The rescue received a call from a gentleman from Wales who was enquiring if the rescue could help rehome his mother’s dog. We were advised that Daisy was around 7 years old, had been used for breeding and needed to be groomed. I told him not to worry and that I would bring my grooming tools to be able to tidy her up when we arrived at the foster mum’s home if necessary.
The gentleman said that the last litter Daisy had, all died and that his mother was a hobby breeder and that Daisy needed to be retired now. He signed the paperwork and went to get Daisy. I had brought my Frankie with me and the two dogs met for the first time outside his mother’s boarded up bungalow. To say that Daisy needed a groom was the understatement of the century, this poor little girl was in a terrible state, she couldn’t see anything and was struggling to walk, as her nails were so over grown.
We made Daisy comfy in the back of the car with lots of comfy cushions and fastened her in, so that she was safe to travel and we made our way to her foster home, which was a beautiful farm house in Crewkerne on the Somerset/Dorset boarders.
On arrival, foster parents Ruth and Raymond Bailey came out to meet Daisy and we wasted no time in getting her matted coat clipped off and her toe nails trimmed. Daisy was such a good girl and stood like a statue and allowed us to do everything we needed to. Several of Daisy’s toe nails were very over grown with her dew claws curling round and puncturing the pads on her paws. The stench of infection in one of her paws made me heave, luckily Raymond has a caste iron stomach and we let him do that paw. After we had trimmed her up, Ruth and Raymond washed her feet with Hibiscrub to cleanse the infected areas. Her skin actually wasn’t too bad, considering the state she was in.
We noticed a couple of large lumps around her mammary area whilst we were clipping off Daisy’s coat and the vet confirmed that she had several mammary tumours. Ruth’s Vet had said that Daisy needed to be spayed urgently and suggested that the mammary tumours and spay operation could be done together, but her dental work would need to be done as a separate procedure. On the day of the first operation the vet was concerned that the mammary lumps had increased in size since the initial consultation and wanted to do an x-ray to check if there were any secondary tumours in her lungs before they went ahead. Luckily the x-ray was clear, but the surgery ended up being more complicated than first expected and the vets were unable to remove all of the mammary tumours during the surgery. The vet said that Daisy’s Womb was a mess and full of infection and they estimated that she had probably had around 12 litters of puppies.
Daisy recovered well from the first op and during a post op appointment the vet suggested that a further 3 procedures might be required to minimise the risk of cross infection. Ruth expressed concerns that Daisy would need to undergo 3 anaesthetics in a short space of time and asked if we knew of any vets who would do the dental procedure and mammary tumour removal under one anaesthetic. I spoke with our vet who advised that any risk of cross infection could be combatted by prescribing a broad spectrum antibiotic and that it would be kinder and more cost effective to remove the rest of the mammary tumours and do her dental work at the same time.
So Daisy, came to stay with our gang for a couple of weeks while she had the rest of her surgery and some treatment for conjunctivitis and her eyes were a little gunky. She was such a good girl and brilliant with all of our dogs during her stay. After she had been signed off by the vet and had her stitches removed, we returned her to Ruth and Raymond as during her stay with them, she had met a local lady who had enquired about giving a home to Daisy. The lady applied to the rescue and was visited by Ruth and Daisy who carried out her home check which passed with flying colours. Daisy has now been adopted and has totally taken over the sofa and luckily, because she is local to Ruth, she is able to see Daisy and look after her during any holidays.
This little girl has certainly landed on her paws now and her life has been transformed thanks to the rescue and to all of our members who support our work.
Next …… Benny’s Story