals. Every one of us will make up for the scum who had George and did this to him.
PS He still refuses to donate. Or to sign the dog's CKC registration over to us.
We would be happy to provide our receipts. Thank you for reading our story.
George's setback. August 6, 2014
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