CLEWISTON, Fla.– An eight-month-old puppy was discovered deserted in a rural part of Clewiston with deep injuries all around its neck.
Clewiston Animal Control officers got numerous calls reporting the injured dog in a part of the city about a half mile from the border of Palm Beach County.
When 2 individuals fishing on Saturday called Officer William Jones, he had the ability to discover the dog who had a deep gash on the bottom of its neck.
“They called me up and said, ‘Hey, I think there’s something wrong with this dog,’” Officer Jones stated.
The golden shepherd mix called Stewie wasn’t bound to anything, however rather complimentary roaming. Jones discovered it near a water pump for the sugar fields.
“I get out there and sure enough, the dog had some significant lacerations on its bottom neck,” he stated.“You could tell that he was pretty, uh, pretty excited to be rescued.”
He rescued the dog with no issues, taking Stewie back to the Clewiston Animal Solutions shelter. Provided his severe injuries, they put out a call for help. The Calosa Humane Society in Labelle addressed that call.
“Just his story. He’d been through a lot and we just wanted to help him,” stated the Executive Director of the shelter, Rebecca Crum.
When they brought Stewie back to the center, they understood he required surgical treatment. Vet Dr. Julianne McDonough informed ABC7 that the injuries on Stewie’s neck were numerous centimeters deep, which threatens for a puppy this little.
“It went down… all the way down to his vital structures,” Dr. McDonough stated.“So his esophagus, his trachea, all his important blood vessels and nerves.”
She believes the reason for the injuries is a collar or leash being too tight around his neck for an extended period of time. As Stewie grew from a little puppy, his owner never ever offered him a larger collar, and it started digging into his skin.
Dr. McDonough: “It kind of shows that that collar had been in there for quite some time. Just seeing how deep that went.”
Gage: “Whenever you did this procedure, what did you do that you had to stitch up?”
Dr. McDonough:“So, it had quite the different look before. It was all open, really infected, of course — his hair was all matted around.”
They ran on Stewie on Wednesday. Less than 24 hr later Thursday, he was back to his spirited self, with a smile that is transmittable.
“So he smiles, but he smiles so hard that he squints his eyes at the same time — so he cheeses,” Crum stated.
The stitches will recover and when his fur grows back, it will cover the scar that stays. The little shelter is footing the almost $900 costs for the treatment, however it’s money well invested.
“We get it back as this reward. And it’s so worth it just seeing him being able to act like a little puppy again,” stated Dr. McDonough.
There is a larger price out there. It’s on the fines that might be released to whoever overlooked and deserted Stewie. Clewiston Animal Provider requires your help learning who did this. They might deal with criminal charges.
“It’s a lot of paperwork and a lot of citations that this person could possibly get,” Jones stated.
Stewie will recover with a foster household prior to being prepared for adoption in about 2 weeks. You can inspect to see if he’s prepared on theCalosa Humane Society’s website