Sweet Ah Mei Has Been Warded Again

After staying for 3 weeks at the vet for an eyelid reconstruction surgery, Ah Mei was discharged. However within a week of discharge, Ah Mei started having bloody diarrhea, and a few days later, vomiting and inappetence. She became lethargic and we were getting concerned as the recent episode of Bentley’s death was still freshly etched in our minds.

Sweet Ah Mei (taken last week when she was discharged)

Our volunteers, together with Ah Mei’s foster, took her to the vet in the morning where Dr Ly suspected that Ah Mei had Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and suggested running some tests to confirm. Blood tests and an ultrasound scan were done on her abdomen where results showed that her colon, spleen and big intestine was inflamed. Ah Mei also had a temperature of 40deg and was immediately warded to be put on drip, to be monitored for 48 hrs and sponged with cold water to bring down her temperature. Dr Ly mentioned that Ah Mei was susceptible to seizures if her temperature was not brought down. Poor Ah Mei, back at the vet in such short a time.

Ah Mei running a temperature and feeling really down

It’s interesting because as a stray living on the streets, these dogs ate whatever they could find and factory workers fed them junk food such as roti prata, fruit cakes, curry rice etc and when they start living in a clean home environment, they show adverse reactions to certain food. IBS can be caused by stress, anxiety or diet intolerance.

We pray that sweet Ah Mei will recover and get well again.

If you would like to help with her vet bills, please email hopedogrescue@singnet.com.sg Thank you

Poor Bobby’s Condition Is Deteriorating

We apologize for the delay in providing Bobby’s updates. As usual, we have been overwhelmed by rescue work and where Bobby is concerned, there has been not much change in his condition since he was warded almost 3 weeks ago, although he isn't getting any better either. He has been literally lying in the same position, motionless and emotionless, standing only occasionally to eat, drink or pee, as if waiting for death to overcome him. As a result, he now has terrible bed sores, especially since he is just a bag of bones.

Bobby in the position as we found him 3 weeks ago

Three weeks ago, a factory dog whom we named Bobby was rushed to the veterinary clinic. He was in terrible shape when we found him – maggot wounds, fleas, ticks and dirt were found all over his battered body. It was a terrible sight. He is still flea infested.

Look at the colour of the water!

Poor Bobby's body was covered in scabs and dried blood 

For many who have seen Bobby, they usually say he is rather emotionless. For those closely bonded to dogs, they say that they feel Bobby’s deep sense of sadness. It’s as if nothing you do for him in this life will erase that sadness embedded deep in him. That’s such a sad thought considering we feel it’s our job to rescue a dog, turn their life around and make them happy. He lies in his cage, showing no emotion, as if numb to the years of pain he has suffered. His eyes don’t even move to look at you. He is terribly detached.

When we visit, Bobby has no reaction to whoever that sits beside him. On the rare occasion that he tries to move, his limbs seem to have no strength in them. When he finally does stand, his legs slide apart and he struggles.

His old wound had somewhat healed

Rather than keeping on his brown coat, the vet had advised us to shave off his coat as he had lots of fleas. The shaving was done over 2 days, a week apart, as each shave lasted almost 2 hours and Bobby was starting to feel pain and get upset. Finally after shaving, today our volunteers took time off from work to bathe him as he will be undergoing a surgery soon and needs to be clean to minimize infection. Bobby lay motionless as we bathed him and after he was clean, not only did we notice more sores, we also noticed that he had lost weight and had become even more of a skeleton. He is also a white dog! Not brown as we had all thought.  

Helping him to stand

As for his appetite, he doesn’t seem to finish his food, despite the volunteers delivering home cooked food to him on a daily basis.

Look at his swollen penis

Few days ago, the vet had a word with us. She said that she had noticed Bobby crying in pain when he pees. All of us know how tough dogs are and how high their tolerance for pain is. For him to cry in pain, we would imagine that pain to be quite intolerable. When we first rescued him, his penis was swollen to almost three times the normal size. From then till now, the swelling has gotten slightly worse and he now drips blood. The vet now suspects a tumour. This painful condition could be the cause of his lack of emotions and appetite. She had suggested a penile amputation and we had thought long and hard for 3 days before agreeing to it.

Unfortunately for Bobby, there are no other options. When he pees, not only does it cause him severe pain, the pee also flows backwards and doesn’t come out entirely, thus causing infection. If we opt not to operate, he will continue to live in pain till death overcomes him. If we operate and amputate his penis (about 10cm), the vet will then reconstruct and create another opening for him to pee. Once he recovers, he will then be able to look and pee normally. There is a high risk that Bobby may not make it as he is very thin, old, weak, has tick fever and a heart murmur but sadly, it’s a risk we have to take. His surgery takes place on Wednesday afternoon. We pray that he makes it and that it will take away all his pain and he will be a happy dog once again.

