FROM GWEN @ BHRR(Birch Haven Rescue & Rehabilitation Services):

Casper was in bad shape. Full disclosure was not made on this poor boy and we were in shock when we saw him for the first time. Feet bleeding freely, the largest inter-digit pustules our vets had ever seen; swelling & pain that make walking excruciating for him and the smell from the infections was truly awful. He had trouble with the three stairs going outside for he was that unsteady and he was even mentally not there with us.

We spent a very long week caring for him in the hopes that we could ‘turn’ him around. He was not eating; drank little and we had no choice but to put him on IV fluids. Casper’s lymp nodes were so swollen and we did needle aspirates on them. The vets felt that he either had such a bad bacterial infection in his legs(his previous vet records show that this has been going on at least since July) that it spread to his lymph nodes or that he had Subcutaneous lymphoma or even lymphosarcoma. One of the vets said that the skin condition can be a sign of a lymphosarcoma. He also had sores all underneathe his jaw and on his lips.

Marc and I have talked about ‘good/healing suffering’ and ‘bad suffering’. Casper was not going through a healing suffering such as recovering from a broken or amputed leg on the way to a positive rehabilitated life. Night after night, Casper would whimper, cry and sometimes howl in pain in our bed and we tried so hard to comfort him.

I brought Casper to work with me yesterday and it was one of the hardest shifts of my life. Casper was held in my loving arms and blessed with my tears as we crossed him over. All I could was keep saying I was so sorry, so very sorry that we could not make him better. Perhaps, if he was released to Marc’s authority earlier; he might have had a chance.

For those in Rescue, it is always hard when you cannot save them to give them that chance at something wonderful.

RIP Sweet Casper…..

FROM MARC SAYER @ DDRI(Deaf Dane Rescue, Inc.):

I just got off the phone with Casper’s foster mom. He got his Percorten shot on Friday and has been on IV fluids all day today. He is not responding to treatments. In fact he is continuing to deteriorate. Clearly there is more going on than what we already know about. I made the decision, based on what the vets that have seen him this week have said, and what his foster mom had to say, to have him PTS today. I wish we could have done more. I wish we had had a bit more time before things got so bad and before he was so clearly suffering. I wish there was reason to believe that if we could just get him through the next few days he would rebound and go on to lead a full happy, healthy life. But that is not the case. And I see no reason to ask him to continue in obvious pain when there is little to no chance of a light at the end of the tunnel.

FROM MARC SAYER @ DDRI(Deaf Dane Rescue, Inc.):

Casper is in very bad shape. He is in constant pain now, has lost 30 lb., has not eaten more than a few bites in a week, all the life has gone out of his eyes, and he is generally up all night whining and howling in pain. We may have to put him on an IV. At this point it is unclear if he will even survive. I have added new photos today, taken by his foster mom. It is almost inconceivable how the dog shown in the top 3 photos below, which were supplied to us by his former owner, could have degenerated into the dog that was handed over to us. Something very wrong has happened to this sweet boy. We are committed to trying to save Casper if possible, but we are going to need help. So far his vet bills are over $500, and we have only barely scratched the surface. This was only his first visit to the vet. If he has to go on an IV, he will need to be admitted to the vet hospital full time. We know that under all this pain and suffering, is that sweet boy we saw in the original photos, and we want to try to help get him back if we can. But we won’t be able to do that without your help.

FROM MARC SAYER @ DDRI(Deaf Dane Rescue, Inc.):

Well we have Casper in a temporary foster home. Gwen from Birch Haven(www.birchaven.org), a Canadian Dane rescue, is fostering him for us and has had him since Sunday September 18th. He is in much worse shape than we were led to believe. We do not know what all is wrong with him at this point, and will be doing some testing this next week, but for sure he has a raging infection of some sort in his feet (see photo below). He is also listless and has no energy, and he seems afraid of people in general, though Gwen did say he had perked up a bit today and actually wagged his tail at her. Gwen is not only donating her time and taking him into her home, she is also helping us out with his vet expenses, despite being burdened with a number of sick rescues herself. Hopefully we can get in some donations to help this poor sweet boy out as he, Gwen, and DDRI could really use some help.