[SLW]

A stray hound cross showed up at my next door neighbor. We live rural. The dog had cuts and matted hair on her neck and was limping on a front leg that had a deep cut in it.

I told her let the county know you have it and they will pick her up in 3 days BUT tell them she is hurt and needs medical help ASAP.

She called and was told "now we only pick up aggressive dogs. Just treat the dog like it is wildlife, don't give it food or water and it will go away." Dude, just tell her we aren't set up to help, call some of the shelters in the neighboring counties.

I called and all shelters are full so I took the dog to my vet this afternoon. She had a fever of 104.6, 5 gaping puncture marks on her neck where the vet believes another very large dog attacked her and another bite mark on a leg which has damaged a ligament. The good news is she is heartworm negative! When the doc told me that I squealed and even through the sedation, Zena- Warrior Princess, wagged her tail.

Zena's out in the barn, the leg in a splint and a bandage on her neck and curled up in a nice crate in the warm sunshine. She feels much better with the meds on board- trotted around for a few minutes.

Stupid county. A group is working on getting a shelter in our county but they are a year plus away from even breaking ground. Still have a spinning head from the "dont give her food or water" remark. <headdesk>

[Appsolute]

While I agree its terrible to tell someone to just ignore the animal, the simple fact is that most counties cannot afford to give the animal the treatment that you just paid for with the vet.

I have been in a similar situation – stray dog, badly injured, in the country, didn’t look like it had an “owner” (matted, dirty, no collar or signs of ever wearing one). Unlike you, I do not have the funds to treat the animal myself (too strapped with my own animals and obligations).

Called the authorities – they sent out a Sherriff who dispatched the dog with his hand gun.

While not the happy outcome that your story provides, the animal was at least relieved of its misery, and not allowed to continue to suffer.

I really can’t believe that they said to just let it suffer! We do have shelters locally (but they would not come out to the location of this animal – which I found while driving, not at home) – but they are very much “kill” shelters, and would have euthanized the animal rather than treat it.

[SquishTheBunny]

Thank you for helping her You're a kind soul.

[Casey09]

One thing about her . . . she's not stupid and she picked the right place to go!

[SLW]

Trust me, my vet gave me a huge, huge price break for treating Zena. She helps out in that way which is extremely generous of her.

Most of the time I love my rural area but this was one of those times I was frustrated.

[2ndyrgal]

It's the city folks too. The ones who "drive by and dump" sick, injured or young dogs and cats off at my barn. From the looks of the place, we look like we can afford to house or get medical attention from something, but damn, knock on the door and plead, don't just throw the kitty out the window into the barn aisle.

My vet gives me the "oh, another one?" discount.

It hads up to a couple thousand a year for animals that don't belong to us.

[LauraKY]

We've even had geese dropped off. Nasty, nasty white domestic geese that would chase you down the road. They disappeared one by one. I suspect my neighbors weren't very careful driving.

[BuddyRoo]

Regarding the "city people" comment....

As a kid, we never got to have a dog we picked out. It was always a dumped dog it seemed. Typically they were dogs that seemed well cared for...just dumped.

As an adult, I actually had a coworker say "hey, do you have any idea which road would be best to drop my cat off on? he keeps peeing all over the house and I'm going to drop him off near a farm or something, he'll be happier there."

NOTE: cat had a UTI...again. owner refused to change foods per vet recommendation. Was declawed. And she was not kidding!!! She really thought that she could just drop her cat off near some farm and all was well!

WTH?

Glad to hear Zena found the right sucker.

[alto]

While I agree its terrible to tell someone to just ignore the animal, the simple fact is that most counties cannot afford to give the animal the treatment that you just paid for with the vet.

I know many vets who offer support to shelters/rescues/abandoned animals - but it sounds as if some counties can't be bothered to even explore alternatives

[SLW]

Okay, help me out here pro's with Zena and her splint. Her RF leg is splinted (ideally for 2 weeks) to salvage the damage ligament. However, she broke the plastic splint and the vet won't have a new one until Tuesday. I added a 7" piece of plastic from a tomato stake to support it but now the splint keeps falling off. Yesterday the vet tech did it and it came off overnight. This morning hubba and I rewrapped it and it slid off before dinner time.

Hubba had the idea of wrapping over her left shoulder to hold the splint up- like a figure 8. What are your thoughts on that??

[Kachina]

Any appropriate diameter PVC around? Are you using Vetwrap ( a bit sticky) on the tomato stake splint? If you have some, might keep the thing from slipping off? You are so great to take this on.

[SLW]

I will look around and see if I have PVC in the size that would fit. I had forgotten about that option, thank you!! Yes, vet wrap was the outer layer of the bandage but I didn't have any elaskticon tape to secure it at the top.

Going to try a figure 8/padded sling over one shoulder bandage this morning. On FB last night my vet tossed out that we can always cast her leg. Zena is really down on that leg- the metacarpul bones are parallel to the ground and I don't know the lifetime ramifications of this if it's not corrected. Mr. SLW said she may just end up having a gait like Festus.