Donut, the hit-and-run victim has been adopted!

Three years ago, Hope Dog Rescue’s group of volunteers were on their weekly stray feeding rounds and when they got to this particular car park, they noticed one dog was missing. Little did they know, Donut had been hit by a car and had gone to hide as she was in tremendous pain. Read about her rescue here.

The volunteers searched high and low for her and finally found her in a quiet corner. She was limping and tried to run when she saw the volunteers approaching but fortunately they managed to trap her and took her straight to the vet.

At the vet, her prognosis was poor. The accident had caused Donut to have a severed spinal nerve and sacrum and we were told that she might not be able to walk in future. Even peeing and pooing might be an issue. Like all Hope’s rescue cases, we never give up as long as the dog wants to fight it through.

Surgery was planned and Donut had a long road to recovery.

During rehabilitation, Donut had undergone many, many sessions of hydrotherapy and acupuncture. Those sessions helped her slowly gain mobility and build muscle strength again and after more than year, Donut could actually walk again, albeit one leg that is slightly shorter than the rest.

Donut and her best friend

From the accident, Donut was no longer able to pee on her own and has to have her bladder expressed few times a day. Her fosters were taught how to express her bladder and they did their best for Donut. It was a huge learning curve for all involved.

Donut on her very first boat ride 

Fast forward three years to now, Donut, a local dog with special needs is a happy dog who has gained a second chance to live. Gone are the days of scavenging for food and having to avoid large moving vehicles at the factory areas. All these would not have been possible without the continuous support of volunteers who spared no effort to care for her since Day One. Their determination to help the rescues have proven that miracles can happen and that there's always hope in life.

Donut, standing proud <3

We would like to thank Ann and Shun Li for braving the challenge and deciding to give Donut a forever home, making her the happiest doggie this Christmas.

By Ann

Helping a senior citizen and his senior dog, Taco

At HOPE, we believe in providing veterinary assistance to dogs who belong to low-income senior citizens. Not only do dogs provide the elderly with company, but they help keep dementia at bay.

Taco at the vet for his full medical

That said, we would advise potential owners to understand that their dogs need constant love in a forever home.

Mr Akira, a low-income senior citizen with his 10-year old beagle, Taco, recently went to the vet. Transport paid by HOPE as well.

Taco is slightly overweight at 19.5kg but as Mr Akira is a doting owner who loves his dog, Taco tends to be fed more whenever he asks for food. 

Getting checked by the vet

We recently paid for a full medical check at the vet for Taco – his blood works and heart were clear, but the X-ray showed that Taco’s lungs were inflamed. His ears were badly infected, and his paws were swollen. There was also a small cyst on his left hind. The lump was bleeding and though we wanted to do a fine needle aspiration and biopsy, the vet said we would only draw blood and to wait for another time when the lump is no longer bleeding.

Swollen and itchy paws 

Mr Akira was given medication and ear gel for Taco and to return for a review in about a week or so.

HOPE has also been providing dog food and dog shampoo to Mr Akira for the past 7 years.

Would you be able to help Mr Akira with the vet bills and to help him keep his dog healthy? Vet bill was $ 657/- and pet transport $50/-.

Email us at hopedogrescue@singnet.com.sg if you would like to help. Thank you in advance.

Written by: Felicia Tan

Vet visit for Isaac, the abandoned dog

Remember Isaac? The dishevelled Shih Tzu that was found abandoned a few weeks ago? We sent Isaac for a full medical checkup last week, which included ultrasound for heart/ abdomen, complete blood count, blood test for kidneys and liver, and heartworm and tick fever checks. 

Thankfully, the ultrasound and test results came back negative and Isaac is generally in good health. He has some allergy in the ears so he's currently on ear medication.

That said, we're still a bit concerned about his well-being as he is not putting on weight despite eating well. Isaac is currently 7.3kg, which is on the low side. According to the vet, it could be due to allergy or Cushing's Disease. In the meantime, we're monitoring him closely. If the meds or a change in diet doesn't help, we will send him in for a Cushing's Disease test.

