This is Maxis. He is a one- year old purebred male golden retriever. His owner brought him to a shelter to be euthanised because there was something wrong with his leg. He walks with a limp.
At the shelter, one of the volunteers took pity on him and decided he should be given a second chance. Now, thanks to his rescuer, Maxis will be treated at the vet’s.
The rescuer called me for assistance this morning. And I drove over to see Maxis and to speak with the vet.
What you see above is a bedsore (which is not a major problem) on Maxis – it shows he has been neglected and sleeping on one side for too long, thus causing this sore. The sore can be treated easily.
The major problem is his other leg. An earlier prognosis suggested a possible tumour, but this vet who will be treating him doesn’t think so. I spoke to the vet and he has has three plans for Maxis:
1. Perform a surgery to attempt to repair the damage (suspected at the joint). A large breed dog (in this case, a golden retriever) needs all four limbs to move about. They do not do very well with three legs.
2. If (1) fails, the leg would have to be amputated. This is a problem because normally, large breed dogs do not recover well after amputation. Some do. But many are unwilling to move, thus causing more problems to themselves, eventually leading to being put down.
3. The dreaded “E” option – to have him put down.
The vets estimates (1) to cost about RM1000 or slightly more. The surgery was scheduled today, but Maxis suddenly developed diarrhoea and vomitting, and his blood test results aren’t too good. So that is postponed until 10 days’ time. From now till then, there is a fosterer who would look after Maxis and try to perk him up so that he would be healthy enough to undergo the surgery.
I spoke to the rescuer, and this is what Maxis needs right now:
The rescuer has raised some money on her own for the surgery, but she would appreciate any form of donation. AnimalCare will sponsor the balance of the costs (depending on how much funds we have). If you wish to help Maxis, you can channel your donation to AnimalCare.
After the surgery (and we hope it would be successful so that we do not have to resort to (2)), my guess is that Maxis might need physiotherapy, so if anyone can provide this assistance, it would be appreciated.
There is a fosterer who is willing to adopt Maxis after the surgery.
Meanwhile, what we can all do is to send positive healing energy to Maxis.
Let’s help him.