Zoe

Hard times in Taltyland. A couple of months ago we lost our best friend Pecos, an Australian Shepherd. He and Zoe (a mixed stray that wandered up a few years back) were the sentinels on our 10 acres. The 2 of them were best buds and kept the coyotes and roaming dogs off our place. After losing Pecos it was left to Zoe to guard our place. Mind you we never taught her to do this. It was like it was her mission in life. At any rate a week or so ago I went to feed the horses and there she was as usual waiting on me but I noticed she had a gash over one eye and had some blood on her. I doctored her up and by the time I got home from work she was fine. Well this past Monday my son went down by the horses and found her covered in blood. My wife went down to check on her and she had gashes and bite marks and she also noticed a rear foot was just hanging there., She took her to the vet and here was the initial report. Muscles chewed up like hamburger, cuts, puncture wounds and her foot and all the connective tissue and ligaments were separated. $500 to do the initial work $400 more to keep her on IVs and antibiotics for 4 days jut to see if she will survive that. $2500-$3800 to fuse the foot back to the hock. What is sad is that we don't have that kind of money. So we asked about amputation and that will be another $750 so that was the route we decided on. That would total $1600 or so but we could swing that. Then here's the kicker, a few year back she hurt the other rear leg and had to have surgery and pins placed in it. She didn't use that leg for a year and it lost all muscle tone, etc. Eventually she began using it, muscles returned. She used to tweak it sometimes and limp on it but that happens less frequently and I don't remember the last time it happened. So even though dogs do fine with 3 legs, the vet was worried that if she tweaked the remaining rear leg it could cause serious problems. So that was our delima. We prayed about it and what to do. We have the 4 days that she is recovering to make the decision. On day 2 the vet called back and said that another vet in the office thinks he can fuse the foot back on for about what the amputation would have cost so we are so excited about that. At any rate it is now day 3 and the wife is going in to check on her status today. Keep our Zoe in your prayers.
Just a note that we replaced Pecos with another Australian Shepherd but he's only 4 months old and so he's not ready to help out guarding much at all. I guess our Zoe will do her night time guarding from inside the house from now on.