March 3, 2003
We have an urgent emergency prayer requests
for one of our recent commercial kennel rescued
Bichons, "Saphire", who is being fostered in German Town, Tennessee
with Small Pawser Lori Foster at Abichon@aol.com.
Saphire was dripping blood in her urine,
so she went in this morning to the vet there
for x-rays. The x-rays showed a pecan size
mass of some sort. The vet asked permission
to go in and see what it was.
It looks like a possible uterine stump infection,
which sometimes happens in older dogs after
they are spayed, who have had a lot of litters,
and Lord knows Saphire did just that. It
has also happened in one of our mill rescues
from about three years ago, and she survived.
When the vet got in there he said the infection
had eaten through her urethra, and through
two blood vessels. He had to do emergency
surgery to stitch up her bladder, which was
about to go next.
He called me during the procedure and told
me were were probably going to loose Saphire
and did I want him to euthanize her.
I was up at Dr. Russell's, our Tulsa vet,
when this all happened. I gave Dr. Russell
the phone to talk to Lori's vet in Tennessee.
Lori's vet said Saphire was in bad shape,
and she was not a young dog, and he was worried
about our finances if we tried to save her.
I told him "Doc, you can always make
more money...you can't make more life. What
can we do to try to save her? I think our
folks would want us to try to save her."
He told me we could try removing a kidney.
He said dogs can live with one kidney.
I told him I don't want her to suffer. But
if she can get well she can know and give
love for several years to come.
When I spoke to Lori on the phone about this,
and told her we were going to try to go with
the kidney removal as a last resort..she
said, "You would do that...go to that
expense?"
Well, we have brought her this far. We brought
her out of slavery. We brought her into a
loving foster home, and the only thing I
knew to do was to try to save her.
I pray that I did the right thing.
Lori says that if Saphire doesn't make it,
at least she knew real love at her home for
the last two weeks. She really came around
and was starting to act like a normal dog.
Oh One other thing. I asked Lori's vet if
he was a praying man. He answered that yes,
he was. I told him to go in there and COVER
that dog in prayer. "COVER HER,"
I told him.
Well, it's out of our hands now. As soon
as I hear something I will let you guys know.
Lord, I hate this part of rescue. I'm just
not tough enough. Love, Robin
P.S. I just learned that Saphire made it
through surgery...she is recovering, but
it is too soon to know anything yet. Please
pray.
Faith doesn't get you around trouble, it
gets you through it.
Robin Pressnall
Executive Director
Small Paws® Rescue
Gospel CD: It's A God Thing!
Singing for Small Paws®
The Heart Murmur Repair Bichons Reunion Page
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Robin's Canine Cancer Files