During the check up, Isaac's left hind leg was found to be a little wobbly. The vet suspects he might have mild arthritis but this can be treated with joint supplements. He would need to go for an xray in order to get a proper diagnosis. His adrenal glands are also swollen so if we notice that he drinks a lot of water, he will need a Cushing's Disease test as well.

Like many shih tzus, Isaac has low tear production so his eyes tend to be dry. There is also a lot of tartar build-up on his teeth, which is not surprising as he may have been abandoned for a while before being rescued. He also loves to sleep under the car, so we think he used to hide under cars during his wandering days.

The good news is that Isaac is now ready for adoption! His actual age is unknown but estimated to be about 10-12. Despite all that he has been through, Isaac remains good natured. He is still alert and is generally a quiet and easy-going boy. However, he has mild separation anxiety (who can blame him for that?) and needs 4 meals a day.

We hope that he finds a loving home soon. One that will provide him with the quality care and affection that he so deserves. Please contact us if you are willing to give him a chance.

If you would like to help with Isaac's vet bills, please email hopedogrescue@singnet.com.sg.

Back story: http://hopedogrescue.blogspot.com/2020/11/yet-another-abandoned-dog.html

Written by: Alina Tee

Helping Seniors: Chinnu and Mdm Puspa

 At HOPE, our work goes beyond just the welfare of the strays and abandoned.

A social worker from Fei Yue Cluster Support contacted us recently to seek help for Mdm Puspa's dog. We were told that Chinnu, her 16 years old jack russell terrier, is unwell. We had provided help to Mdm Puspa and Chinnu two years back when she was hospitalised and she remembered us since then.

Mdm Puspa is a senior citizen earning a low income. It was a challenge having to make ends meet, let alone affording proper veterinary care for Chinnu.

We were shocked when we saw Chinnu again. He had bleeding open wounds all over his body, some filled with pus. His skin itched and he was constantly scratching. We learnt that this condition had persisted for the last 2-3 months. Fortunately there was no maggots.

It had started with rashes, which came and went. He also had bacterial and fungal infection in his ears. It must have been so uncomfortable and unbearable for Chinnu these few months.

We took Chinnu to the vet and he was diagnosed with Pyodermatitis. The underlying cause of it could be food allergy, cancer or hormonal diseases. Fortunately, he had no parasites on him.

Chinnu was prescribed with a new diet: Hill's Prescription Diet and given a cocktail of oral medication, including antibiotics, ointments and meds and cleaning solution for his ears. He also needed saline forflushing of wounds. If Chinnu's condition does not improve with these treatments, a biopsy or full blood count is recommended on his next review.

With the prescription diet and various medications needed, Chinnu's vet fees are a huge burden on Mdm Puspa. Much as we wish to help, we currently have our hands full with Sofie, Isaac and Harper.

While Chinnu is trying his best to get better, we would be very grateful for any support towards his recovery. If you are able to help Mdm Puspa and Chinnu with the vet bills, please email hopedogrescue@singnet.com.sg for details. Every bit of help counts.

By: Alina Tee

Sofie at the vet (1st visit right after rescue)

 Sofie's ordeal has not ended yet.

After her dramatic capture, she was brought to the vet. We had thought that her leg would be the most serious of her conditions but we could not have been more wrong.

A tired soul 

Sofie tested positive for heartworms and a chest x-ray showed that she was severely infected by them. Her lungs are enlarged due to the presence of heartworms. She will need to undergo an ultrasound scan to get a better view of the heartworms. She needs to get started on her heartworm treatment immediately but even that is tricky as she is also severely anemic, making her condition very precarious at the moment. The heartworm treatment is expected to take around 2 months to complete. First, she will be started on Doxycycline which will kill the baby worms, but not the adult worms. Once the baby worms are dead, they usually float around in the blood vessels until the body can get rid of them. However, because she is so anemic, the concern is that her body may not have what it takes to dispose of the dead heartworms and they will start clogging up her arteries which can kill her.

