Silas

We adopted Silas a little about six weeks ago.  He was transported here from Arkansas.  We knew when we agreed to take him that he was paralyzed in his back legs and hindquarters and had some very deep, infected wounds.  Everyone thought he had been hit by a car.   A kind old lady in AR saw him dragging himself around and took him to a small rural shelter.  There were no vet clinics in the area who could do a good exam or give us a good picture of his health and future prognosis.  The day I agreed to take him was the day he was to be euthanized.  It was such bad timing to take on a critically wounded dog that would require a lot of vet visits and money, but as I was talking to Mandy (the shelter owner), she kept saying he was such a special boy and he really wanted to live, despite all he had been through.  I meant to say no, but yes came out somehow.  That was a Thursday, and the following Saturday afternoon, he arrived.

We discovered at his first vet visit that he had been shot at least three times, by two different guns.  He had a bullet in his spine, one in his thigh, and bird shot scattered throughout his body.  He was covered in fleas and ticks when he got to the shelter, and Mandy had already taken care of that.  He was still full of parasites, extremely anemic, and of course, not neutered.  He's about two years old.  We got rid of all of his parasites, and his anemia was improved on his last visit.  We go back for another blood test on the 6th, and if he's within normal range, we'll be able to schedule his neutering.

His leg wounds are healing nicely.  He had huge open wounds on his knees and feet when he arrived, as he had been dragging himself around rural AR for at least a month before he made it to the shelter.  He had tendons exposed.  It was a mess.  He's had lots of antibiotics, I clean and dress his wounds daily, and they're almost healed up now.

He's learned to get around really well in his drag bags, which allow him to drag himself around the house very easily. It's a slippery, durable fabric, so he can drag without ripping his legs open.  His custom wheel chair arrived last week, and he's already really good with getting around in that.  He can't sit or lie in it, so that's for play time and walks, and the drag bags work for the rest of the time.  This week we have started taking him on walks.  He's never been on a leash before, so he's learning how to leash walk and stay on the sidewalk as well as building skills with his cart.  He's a fast learner.

He has to wear diapers and a belly band, and we have a pretty good routine for that.  There's a lot of laundry--I swear he poops more than he eats, but we have a system that works fairly well.  The biggest issue we have is that sometimes his poop sneaks out of the side of his diaper and sometimes it sneaks out of the open mesh panel (for air circulation) in his drag bag, leaving poop skids around the house that require lots of cleaning and scrubbing.  I hope to find a solution for that, but I haven't succeeded so far.

He is a lot of work, but I'm so glad we took him!  He's happy, sweet, playful, cuddly, and loves life.  We're committed to giving him the best, most normal life he can have.  Once COVID settles down, he'll start swim therapy and acupuncture. I give him massages and do stretching every day, to try to keep his back legs from locking up.  I'm still hoping we can find something to restore some functionality back there.  He has been to the bet vets--orthopedic surgeons, neurologists, and they have told me that he won't improve, but I believe miracles can happen, and I'm working toward him getting better!