Raven: A Rough Start for a Sweet Girl

Still smiling despite her pain

Raven is a wonderfully sweet German Shepherd mix girl who came into DeKalb County Animal Services as a stray with a terribly injured leg. We are fostering her for Canine Pet Rescue while she recovers from her injuries. The first order of business was to get her straight to the vet. The drive from the shelter to the vet was agonizingly long. Raven is such a trooper and did incredibly well in the back of the car for almost a whole hour, despite being in tremendous pain. We felt so bad for her...knowing she'd had those nasty wounds for at least 4 days. *Don't get me wrong, the folks at the shelter did everything they could do for her, including keeping her on pain medicine and antibiotics*. Regardless, we wished we could just time warp her to the vet. Every time I'd look back to check on her, she'd give me a big sweet kiss. You can see her soul in her eyes. She never once fussed at us when we were getting her in and out of the car.

Armpit wound after sutures

The carpal injury

Raven has spent a full week at CPR's vet in Dacula. I'm going to pick her up this afternoon and bring her home. Leaving her there was hard, but we knew she was in the best hands. The worst of her injuries is an awful wound to her front right leg at the carpal joint. The tissue was torn away, exposing the bone and tendons. The vet cut away the dead tissue and bandaged the wound. He explained that you don't suture those types of injuries; you've got to keep them bandaged until the tissue granulates (regrows) and fills in the wound so the bone is no longer exposed. That's the biggest reason she had to spend all week at the vet. Connective tissue takes time to reform. She has another wound up under her right arm that was more of a gash. The vet had to debride it, put a drain in it, and suture it. Her mouth was bruised, her nose scratched, and she had some other minor owies on her feet and shoulders. We're not sure if her injuries came from a dog fight or from getting hit by a car.

On way to vet

While Raven was under for all of her trauma treatment, the vet also tested her for heartworms. I cannot tell you how incredibly happy I am that she is HW NEGATIVE! So exciting and really surprising. It seems almost every Shepherd that winds up in our animal control turns up HW+. A couple more pieces of good news for Raven: her teeth are in good shape, she's a healthy 60 pounds, and although she's not been spayed it does not appear as though she's ever had puppies. She was actually in heat when we took her to the vet, which means she would have been ready to breed by the end of the week. This girl is super lucky she got off the streets when she did.

Raven will stay with us until her leg heals. After that point, she'll go to the CPR facility out in Dacula until she gets adopted. CPR specializes in GSD rescue. They do amazing training and have a remarkable kennel. I can't wait to see what this girl's future has in store. Paws crossed for Raven's speedy and full recovery! We'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, please follow this link if you'd like to donate to Canine Pet Rescue so they can help Raven and others like her: http://www.caninepetrescue.com/how-you-can-help/donate.html
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