Laura has been adopted!
Laura is sponsored by Roz B., honour of Julianna Campo’s graduation from University of Toronto. Congratulations Julianna!
Welcome to the middle of Laura’s story…
As you search through bios, looking for the perfect addition to your family, you’ve stumbled upon Laura’s bio and photo. You have sort of tuned into a movie in progress, walked into the middle of a conversation, opened a book to the middle and started reading. This isn’t the beginning and it’s certainly not the ending or the forever after, it’s simply the middle part.
Laura is currently in rehab recovering from neglect, starvation and a gunshot wound. She has had two surgeries done, in an attempt to repair injuries due to a close range gunshot injury, a third is expected later this month.
This lovely girl was found wandering stray in rural Ohio. She was clearly under weight, weighing about 16 lbs (estimated healthy weight is 30 lbs) and suffering a gunshot wound to the face. The veterinary clinic that tended to her, removed her damaged eye, removed as much bone fragment as they could, patched up the roof of her mouth so that she could eat, and spay her.
The path of the bullet went just under the left eye, down through the roof of her mouth (at the very back), through her tongue and jaw, where a piece of it remains. Since Laura travelled stray for a few weeks after her injury, her jaw bones have already started to heal. Our orthopedic surgeon reviewed her case and suggested that we not attempt to do any surgery with her jaw. Since the jaw has begun healing, and it is doing ok on it’s own, would require rebreaking it and setting it. This would cause Laura a lot of discomfort, unnecessarily.
The hole created at the back of Laura’s mouth, created a hole that opened her mouth into her nasal cavity. Thus, all food she has been given has travelled up into her sinus (not to mention bone fragment and the bacteria from the wound), creating an incredible amount of infection. This has generated a lot of mucus in her nasal cavity and sinus area. She is on antibiotics to fight this infection.
The initial patch made to the roof of her mouth allowed her to begin to eat better and resulted in 5 lbs of weight gain. She was strong enough to begin her journey to Save Me! Unfortunately it did not hold for long, it’s a very difficult place to repair and it required a second surgery. Our surgeon feels a third surgery may be required and she is scheduled to have this done mid month, if needed.
So, all of this information catches you up on the story in progress…
Laura is very loving and very affectionate, despite all she has been through. Her very favourite thing, is being picked up and held tightly. She nestles her head into your neck, and her tail wags with joy. She is a very quiet girl, she is crate trained and is doing very well with house training, no accidents. She seems to be good with other dogs, and had no interest in the foster home cat.
Laura’s likes, dislikes, personality is open to change as she recovers. She has been ill, and has been on restricted exercise to prompt healing and prevent injury. As she strengthens, it’s possible to see different behaviour from her. So at this time, it’s hard to say what her ideal home is, aside from one filled with love. At this point, we have no areas of concern with her as far as behaviour goes.
An adopter will likely need to continue working with her on eating in a slow calm manner. This has improved greatly. Upon intake, Laura would snatch up feces off the ground to eat. This has stopped, as she is now getting fed high calorie food regularly. Laura is a puppy, so she needs to be monitored continuously as she cannot pick objects that may to damage to her mouth. An adopter needs to be aware it is very possible that Laura may end up with arthritis in her jaw, in her senior years. Our veterinarian suspects that Laura may also not reach the full size she should be as her neglect has happened in her developing years. She has a delicate frame, so she isn’t expected to be a very large dog.
At this time, Laura is doing well. She is happy, safe and loved. We are not accepting applications for her at this time, as it’s impossible to understand her future requirements right now and she is still healing from her injuries. Her bio will be updated after her second surgery, mid month. We encourage people to check back often, to follow her progress here as well as on our Facebook page.
Laura was lovingly fostered by Colleen