Nice and clean and back to his usual position

The surgery will take slightly more than 2 hours and cost about $2500. We have promised Booby that as soon as he is ready to be discharged, we will find him a home where he experiences love and be surrounded by people who care. It’s the least we could do for him.

If you would like to adopt Bobby, please email hopedogrescue@singnet.com.sg. He would require a family that would not leave him alone for long hours.

If you can help again with his vet bills, Bobby and us would be truly grateful. 

Story and photographs contributed by Ong HK, Lisa, Michelle and Velda. 

Tough Luck

Life is tough for strays, especially in an area where there are vast developments of construction of buildings. With development and modernization, these poor strays have their homes snatched away from them. The result? Either the construction management engages the services of a pest control company to terminate all the strays and “clean up” the environment, the new residents are displeased with the strays spoiling their expensive property’s  image and complain to the authorities to have them culled, or these strays migrate to new territories because they have been made homeless by humans.

What happens when these strays move to new territories? They get attacked by existing packs who occupy that territory that they have just “invaded”, they get into fights. Why, you may ask, after all they are all fellow strays, shouldn’t they live together in harmony and stick together as a group? Firstly, dogs are pack animals. The existing dogs may already have their own packs and may not want to accept a new dog into their pack. The existing dogs may not accept the new dog into their territory and if the new dog even crosses an imaginary boundary, he will be attacked. Sometimes, even after they submit / surrender, the dogs continue attacking them and then leaving them for dead . . .in cases like Cassie. You may think these dogs are nasty. We think they are just trying their best to survive in a land where abuse is common, food is scarce and they are constantly on the run for survival.

With feeders and animal welfare groups not sterilizing these dogs, they reproduce too quickly and in some opinions, become a menace to society, a public nuisance. When that happens, the Authorities engage the services of dog trappers to cull these dogs. The price on their heads are high.

Cody and Cassie come from the same area where they lost them homes to modernization and their homes are now considered high culling areas. All they did was to go in search of food and they were attacked by other packs of dogs. Fortunately, Cody’s wound isn’t as bad as Cassie’s, but a wound, nonetheless. We had initially thought he had contracted TVT but the rest of his private parts were not affected. His wound was likely caused by a dog chasing him and he couldn’t run away fast enough. Poor Cody.

When we first trapped him and took him to the vet, he was scared and a little defensive, we understood to give him space and time. He was in pain and in an entirely new environment. Now, having been at the vet for a while, Cody is now friendly with humans and he is receiving treatment for the wound.

Cody will be released when he is ready to be discharged. We feel sorry that we cant keep him. If you didn't already know, we have 17 dogs in our care, some of which have waited 2 years for a home, so there is no way we can take in more dogs. Besides we have a high number of special needs dogs which we may be fostering for quite a long term :-( So poor Cody will be released when he is well, in about 7 to 10 days time. If you can adopt him, please do because once he is released, he will also have a price on his head.

He is male, a local crossbreed, estimated to be about 2 to 3 years old. A bit shy but alright with humans. He will be sterilized and ear-tipped before his release.

From this area, HOPE has rescued Cassie and now Cody. There were 2 other badly injured dogs in the same vicinity. Initially we could not rescue them as we had our hands full. Unfortunately after we had settled our rescued dogs and went back to search for the two injured dogs, they were no longer sighted. They may have passed on from their injuries or trapped and culled by the authorities. Such is the sad life of a stray. Here today, gone tomorrow. 

Email : hopedogrescue@singnet.com.sg

Oscar Had A Fit

Oscar was sent to the vet yesterday (Tuesday) as his foster informed us that he had a seizure in the wee hours of the morning, lasting for almost 4 minutes. After the episode, poor Oscar was extremely disoriented and it took a while before he regained composure.

In the recent weeks, Oscar had been having slight vomiting and diarrhea on and off but it really wasn’t cause for concern. What was more worrying was that he often behaved as if he didn’t recognize his foster family or people that he had seen on a regular basis. He would bark at them as if they were total strangers. Oscar would also occasionally fall for no reason and we reckoned it was perhaps a brain issue, rather than a motor coordination issue.

Oscar is estimated to be less than 3 years old but life has been hard. He has indeed come a long way, and his skin looks almost perfect, considering what he used to look like. We thank his foster, Bron, for taking such wonderful care of the little one.

From all that scratching

Some red patchy skin on his jaw 

The vet had checked Oscar and took his blood pressure – all seemed normal and he was bright and alert again. There wasn’t very much that the vet could do except to ask us to observe his behaviour and to give us medication should he have another seizure.

