Foster

Pumpkin

This is Pumpkin. She was hit by a car and the driver left her in the road. A Good Samaritan was kind enough to pick her up and bring her to a veterinary hospital. They said she had a broken leg, put a cast on it and gave her pain meds. An ad was placed on Petfinder but no one came forward. They called Mid Michigan Pug Club, Inc. and we picked her up on 06/03/10.

We knew from day one that she was a sweetie! Her temporary foster mom said that if anyone could see her face and sweet disposition, they would fall in love with her! I can tell you she was absolutely right!

Pumpkin was transported to her permanent foster home on 06/04/10. It was then that we started to realize she was in much worse condition than we initially believed.

We discovered that she has a tumor a little bigger than an avocado hanging from her belly. Her cast had slipped and was not fitting her correctly. She also had a pain patch stapled to her back which although scary looking, was hopefully giving her constant pain relief. She was also given an oral pain medication in liquid form.

She was uncomfortable the first night here. I tried to pick her up and she gave me warnings not to. Her entire back end was painful. I gave her a dose of the liquid pain medication and was instantly sorry. I have never seen anything like it. She started to shutter and foam at the mouth. So much so that I was actually scared that I had somehow poisoned her! This went on for about 5 minutes! I smelled the medication and it had a horrible rancid smell. Poor thing! Thankfully I had the same medication in pill form left over from another dog. I put her on that and continued giving it to her every 8 hours.

On 06/06/10 I brought her to Wilson Veterinary Hospital in Sterling Heights to have the pain patch removed. She was still in a lot of pain at this point so they did a brief exam and looked at the x-rays that were taken at first hospital. The pictures of her leg did not look good. They cast her by feel, and then took the x-rays once her leg was in a cast. Even I could see that the bone was not together as it should be.

I had also noticed blood in her urine that morning accompanied by a strong odor. We tried to get a sample but it was pretty much impossible because she cannot stand up and has to urinate sitting down. The initial hospital report said that she had not urinated for 2 days following the automobile trauma, which means there was a good chance of infection. They sent us home with antibiotics as a safeguard and stronger pain meds. We were asked to come back on Wednesday so that Dr. Wilson, who is the orthopedic specialist, could review her case and recast her leg. I dropped her off early in the morning and the intent was that I would pick her up after work.

That did not happen... Dr. Wilson called me later that morning and said that there was no possible way for her leg to heal without surgery. In addition, she not only had the big tumor, but also a smaller mammary tumor which would need to be biopsied. She also had round and whip worm, an ear infection, severe hip dysplasia and needed to be spayed. He said she had a lot going on but was fixable.

He transported her to the Romeo location which is a 24 hour hospital. She had surgery on 06/11/10 and is still there. They had to put 4 pins in her leg, did the spay and removed the smaller tumor. The avocado we thought was a tumor turned out to be a hernia! That has been repaired as well.

The pins that are inside of her leg are on the outside as well, holding everything together. They prepared me over the phone that this is scary to look at. Also, she will need more surgery to have the pins removed.

Pumpkin has a long recovery ahead of her. Her extensive care is going to be very expensive. Any donation that you can make would be a tremendous help!