In mid-February, we were contacted by a kind Samaritan in a very rural part of Middle Tennessee. An elderly co-worker of hers (and nearby resident) had found 2 little dogs who were either lost or had been turned out. She found a rescue to take the other little dog, and we agreed to take in Piper after this gal exhausted all efforts to find Piper’s home. She kept her for several weeks, bathing her almost daily to try to get her clean and cared for; this while working full-time, taking care of a toddler and another young child and her own animals!
Piper was in a TERRIBLE mess, but the sweet gal had given her yet another bath the morning before she brought her to us at the vet clinic. She came to us with a severe ear infection…for starters. One ear has so badly affected that the ear could no longer stand up. The infection in both ears was so bad that the vet opted to just clean them as thoroughly as she could without hurting her further, then thoroughly clean while she was under sedation for another severe issue…her mouth, gums and teeth. We lucked out as she only had to have 4 teeth pulled, and her mouth must have felt so much better after the dental surgery!
The ears continued to improve slowly, but little Piper was soon diagnosed with an even worse situation…a severe bladder infection that didn’t seem to resolve with numerous trips to the vet and various antibiotics. She was also producing blood in her urine. We were afraid of what might be going on with this precious girl! The vet wanted to send in and grow a culture to see if Piper was resistant to a certain (or numerous) antibiotics. While we were waiting for the culture results to come back, we agreed to have the vet run an ultrasound and radiographs to rule out any masses or other problems. At this point, it was determined she had a number of EXTREMELY large bladder stones. This poor girl had been through the ringer with obviously NO CARE from the previous owner (more than likely a backyard breeder) then just turned out to fend for herself. There was no idea how long she had these stones and if they had done permanent damage to the bladder wall, so time was of the essence to get her scheduled for surgery right away. She was obviously in pain and felt the need to urinate constantly. We also were not able to identify a spay scar, but the decision was made that if she still had a uterus when the Cystotomy surgery was performed, that the vet would spay her at the same time (which ended up being the case).
The surgery went very well, and the vet communicated with us several times throughout the day with updates. EIGHT stones were removed (of which FIVE were very large) from this petite Westie girl, which were taking up 90% of her little bladder!!! Thankfully, the bladder wall did not appear “angry,” and we were SO thankful for that. The other good news was that her ears were doing better on the antibiotic pack treatments.
Piper stayed in ICU care overnight, with fluids and pain meds. She started urinating properly almost immediately and got to return to her foster home the next day. This has been the most precious little angel of a dog. Even with all of the horrible things wrong with her and all of the severe pain she has endured for God knows how long, she has been the sweetest girl and as compliant as can be! The vet staff were all instantly smitten with her!
She promptly went home with her new prescription urinary health food and ate dinner like a champ, followed by a really good potty break! She is being well-loved by one of our former adopters and her other rescue Westie pup, Avery. We were just alerted officially yesterday that Piper has found her furever home with her foster mom, Elizabeth. We couldn’t be MORE thrilled as she will have a nice quiet home with a lovely Terrier-enriched backyard with a mom and sister home with her most all the time.
We really don’t have any idea how old this little gal is, but the vet seems to think between 7 and 8 years old.
We cannot express our gratitude to WestieMed enough for helping us with funding the final large invoice for her abdominal surgeries! Even though she was a VERY expensive LWD, she is worth every penny of it! Happy Trails to Piper in her new life going forward!
~The Officers of Westie Rescue of TN/AL
Update March 12, 2024:
~Carol