All she wanted to do was to disappear  . . . . 

If the results of the ultrasound reveal the presence of a lot of adult heartworms, we will need to look for a vet who can extract the worms from her heart surgically. This was common practice in the old days but no longer done now as the usual treatment for heartworms is using medicine to kill the worms and have the body dispose of them naturally. However, her current condition may make it difficult for her body to get rid of the dead adult worms, yet neither is she stable enough to undergo surgery. We can only hope that she gets better once the baby heartworms have been killed and the ultrasound does not show the presence of too many adult heartworms.

Poor Sofie - look at the angle of her legs - it was so wrong

The cause of her anemia is still unknown but a sample of her blood will be sent to be tested for Babesia. We have also requested a fecal test to test for hookworms. Hookworms can also cause anemia and the presence of hookworms would explain why she is always hungry and eating so much yet still losing weight at the same time.

Exhausted after years on the streets. As a stray, they could never get proper sleep; always alert, always looking for danger, traffic, attacks . . . .

Sofie's leg, which we had initially thought would be the worst of her worries, turned out to be of the least concern, at least at this time. Her left hip is totally displaced and out of the socket. The knee of the same leg is also out of its socket, which explains why her knee seemed to be turned at an awkward 90 degree angle in her rescue video (re-watch Sofie's dramatic rescue here). Interestingly, they did not find any signs of broken bones or fractures, but will do more x-rays to make sure. Both her hip and knee injuries are old ones and because of that, they will be hard to treat and the success of surgery is not high.

Looking so old and tired but often they are a lot older than they look because of the tough life they have had on the streets 

In any case, the most immediate concern is her heartworm condition, and all others are secondary so she will start her heartworm treatment immediately.

Sofie's road to recovery will be a long and tedious one. A road we foresee to be fraught with challenges. But we know she can get through this with your support and help. To help Sofie on her road to good health, please email hopedogrescue@singnet.com.sg.

Yet Another Abandoned Dog

You might recall reading about this shihtzu a few of weeks ago. He was found wandering on the streets along Upper Thomson Road by @JeffCake on 24 October. Jeff had kindly taken him home and cared for him. After 3 weeks, he somehow managed to trace and locate the owner, who claimed that he had given the dog to a friend earlier but his friend must have abandoned it.

Sadly, the original owner was not interested to get his dog back and instead told Jeff to keep the dog. Jeff was delighted and had continued to care for the shihtzu for almost a month. However, this happy ending did not last.

On 14 Nov, we were alerted to an adoption post put up by Jeff. Despite his good intentions and best efforts, he realized that he did not have the time and capacity to continue caring for the dog as he's currently in the army. He had also already spent $405 on the dog’s vet bills and could no longer afford to keep it, especially in the long run, as the dog has chronic ear and eye problems which would require long-term treatments. Dry eyes is a common issue in the shihtzu breed.

Ear infection

We contacted Jeff and after a few days, he finally got back to us and agreed to surrender the dog to HOPE. He also requested for us to reimburse him for the $405 that he had spent on the dog, which we agreed to and paid him immediately.

Bad skin infection, scratching constantly and smelling very yeasty

As with all new rescues, we will always send them for a full medical screening which includes not just a general check-up, but also blood tests for kidney and liver profile, heartworm and tick fever. We also plan to do a heart and abdomen ultrasound scan as the dog is not young. He looks to be about 10 to 12 years old and we felt that it would be good to know if he has any hidden health issues.

We have named him Isaac, which means to laugh and rejoice. That is our wish for him moving forward.

If you would like to help with his vet bills, please email hopedogrescue@singnet.com.sg for more information. Isaac will be up for adoption when he is ready.

