Clover's new face!
This is the story of Clover. Clover is a 7 year old shih tzu who I recently rescued from a terrible abuse/neglect situation. I am a vet tech who has worked in this field for 20 years, and over those years there have been a handful of cases that have touched my heart in big way. Clover was one of those.
The clinic where I currently work sees the abused animals that find their way to the local animal shelter. Clover was found wandering loose, and as she was a matted mess who walked funny, they brought her to us for evaluation while they searched for the owners. Fortunately for us and for Clover's court case, the owners were found. However, while that search was taking place, we were evaluating sweet little Clover - in addition to severe matting and kneecaps that luxate (dislocate) so badly they are permanently out of place, we discovered that her nose had had some sort of band (probably a rubber band) placed around it to keep her little mouth closed, and that she had been wearing that band for so long it had almost completely severed her face. I don't have any pictures of the damage as it was when we found it because those are part of the evidence for the pending court case. Her nose and upper lips were literally hanging on by a thread, and her lower jaw has a permanent groove that exposes the lower portion of her canine teeth roots. The bone along the bridge of her nose was exposed, and you could see down into her sinus cavity. We were not able to see any of this until we sedated her and shaved her face, as the matting was so severe it had to be removed before we could assess the problem. She also wasn't thin - she was mildly underweight, but not exceptionally so, and that was proof that she had been so desperate to eat that she had been prying her mouth open to get food despite having a band that was actively cutting off her face.
When I saw her under sedation after the mats were removed and we saw the extent of the damage I knew I had to adopt her, as that was the only way I would know with absolute certainty that it would never happen again.
We were in contact with the shelter about their contact with the owners, and they informed us that Clover had been seen previously at another local vet so we reached out to them for records. When we received the records we discovered that Clover had been seen there for a banded muzzle before.
THIS WASN'T THE FIRST TIME SHE HAD ENDURED THIS.
It is turning out to the be the worst time though. Clover has now endured four surgeries to reattach her face, and each time it starts to pull apart after only a couple of weeks. It holds for a varying period of time, but then holes appear, and she gets an infection, and she has trouble breathing. We put her on antibiotics each time, and her comfort level improves, but it's becoming a cycle that I do not wish to subject her to any longer.
In an effort to find a final solution, I took her for a CT scan to discover the depth of the injury, as the doctors I work for had exhausted all of the resources they possess in a standard veterinary day practice. Luckily, we have an excellent specialty clinic nearby, so I took her there. As it turns out, the damage wasn't confined to the soft tissues of her face. She has been diagnosed with a fistula, which is defined as "a narrow passage or duct formed by disease or injury, as one leading from an abscess to a free surface, or from one cavity to another", or "any of various suppurative inflammations, characterized by the formation of passages or sinuses through the tissues and to the surface of the skin". She has dead bone tissue along the bridge of her nose that is causing this constant, infected, draining tract, and the treatment is bone debridement surgery - the surgeon will open her nose, remove all the dead and damaged bone tissue, and will close her face more thoroughly to give her a better quality of life.
This is were you come in. I have already paid more than a thousand dollars for the surgeries, meds, and CT scan to date, and I desperately need help to get the surgery she needs to be healthy. The cost for this surgery is estimated to be approximately $3300 - I have asked for extra because estimates are sometimes not accurate. If the surgery winds up costing less, I will use the difference in what's raised to get surgery done on her knees - remember when I mentioned the kneecaps? There is a surgery to correct it, but she needs it on both knees, and one knee alone will cost just under $1000. Her face is the priority right now so she can stop living with a constant facial infection - when she's healed from that I'll get her knees done.
So please, if you have any amount at all to spare, it would be deeply appreciated. Your donation will help this sweet little girl live a better life than her first 7 years - she is already loved and pampered, but now she needs your help to be healthy and pain free. Thank you so much for reading, and for donating!
Much love,
Amber and Clover