Oscar had his blood pressure taken 

If he gets seizures again and it becomes more regular than it would be recommended that Oscar undergoes a MRI, bearing in mind that a MRI scan will only pick up abnormal growths.

ADOPT OSCAR?

We pray that Oscar will be fine and that his seizure was just a once off.

We often joke amongst ourselves that HOPE seems to have the highest numbers of special needs dogs . . . but isn’t that why they needed our intervention? ADOPT OSCAR? He is small sized, sweet, charming and HDB approved.

Email : hopedogrescue@singnet.com.sg

3-legged Dawn

Dawn has come a long way. From a feisty 3-legged little dog to a grand old dame, she has spent most of her life as a stray living in a factory. She was exposed to weather conditions and although she had kind feeders looking out for her, regular meals were a luxury. With only 3 legs, she was at a disadvantage as she could not run as fast as other dogs and this led to her capture by AVA on that fateful day. She also has to be feisty in order to stand her ground and protect herself against other strays especially since she is at a disadvantage with 3 legs.

Dawn

When she was first admitted to the vet after her bail out from AVA, she was so traumatized and scared that she withdrew into her shell and sat in the corner of the cage facing the far corner, with her back to the outside world. When we visited her, she ignored us. In the weeks that followed, she started to slowly withdraw from her shell, but she would still try to hide under the cages or any corners she felt safe in.

She had been at the vet for 2 weeks when I visited and was greeted by a smiling Dawn who sat facing the busy outside world! She seemed much more calm and no longer cowered in fear. She didn’t appear stressed. As I opened her cage, she allowed me to stroke her and rub her ears, a far cry from how she was when she was first warded. I took the leash out after she happily gobbled her dinner; she was so excited to be going out for walk! She walks, or should I say, hops well on leash. After she had peed on the grass, she lay down to enjoy the sun and watched the world go by. I was very sure she missed the stray life in some ways, the freedom, the fresh air and basking in the sun. She would occasionally rub her head against me. This was such a drastic change in her demeanor. She was still very wary of strangers and you would need quite a bit of patience to earn her trust and love. But it will definitely be worth it when she finally sees you as a friend and family. She has accepted the volunteers that visit her regularly but still growls at those who visit less often.

I sincerely hope that Dawn can find a home to call her own.

She is no longer a young dog, possibly about 7 to 8 years old, has only three legs and is a grossly misunderstood dame. It’s a miracle that she has survived this long on the streets. While others may see her as fierce and grumpy, truth be told, she yearns for love and a safe haven to spend her twilight years.

This is Dawn's caregiver in the factory where Dawn used to live. This lady no longer works there and that's how Dawn got trapped by AVA. She had no one to look out for her.

Dawn is a 3-legged local crossbreed, estimated to be about 7 to 8 years old. She has been staying at the vet for more than a month, putting on a lot of weight and getting too comfortable with the clinic stuff. They love her but it’s not a place for her to stay long term. She needs to be discharged asap . . . but where can she go? She can no longer return to the factory and we don’t want to put her in a kennel. She needs an immediate foster / adopter, someone who will give her space initially till she is ready to be approached, which might take a few weeks.

We don’t know how she reacts to children or other dogs, but if you have a space in your home and in your heart to accept Dawn, please email us at hopedogrescue@singnet.com.sg

Written by Wendy Yeo

A Moment Of Horror

Fiona had mentioned that someone had asked us for help to trap a badly injured stray. When she asked what type of injury, the reply she had was "the head is going to fall off". 

After 6 months volunteering with HOPE Dog Rescue, I thought that all the stories I had heard and all the pictures I had seen would be have sufficiently prepared me for the first time that I was bringing a rescued dog to the vet. Yet I suppose no one could have been sufficiently prepared to meet Cassie for the first time.

A shadow of a dog . . . .

Cassie could best be described as a shadow of a dog. With protruding ribs and bones, there was hardly an ounce of flesh on her shrivelled body. It was heart-breaking to see that a dog could be this skinny. It was evident that poor Cassie had not had a decent meal for a long period of time. This was probably due to the fact that she was a meek and submissive dog and she had probably been bullied by the other stray dogs and even attacked by them which caused a gaping maggot wound on the right side of her neck, stretching to under her neck.

The skin on the right side and the underneath of Cassie’s neck was completely gone, and the flesh was revealed and festering. The maggot wound reeked of the stench of rotting flesh and was still dripping fresh blood while we were waiting to see the vet, even though the wound was already almost 2 weeks old. Imagine the pain, suffering and amount of blood she had lost for 2 whole weeks! In fact, the wound was so big that even the vet said that they had to wait for some scarring to occur before they could try to close it. Gigantic ticks were also falling off Cassie as we spoke.