Photo credit @Jeffcake

Written by Alina Tee

What to do when you find a missing dog

In recent months, we have had a spate of people contacting us about dogs they have found. However, when we try following up with them to find out more about the dog and requesting information that may help us locate its owner if it has one, we get ignored. And we later find out that the person who found the dog has decided to keep the dog for their own or have rehome the dog to the first person who wants the dog without doing any due diligence checks.

What should you do when you find a dog wandering around with no owner in sight? It says so much about how jaded we have become that our first thought when we do find ourselves in such a situation is to assume that the dog is abandoned. However, that is not always the case and in many cases, these dogs are genuinely lost and have humans back home who are fretting over where they may be.

So what do you do when you find a dog? Before passing any judgement, you should try and secure it and keep it safe. Take the dog to the vet as soon as you can for a quick (and free) scan for a microchip. If there is a microchip and it is registered, the owner can be contacted. If there is a microchip but it is not registered, the information will still be valuable when searching for and verifying the owners.

Social media is a very powerful tool. Whether there is a microchip or not, posting about the dog you found on Facebook and tagging SPCA, NParks and the local AWGs to share may help reunite the dog with its owner a lot faster. Make sure to check back frequently and to re-post the notice on different Facebook pages or groups if necessary. Putting up paper notices in the vicinity the dog was found can also help especially if the owner is an elderly person or someone not on social media. In the meantime, keep the dog in your home and provide it with food and water and a place to rest until its owner can be found. If you are unable to keep the dog during the search for its owner, reach out to one of the many AWGs to help.

While the intention to reunite the lost dog with its owner as quickly as possible is good, you should still be wary of anyone coming forward claiming to be the dog's owner. There are people who would lie just to be able to get a dog for free, and who knows what their intentions with the dog are? We have heard cases of dogs being turned over to fake owners who turn out to be con people who just wanted to turn around the dog for a quick buck by selling them to other people or worse, to puppy mills to be used as a breeding dog. Always make sure to get proof from people claiming to be owners either by asking for photos or cross-checking the microchip numbers if the dog is microchipped. Do not rely on a dog's reaction to a person as a test. There are friendly dogs who would just about wag their tail at any human they meet! Reach out to any AWG if in doubt on how to verify an owner's identity.

We do understand how easy it is to fall in love with a dog (that is why we continue to do what we do) but imagine if you are the owner of a lost dog. Would you not want the person who found your dog to try their very best to get your dog back to you instead of just keeping it for themselves without you ever knowing what has happened to your dog? If, and only if, you have tried all means to reunite a lost dog with an owner and no one has come forth to claim the dog after a reasonable amount of time (2 weeks is a good estimate), only then should you assume that the dog has no owner and only then should you consider keeping the dog for yourself or rehoming it. If  you do choose to rehome a dog, make sure that you also do the due diligence on any potential adopters. Again, the AWGs are there to help if you do need any advice on how to screen potential adopters and make sure that your good intentions do not end up being taken advantage of.

We have heard stories of abandoned dogs. But, we have also heard stories of desperate owners searching for their lost dogs. So if you do see a dog wandering alone, do not assume the worst. The first assumption should be that the dog has a home and a loving owner who is probably at their wits' end trying to find their dog. Only once all means of reuniting the dog with its owner have been exhausted and only after a reasonable amount of time has passed, then the next best course of action for the dog can be considered, and that would be finding the dog its new forever home, whether it be with you, or with someone else. Once again, if you do find yourself in possession of a lost dog and have no idea what to do next, you can always reach out to HOPE or any of the other AWGs at any point to ensure the best outcome for the dog.

Emergency contacts for sick, injured abused, abandoned or animals in distress:

SPCA 24/7 rescue hotline: 6287 5355

AVS 24/7 hotline: 1800-476-1600

Please note that SPCA does not pick up healthy animals from the community.

You may also report to spca.org.sg/report, or access the AVS website https://www.nparks.gov.sg/avs/pets/owning-a-pet/lost-and-found-pets/what-to-do-if-you-find-a-missing-pet