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| A stray named Bradley |
I had rushed to the vet to wait for his arrival and when he arrived, I told the clinic that it was an emergency and that they had to see him first. They immediately took him into the treatment room. He was quite heavily sedated because the feeder had given him some sleeping pills in his food earlier on, or else she would never have been able to even get close to him. When they opened the top of the carrier, he was a little groggy and made no effort to escape. The vet tech managed to put an e-collar over his head, to prevent him from biting in case he tried.
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| Eyes that seem resigned to his fate |
They then lifted him out of the carrier and put him on the floor, so that they could examine his wound. When they flipped him over, everyone in the room gasped in horror and went “Oh my God.”
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| Just arrived at the vet |
In my 9 years of rescuing, this has got to be the worst case of TVT I have ever seen. Our eyes turned red as we stared at his horrific pain, trying to imagine how he had even survived for the past few weeks.
His penis was black, which meant that the nerves and cells were already dead.
He had maggots crawling out of his wound; huge, fat ones.
The cauliflower like flesh you see in the photographs are typical in dogs with TVT.
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| His penis was held on only by a muscle |
How has he been peeing, you wonder? He hasn’t. His pee just leaks and drips out from all the holes that the maggots and tumors have created.
It gets worse.
His penis was rotting and had almost fallen off. The only reason why it hadn’t fallen off was the one muscle from which it was dangling.
Did we want to put him down? No, that thought never even crossed our minds. Despite having lots of outstanding vet bills, HOPE has always been about saving lives and giving dogs second chances, especially when no one else would. And perhaps that’s the reason why we have the highest number of special needs dogs; blind, deaf, one-eyed, paralyzed, incontinent, three-legged, we love those best but that’s a story for another day.
When a dog gives up on life, they stop eating. But when the feeder trapped Bradley today, despite all his pain, he gobbled up what little food she gave him, just to survive and keep going. That was reason enough for us to help keep him alive too.
An emergency surgery has been scheduled for tomorrow, whereby his penis will be amputated because it no longer functions. This surgery is very similar to the one Bobby had, where an opening was surgically created in his scrotum to enable him to pee.
We are unsure of Bradley's age or his health, but he was terribly dirty and the nurses are considering giving him a bath before the surgery tomorrow.
The vet says that he would most likely stay for a week. Just one week’s stay at the vet and the surgery are estimated to cost between $4000 to $5000. But based on our previous experiences, it usually takes almost 3 weeks to fully recover as the surgery is rather major. If we are returning him to the factory, then we would need his wound to be 100% recovered.
If you can help Bradley with his vet bills, please email us hopedogrescue@singnet.com.sg because we can't possibly save him without your help.
