Elle!

We received an emergency call from Kimberly Capella-Gowland at Gulf Coast Doberman Rescue on the night of September 4, 2003. This beautiful, young girl needed obstruction surgery to save her life. The surgery was performed and she is in recovery! Please help with Elle’s recovery by using the PayPal button left to make a tax deductible donation. Thank you very much! What follows is a description of Elle in Kim’s own words:

“Elle is a 3 year old black cropped (one up one down for added personality) black female. We bailed her out of doggie jail from the Animal Control in New Orleans, LA in late July. She was spayed by GCDR and was to start heartworm treatment in the near future.

Elle is currently being fostered by one of our past adopters in an effort to keep her recently adopted male Doberman version of Houdini occupied while he resides in the GCDR volunteer modified version of Fort Knox. Yesterday afternoon while her parents were at work, she ate a softball glove. The only remaining piece of the glove was a measly two fingers. This glove (in case you might wonder) was hanging 6 feet up on the wall in the garage. She vomited her dinner almost immediately after eating it last night. Today, she vomited water and her gums were pale. She has not had any bowel movements.

She is in excellent hands with Dr. Scott at Magazine Street Animal Clinic in New Orleans, LA (vet to both SNDobes Luke and Amber). He was going to do surgery on her this evening. He said we could "wait and see" but we both pretty much immediately agreed that this mass of leather is not going to pass on its own. X rays showed a buckle and a rivet in her stomach along with "other fabric type materials". Nothing in her intestines. We hope this will be a simple matter of cleaning out the stomach. It will become much more involved if it is in the intestines as well. His estimate for surgery at this time is $350. I do not believe this covers the exam or x-rays, but is most definitely a discounted rate. Costs may increase of the surgery is complicated further by obstructions in the intestines as well. He will call me when he gets out of surgery and I will post another update."

Update 9/5/03:   We learned from Kim that Elle’s surgery was successful and she is now resting comfortably. Her stomach was a mess, full of chewed up leather. The good news is that nothing had worked its way down to the intestines to further complicate the surgery. She will be under observation until Monday or Tuesday. More news as it comes...

We're asking for your help in raising the money for the vet bills for this young Doberman. You can make a donation for Elle by using the PayPal button on this page, or you can mail us a donation. Also remember to check our Current Auctions page to see items we're auctioning off on eBay to raise money for Elle and our other Dobes with special needs. As always, thank you very much for anything you can do!