Just this year alone, and its still January, we have rescued Buddy, Jackie, Peanut, Blackie, Mimi the cat and Tipsy the abandoned shitzu. That’s definitely one too many and we said we would not be rescuing anymore for a while as we have vet bills piling up. But when we were shown this photo of a dog that barely resembles a schnauzer, how do we say sorry, we can't save you?
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| Left alone and forgotten, almost like his rusty cage |
It all started in November when a volunteer, Irene, happened to see this dog being walked in her housing estate. The person claimed he walked the dog once a month. Irene was appalled and saddened by the state of the dog - furless, skin & bones.
Irene asked around for a couple of days and managed to find out where the skeleton dog lived. We then went down to the home and offered to take their dog to the vet for free, to cook and deliver food but the family said they didn’t need help. They told us that the dog had cancer and their vet had said nothing more could be done. The door was closed on us.
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| Insufficient food for how long to reach this sorry state? |
Irene was persistent as she was worried about the dog’s well-being and so she wrote to NParks, asking them to check on the dog for possible neglect. We can't reveal the exact details but 2 months later, the family suddenly decided they wanted to surrender their dog to us and so we quickly rushed down to take him, before they changed their mind.
he dog was handed to us in a rusty cage and he smelled so bad that the car was filled with his damp, mouldy smell. We named him Timmy.
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| Dry flaky skin |
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| Inside his ears |
Timmy is 15 years old and is supposed to be a schnauzer but all you see is his skeletal frame, red sore skin, pressure sores from lying down long term and hardly any fur. To say he was a sorry sight would be an understatement.
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Pressure sores from lying down long term
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| Itchy scratchy |
Timmy weighed just 5.8 kg, a fraction of what he should be. In order to reach this skeletal state, the dog would either be extremely sick or starved for a very, very long time.
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| Eyes that have given up on life |
Guess what? His blood tests revealed he is in perfect health! Kidney and liver functions perfect! We thought maybe he had thyroid or diabetes and so that was tested too – came back negative. Blood pressure perfect too. The only issue he seems to have is malnourishment, bad skin and bad teeth. We don’t think he has cancer as the owner said because if he did, his white blood count would have been high, but it isn’t. Nonetheless, like all our rescues, we do our best for all of them and so Timmy has been booked in for a cardiac and abdomen ultrasound next week.
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| How can this not be constituted as animal cruelty? |
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| Paw pad has poo stuck in the fur |
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| Scratched till his neck has no fur |
Irene has offered to foster Timmy till he has gained weight and is stronger, before we put him up for adoption.
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| Will you please save me? |
Email us hopedogrescue@singnet.com.sg if you would like to help Timmy the skeleton dog.
