Ben!
We
are happy to introduce Ben, a beautiful senior male Dobe (seven years old) who
has a compelling story to tell. It is a story that will make you sad and happy
at
the same
time - what
was a painfully difficult life now has hope in the loving, caring hands of the
great people at Doberman
Rescue of North Carolina. Ben's story is best
told by his new friends, please read it below. Below his story is a PayPal link
that you can use to help him with his recovery - while he is in good hands now,
he is by no means out of harm's way medically speaking and he needs our help!
From Cindi Swanson and BJ Kaplan of DRNC:
"Ben is a wonderful senior fellow who has not had a happy life. Until recently, he lived his life in a 6 X 6 outdoor pen with a concrete floor. He has basically no fawn guard hairs left, just his soft undercoat so that he appears white in the sun. He has numerous calluses from living on concrete; we honestly don't know how he survived our NC winter this year.
Ben was turned into the shelter and Doberman Rescue of North Carolina was notified by SND member Jill Juluvka that he was there and that Dr. Bartfield of SNAP-NC had evaluated him and found him to be a very sweet and loving boy. How could we say no? However, Ben had a heavy heartworm load when he was turned in and our vets decided he would need staged and careful treatment to eliminate the heartworms. He was treated with one injection the day that we got him, to be retreated a month later.
Ben was very sore for the 1st week, but did not cough at all and appeared to be getting better. Then he lost his appetite. No amount of coaxing or special foods would tempt him. He became weaker his gums were very pale. He was taken to the clinic yesterday in a panic, and we found that he was VERY ill with a hemolytic anemia induced by the heartworm treatment. Basically his immune system was killing his red blood cells. Ben was trying to rally, as his bone marrow was kicking out immature blood cells, but he was quickly loosing the battle. He needed blood products right away or we would loose him (he had a PCV of 11).
Ben required an immediate and expensive blood transfusion in order to help his body combat the effects of the anemia that resulted from the immune disorder. DRNC, like most rescues, generally has enough money for required and routine medical care of dogs that enter our program, however, DRNC was unable to pay the high cost of this procedure without assistance. Sweet, gentle Ben is a real fighter and we want so badly to give him a chance to know a life of love, health and happiness. As long as he won't give up, we wouldn't either!
The initial bill was estimated at $500. Within a few phone calls SND stepped up to help us with Ben's expenses. He was doing MUCH better last night, even ate some dinner. By this morning he was up and about, eating well and going for walks! We cannot tell you how much this means to us. In just 2 weeks this dog has taken our hearts. We had to euthanize one of our seniors just a week ago as she went down quickly with CVI. To loose Ben would have crushed us."
We're pulling for you Ben! Check back here for updates as we get them. Please consider helping Ben by making a tax deductible donation. You can either mail in your donation, or you can use the PayPal button below to make it online. This boy deserves such a different life than what he has seen so far. The first step of course is to get him healthy. Thanks for your support, we all appreciate it - especially Ben and DRNC!