The state that Cassie was in was so appalling that all eyes were on her when we carried her into the clinic. Some people backed off at the stench that poor Cassie emitted. A few other people waiting for their turn at the vet asked us about Cassie and expressed their sympathies for her.

Pain and sadness in her eyes

When it was Cassie’s turn to see the vet, she was extremely nervous and in extreme pain; to the extent that the vet told us that she had to receive general anaesthetic before they could further inspect Cassie’s wound and clean it. As the wound was too big, some scarring would have to occur first before the vet can attempt to close it. On top of that, they said that Cassie had to be sedated daily during wound cleaning as she was in too much pain.

Strays really do have such hard lives. What if we never found her? What if we didn’t save her? The maggots would have continued to feast on her flesh till she eventually succumbed.

With the mounting vet bills that we have incurred after the recent spate of incidents, (Kate, Ah Mei, Dawn, Bobby and now Cassie) many would probably ask why we do not choose to put down dogs with wounds as severe as Cassie’s. Yet how could we? It is incredible that Cassie had survived for so long with such a huge wound and it showed her strong spirit and her will to live. How could we possibly give up on her when she had not given up on herself? How could we trap her, send her to the vet and put her down? That would mean giving her false hopes and letting her down. Cassie is estimated to be less than two years old and yet she has already been through so much pain and suffering, more than any of our pets would ever go through in their entire lifetime. The vet has estimated that Cassie’s wound would take many weeks to heal due to the severity of the wound. Yet what about after recovery? Cassie would probably need a foster after her wounds have started to heal. A foster to show her the love that she deserves after having led such a short yet tough life in the wilderness.

We appeal to everyone in helping out with Cassie’s vet bills as Cassie would need to be at the vet for quite some time and the recent spate of incidents have left us stretched to the limits.  

Would we say that we are doing enough? Probably not but with limited funds and 17 dogs now in our charge, our hands are tied. In fact, as we speak, we have been told that 2 other strays are badly injured and yet, it hurts us that we have to turn a blind eye on them because we can no longer afford to save any more dogs. We have asked the individual feeders to try approaching other animal welfare groups for help, but they have told us that no one responded to their plea.

We always try our best to help dogs that require our help; and all of these would not be possible without the help and support we receive from generous dog lovers that have believed in us in so many ways possible and we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.

To help in any way you can, please email hopedogrescue@singnet.com.sg

Thank you.

Written by Yeo Zhiyi (19 years old)

Kate Has Been Discharged

Kate has been discharged to a foster home, after having gone through a horrific experience.

Kate looking very pretty. The swelling on her jaw has subsided 

She was very scared leaving the clinic as she had been there for some weeks, finding security in her enclosure. Besides, she now has to learn to adapt her vision to using just one eye.

With some coaxing and encouragement, she made her way out of the clinic.

Kate is a very sweet, calm and strong girl who does not even flinch when her wounds are being attended to, her right eye is healing well and needs to be cleaned twice a day and the stitches are due to be removed in two weeks’ time. Her left eye is good and she is slowly adapting to living with one eye. Her jaw is still hurting as she has fractures on both sides, but the swelling on her jaw has subsided. The smaller fracture will hopefully be fused back on its own in due course, however, the big fracture near the joint, an x-ray is needed in two weeks’ time to see if the bones have fused, otherwise a surgery might be needed to remove the shattered fragments. Before being discharged, the vet did an x-ray and found that the jaw was looking slightly better but a lot more time is needed to know if it will heal on its own eventually.

Her foster has shared with us that Kate just enjoys herself basking in the sun and garden. She is easy to care for and undemanding. She spends her days quietly on her own, snoozing and day dreaming of a better life. Her foster has dogs and Kate is unperturbed by them.

Kate is still being tube fed, to minimize movement on her jaw. For now, Kate needs to go back to the vet every week for a month as she the vet needs to check her eye, and change the dressing on her neck, where the tube had been inserted. 

Thank you everyone for visiting, caring and paying for Kate's vet bills.

Would you ADOPT Kate? If you would like a chill, laid back dog, Kate's the one for you. She is a really sweet local crossbreed, estimated to be about 4 to 5 years old. We hope that YOU can be the one giving her a second chance and include her in your family ! Thank you very much! 

To ADOPT Kate or help with her vet bills, please email hopedogrescue@singnet.com.sg

Would you like to meet precious Kate? She will be at the Animal Recovery Veterinary Referral Center (466 Serangoon Road) on Saturday (30 August) from 10am to 11am only. Come meet her and  tell her what a brave darling she has been and perhaps, just perhaps, you too, would fall in love with her and make her a part of your family.