This past Wednesday, I adopted a dog from an animal shelter. I had been wanting to get a new dog for awhile, since my dad took our family dog with him when he moved to Idaho to be with my stepmom. I've always been a dog lover, so I thought that adopting one from a shelter would be a win-win situation: I would finally be able to have my own dog, and I could give a dog in need a loving, warm home.
Unfortunately, there have been quite a few bumps in the road these past few days. Originally, I found my dog from a guy who posted an ad on Craigslist. He found the dog in an industrial area in the blazing heat of 110F(43C), hiding under a truck. There weren't any houses around for miles, and the dog's fur was so matted, the poor baby could hardly walk. The guy lured the dog into his car and took him home. He wanted to keep him, but he already had two other dogs that didn't get along with the new dog.
Fast forward to a week later, and I was at the shelter, ready to pick up my new baby! He had been neutered two days prior, so I knew he was going to be in some pain and probably lethargic. Once we got home, I checked his incision as instructed to do so by the shelter, and noticed that his scrotum was really swollen and red. I took him into the vet the next day, and she told me that the veterinarian at the shelter had completely botched his surgery. His internal stitches where he was neutered had come apart, causing a scrotal hemotoma (fancy doctor language for: his scrotum was filled with blood). She gave me some pain medication for my pup (which the shelter had also failed to do), and told me to ice his scrotum every day for 10 minutes.
Fast forward to two days later, I noticed that he was still bleeding a bit from his incision area, so I decided to take him to a new animal hospital that my friend recommended. The vet checked him out and told me that his scrotum was still filling with blood, so she drained the blood and put 3 external sutures in his incision, telling me it would heal within 2 weeks. She also gave me antibiotics and told me that the first vet I went to gave me the completely wrong dosage for my pup's pain pills. Great :/ Still, I felt relaxed after leaving, thinking that everything would be fine now. I was wrong.
I woke up the next morning to find that one of his external stitches had fallen out, and he was bleeding again from his incision. I took him straight back to the animal hospital and waited for the vet. I still feel pretty embarrassed that I burst into tears as I was talking to the vet. All the stress of the past few days just came down on me, and I knew my pup was in pain. The vet told me that he needed surgery to remove his scrotum. She felt confident that it would be a success and that it would solve all the problems from the original botched surgery. Luckily, it was only a $300 surgery, versus the thousands of dollars I originally thought I would have to pay.
My pup is still recovering from his surgery, but he's doing really well now! He doesn't pant all the time, and his incision is already healing. He's had such a rough life so far, from being dumped out in the middle of nowhere with matted fur and a broken jaw, to suffering from a botched surgery and having to undergo more surgeries to fix his problems. In the end, all the stress and anxiety was worth it. I've only had him for 5 days, but I love him so much, and I can't wait to give him a happy life.
I'm sure most of you have already skipped my novel and scrolled down to the obligatory pictures, but here he is!
I named him Charlie, and he's a 4 year old Australian Shepherd/Corgi mix.
He's the sweetest, best dog I could ever ask for, and I can't wait for our adventures ahead
