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Ashley

Ashley is a petite little blue girl, and only about 1 year old. She was the second Dobe adopted by Diane Stockton from Illinois Doberman Rescue. Here is her story as told by her mom, Diane:

"She is approximately 12 months old, petite (44 lbs), bow legged (probably from being kept in a confined space as a younger puppy my vet says), but she is totally adorable. She is "intense" without being hyper. She has a "spark" that is hard to miss, especially when she continually cocks her head to listen to you when you talk. I had started her on obedience lessons lately and she was doing quite well. She did have a very bad habit of "bolting" directly across the street whenever she could manage to get past someone at the door. No hesitation, just bolt in a beeline across the street. We had several near misses with cars and our children were lectured on making sure she did not squeeze past them at the door (we have 4 children). I had discussed ways to correct this with the trainer at class.

Unfortunately this past Sunday, the gate to our back yard was left open, and she saw this as her opportunity to bolt. Next thing I hear the other dog barking nonstop and I knew something was wrong. A neighbor came to the door to say Ashley was hit by a car in front of our house. When I came out, she was lying on the grass with her head up, but her two back legs were missing most of their skin and her bones were obvious. She was still alert, but also in shock. I rushed her to the Emergency Clinic immediately, dripping blood all the way. My main concern at that point was her blood loss. Once there, the vet informed us that her lungs were badly bruised (and bleeding). Air was escaping into her chest cavity, and she was in critical condition. I was forced to make a decision immediately to either come up with $2000 deposit to continue working on her, or to put her down. Well, putting her down was not in my vocabulary without giving her some chance to survive. I emptied my bank account of my mortgage payment and borrowed the rest from a good friend. It was touch and go for about 24 hours. They had to put a chest tube in her to remove leaking air from lungs. She was placed on oxygen. She had another crisis where she was placed on a respirator as well. All visible signs were not looking good. I went to see her and reassured her we would ! do all we could and that she had to do the rest. I kept visiting her to make sure she was not in overwhelming pain. Finally on Tuesday morning she seemed to be improving. She even wagged her tail when I came to visit. Wednesday I got the news I thought was all but impossible... she was going to be allowed to be transferred to my vet. They had removed oxygen, she was eating solid food, and she was alert. Well, I had to borrow another $1000 from a friend as the walk out bill was $4000 total. Now we had to deal with possible amputation of one leg, and rehabilitation of her significant wounds. She spent the night at home last night and I slept with her on the floor to make sure she was O.K.

As we had spent our mortgage payment and I had borrowed so much, my daughter and I came up with the idea of a fund raiser. We opened a "Save Ashley Fund" at our local credit union, and made posters to distribute"."

As you can see from Diane's narrative, the family has exhausted all resources that they currently have available to them. We spoke with Dr. Abbe Burke of Animal Health Clinic of Lake County, the vet who is currently caring for Ashley. She told us that she has been Diane's vet for years, and that Ashley is a complete sweetheart. She said that she feels Ashley's chances for recovery are very good, but that she has a long road ahead of her, and things must be evaluated one day at a time.

After several unsuccessful attempts to manually manipulate Ashley's displaced hip back in place, Ashley underwent surgery to secure the left rear femur to the hip in proper placement. Ashley's right rear leg is the most severely injured. Most of the skin is missing from the hock down to her toes. It was essentially "sheered" off. You are able to see her bone and ligaments right down to the toenails. She requires a change of dressings 2 times per day, and this will probably continue for a few weeks or possibly months until a good granulation develops. The other leg has pieces of flesh missing in two spots but not quite as deep. Unfortunately, the "good leg" is the one that was dislocated from the hip.

Amputation of some toes on the "bad" leg may be needed in the future. At this point, there is no way to tell. There is a possibility that the leg itself will need to be amputated, but this is not a possibility right now because of the "good" leg being dislocated from the hip, and the resulting surgery.

The current bill at Ashley's vet is $1541.00. She will still need continued care, and the vet has agreed to keep the costs down as much as possible. Dr. Burke cannot completely anticipate future expenses, with the number of variables involved, but has agreed to continue treating Ashley as long as she receives "something" every two weeks. You can mail us a donation or use the PayPal button below if you would like to make a tax-deductible donation for little Ashley. We thank you for any help that you can offer - every penny counts!

Click here for more pictures of Ashley. Warning! Some images are graphic.

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