Lexie's Story

One Monday morning in early October 2002, I got a call from our local Humane Society telling me that they had a little Shih Tzu. This Shih Tzu had been brought to the shelter on September 30th, she had an injury to her rear left leg, an eye bulging, and she had maggots in her eyes, rectum area, and leg wound.

The shelter staff took her to a local veterinarian where he treated her for the maggots and performed surgery on her leg to remove an imbedded fishhook.

He continued to monitor her eyes for a couple of days and on the 4th of October removed the one eye.  She was ready to go back to the shelter on Monday but the vet asked them if someone could take her into their home for her recuperation.

That is where I come in.

Just before I left for work that morning I got the call asking if I knew of someone who could take her into their home to foster for recuperation.  At that time she was a he and they had named him Willie, she was so badly matted they did not know the sex before she arrived at the veterinarian.

I offered to take her and went to pick her up after work from the vet.  I found the sweetest little black and white purebred Shih Tzu who weighed all of 10 lbs.  I named her Lexie on the way home.  I found out after we got home that she was totally housebroke and a real little lover girl.

I was very concerned over her other eye though as it looked to me like a severely ulcerated cornea, so I contacted my personal veterinarian to see if I could get a 2nd opinion or a referral to an eye specialist.

I noticed before we left for the vet that her eye was draining severely and it had seemed to shrink in size, I knew immediately that the cornea had ruptured.  I took her to my vet and he suggested euthanizing her as she had lost her sight entirely.  (We are talking about an approx. 4 yrs. old Tzu)

I told him to talk to the shelter and see what they had to say.  He did, they agreed, and said they would come and get her to lessen emotional impact on me when she was euthanized.

I gave her a kiss and left in tears. I came home and put away her bed, her dishes, and toys.  About an hour later I got a call from the Humane Society saying they could not put this sweet little girl down as of yet; I said, I will be there in 10 min. to get her.

Is being blind all that bad?

I brought her home and the following morning took her back to the original veterinarian who did the original surgery.  He told me he was going to sew the 3rd eye lid shut and continue drops to see if we could save some sight — no guarantees.

About 2 hours later, I received a call from him saying she was a little fighter, the surgery was over, and she was doing well.  He also asked me if she had done any gagging or choking while she was here — she had not.  He asked what she ate, I said, hard kibble.  He asked me if I noticed a foul odor coming from her mouth, which I had, he said as long as she was sleeping he decided to go in and take a look around to see why she had the odor as her teeth did not look that bad.

Then he said, you would never guess what I found.  He found a 3-pronged fishing hook imbedded in the cheek, throat and under the tongue area which he removed.  When I went to pick Lexie up he sent the fish hook home with me and you would never believe how BIG this thing is.   Lexie greeted my voice with tail wags and kisses when I arrived to get her that day.

I came home and called an ophthalmologist in Eastern Wisconsin to see if I might be able to bring her there for a 3rd opinion, they told me that I couldn't get her in until the following Monday as all the doctors were at a convention.

In the mean time I put out a plea to the Shih Tzu rescue list I was on for someone in the Milwaukee area to foster her where she would be closer to an eye specialist.

After some follow up calls to find an eye specialist for her, we did find out through the Milwaukee office that there was one doctor in Appleton who had not gone to the convention, he would be willing to see her on an emergency basis.  Away we went to Appleton, where she proceeded to have a medical type super glue applied to her cornea to seal the leak.  We also got some different ointments to apply and some antibiotics.

We brought her home and continued to nurse her back to health when another Shih Tzu rescue foster Mom who lived in Milwaukee, very close to an eye specialist, and very familiar with him stepped up to the plate and offered to take Lexie into foster care there.

Lexie was transported to Milwaukee; it wasn't but a few weeks later when she was in for a follow up exam to check her eyesight.  The vet dropped a cotton ball in front of her, she followed a cotton ball with her eye all of the way to the floor — Lexie could SEE!!  What a miracle, we were all so overjoyed, that this precious little girl got another chance at being able to see.

She has since been adopted by that foster family, they love her so much, and she is as spoiled as she can be.  Here is a photo of her relaxing and taking it easy in December of 2002.