In the evening of December 29th 2003, Lois was contacted about an 8-week-old female Shih Tzu puppy that would be euthanized due to an abscess on the top of her hind leg.  This abscess had broken open and had been draining for a week.  The wound area was the size of a quarter.  She then started pooping through the hole in her leg that went into the inside of the rectum.  The breeder was told by her Vet the puppy would need surgery and it could be expensive.  She was put on antibiotics.  Due to the bad weather Lois arranged for me to pick her up at 11:00 a.m. on the 30th, which was the earliest the lady could meet me.  After further correspondences we found out the pup's birthday to be 11-15-03. The pup was barely 6 weeks old!  The pictures we had of the pup she looked like a little Angel so that is what I named her.  

In less than an hour after bringing Angel home she was being examined by my Vet.  She tipped the scale at 1.8lbs.  With a temperature of 99.7 (normal 101) the Vet wanted to put her on a warm circulating bed under a heat lamp to get her temperature closer to normal before she did anything more.  I went home to make a quiet heated bedding area for Angel since the Vet said she was too sick to regulate her own temperature.  Later in the day my Vet gave Angel gas anesthesia and cleaned out the abscess removing a lot of dead tissue.

My Vet said the damage from the abscess was extensive.  The fact is an abscess does more damage than what can be seen from the outside by tunneling into the muscle and organs under the skin.  The dead muscle tissue went to the bone in places extending from the top of the hip all the way down to her knee.  There was a tear in her rectum that was 3mm long that my Vet tried stitching but it wouldn't hold because the rectum was so rotten.  The Vet was able to stitch the muscle over the tear creating a patch hoping the tear would heal by attaching to the patch.  She did have to leave some tissue that wasn't as bad so she could have something to put stitches into.  My Vet warned me not to get too attached because if the patch didn't hold we could still be looking at euthanizing her. She also warned me that there was a good chance the leg would have to be amputated if the nerve damage was too extensive.  At 5:00 p.m. Angel came home with me and entered my heart.  Later that night I was never so happy to see a dog poop normally even though she had almost no use of her back legs.

On December 30th, I started the routine of cleaning her wound twice a day with hydrogen peroxide, giving her antibiotics twice a day and giving her a special warmed dog food mixture 4-5 times a day.  I silently cheered every time her poop came out of the correct hole.  I emailed one of our adoptive moms who does massage therapy on dogs and asked what I could do to help with Angel's healing process.  I did do some amateur T touch on Angel and she started to try to walk, most times her legs would collapse out behind her.  She kept trying.   During the night 2 of the stitches let loose, which the Vet said, would most likely happen.

December 31st Angel was back at the Vet's office.  I wanted my Vet to check the leg to make sure I was taking care of it right.  She stitched the 2 ends of the drain together to make sure it would stay in the leg.  She showed me how I should clean it now that part of it was open.  The patch was still holding.

Angel has been working on building strength in her legs.  She is starting to play with my other dogs.  They would come by her and Angel would chew on them or follow them for short distances.  Angel, most times would choose toys that were a big as her trying to drag them around or just lay and chew on them.

Sunday morning at 7:20 when I got
Angel from her quiet area I noticed feces on the area of the sore where the patch was.  I immediately called the Vet and met her at the office.  A portion of the patch came free.  She cleaned out a 3/4" pouch that filled with feces when the patch let loose.  This pouch was on the outside of the patch; it had to be left there originally so the Vet could have something to stitch to.  My Vet filled the pouch with antibiotics once Angel was under anesthesia.  The Vet then put three more stitches in that area to recreate the patch, having to attach muscle to skin because the muscle was like hamburger in that one area.   I continued giving her the antibiotics and put an antibiotic cream on the abscess area.

At 6:00 that evening I had to call the Vet again to tell her that the other side of the patch let go and poop was leaking out again.  I knew at this point that Angel was loosing her battle. She no longer had that spark in her eyes.  Her will to live was gone.  I knew for her to undergo anesthesia again so soon would greatly reduce her chances of survival.  We decided at this point that there was nothing that couldn't wait until 7:00 a.m.  The Vet told me to keep it clean, keep antibiotic cream on it and get Angel to the office in the morning.

At 1:00 a.m. I cleaned her again.  She was burning up with fever and shivering.  Angel was very content just to be cuddled.  I knew she was going critical and there was nothing more I could do.  I put her back in her quiet area at 2:30 since she had been falling asleep in my arms and I cried.

I got up at 5:00 a.m. half expecting Angel to have died.  To my happy surprise she was still with me.  I cleaned her abscess and just held her.  She was still burning up with fever and very content to be held.   She wanted to leave my arms a couple of times and she would try to poop.  It just broke my heart to watch her trying with nothing coming out.  There was just so much damage done before we got her.

I had Angel at the Vet's office a few minutes after 7:00 a.m. on the 5th of January.  Angel was barely 7 weeks old.  When the Vet checked her over Angel never even moved.  The Vet gave me 2 options. 1 was euthanization and the second was having her see a specialist where they would do a colonectomy and amputate the leg.  My Vet told me that her survival rate would be very poor even after all this was done.  There was just too much damage done.  Money was never an issue with me.  If Angel had kept her will to live I would have given her the moon.  By this time, her gums and tongue were almost white telling me she would not be with me much longer no matter what I did for her.

I told the Vet I wanted to stay with her and have her cremated.  The Vet sedated her and left so I could spend time with her.  I just held her, petting and telling her how much I loved her.  When she was sedated enough the Vet came in and euthanized her.  I stayed with Angel during her last minutes with me.  I hugged, kissed her, told her how much I loved her and how sorry I was while tears were running down my cheeks.  Angel went with love as she left me.

Angel passed over the Rainbow Bridge with lots of prayers and love from many people that either got to know her through emails, a few pictures or personally.  She touched so many in her last week on earth.

Whether I can make a difference in a dog's life for a day or a week I will do it all over again.