BHRR’s Barkley, another ‘Honourary’ Great Dane was surrendered to BHRR at Kanata Animal Hospital around 7:30 PM on March 31st, 2010. Barkley is a purebred Doberman(ears cropped – one ear does not stand, tail docked), neutered and will be turning 3 years on April 20th, 2010. He is in extreme urgent need of assistance and I can only hope that perhaps when someone reads even part of his story below that they might consider donating funds to help us help him. I feel that BHRR has been so kindly done by our supporting public that has allowed us since September of 2010 to help such incredible special needs animals like BHRR’s Jaxson, BHRR’s Potter plus BHRR’s Ava Marie and now we find ourselves reaching out in the hopes that someone(s) might consider helping BHRR’s Barkley. Around March 14th, 2010, Barkley apparently chewed a flip flop. The owners took him home after he was hospitalized for a few days, declining surgery and were hoping that he would pass the flip flop as he did a year previously when he ate a sock and yet this time, the object has become lodged/obstructed in his large intestine. When he was in at the Hospital the week of March 15th, he was a very anorexic 40 KGs(88 pounds) and as of March 31st upon his surrender to BHRR; he weighed only 37 KGs(81.4 pounds) and was lethargic, painful to palpate and dehydrated. The one owner told me when she called me at Kanata Animal Hospital at around 4:30 PM on March 31st that for the last few days he appeared to be going from room to room as if looking for a place to die. They asked if BHRR would consider assisting him as an ‘honourary’ Great Dane for his other options were to be put to sleep or dying at home. They did not wish to see Barkley die if there was a way to get him the help he needs. That had just hoped and wished that he would have passed his obstruction when they took him home that week of March 15th. I was very honest and said that we would need to see his condition now for over 2 weeks have passed and he might not be stable to even survive the surgery. Barkley has been barely eating and had begun to strain more often than not when he tried to poop. He appeared to be drinking some though. I wanted to be very honest that if Barkley was not stable and with so much time having past, it might be most humane to euthanize yet BHRR would step up to assist to at least further evaluate his condition and to go from there. The belief is that the object(flip flop piece(s)) are shifting and he has now gone to a possible full obstruction. Without an exploratory/obstruction surgery, we will not know if he has a necrotic bowel etc. and we did bw, X-Rays and put him on medications plus IV fluids. As so many know, I always bring my dogs home to treat overnight yet in Barkley’s situation as he had not yet been here, it would be too ‘much’ stimulation and his surgery is going to be first thing in the morning – April 1st, 2010. His exam showed him to be painful upon palpation and it was hard even getting an IV line into his leg, took two tries.

I am going to call this Fundraiser ‘Begging For Barkley’ as BHRR is so incredibly financially pinched at this time and even tonight, I put all that I had left until my own pay day on to Barkley’s current bill and tonights bill alone was around $1,000+. His Surgery/Rehab will be another $2,500+. I wish that I had pictures to post of this sweet and so very sick boy yet there really was no time nor camera for as from the moment he was surrendered, we began treatment immediately and I did not leave the hospital until almost 9 PM and HUGE thanks to Dr. Ramoutar plus Stephanie for being there with me! By the time we left work, BHRR’s Barkley was considered stable enough to be considered to have surgery on April 1st.

If anyone feels emotionally pulled in by even part of Barkley’s story; you can donate by PayPal or email transfer to gwen@birchhaven.org (just let us know the password) or you can call Kanata Animal Hospital directly at (613) 836-2848 and pay by Visa, Mastercard or even American Express. He is under the name of ‘Barkley’ under the account of ‘Birch Haven Rescue’.

Without us taking in BHRR’S Barkley, he would shortly be dead. That is a hard reality and he does not deserve to die when BHRR is prepared to try and save him. I will take and post pictures of this boy ASAP.

From deep within my heart, I thank everyone for reading this blog and for your consideration. I know this is why BHRR exists YET I also know that without our ‘chain of success’ links(ALL OF YOU!) being as strong as they have been, that we could not do all that we do and on behalf of BHRR’s Barkley, I am truly begging for more help so that we can help him get better.