Sabrina, German Shepherd Mix

Sabrina’s Story:

Sabrina was rescued from county with severe leg spasms that caused her to cry out in pain.

Sabrina’s Updates: Sabrina has passed away.  We are all so sad that we couldn’t save this pup, and give her the life that she deserved. She visited three different hospitals and saw at least five different vets while she was under our care. Her test was positive for distemper, but we already suspected that. We were hoping for time to see how she would adapt to those permanent disabilities, when disaster struck in the form of an inexplicable, sudden and overwhelming infection in her hind quarters that became so painful for her that she needed to be kept sedated.  This infection caused extreme swelling and tissue loss and developed in less than 12 hours. When she was awake, she screamed in pain – and we just couldn’t allow her agony to continue. Rest in Peace, Sabrina…

Update from Dr. Katie: We had her on injections of pain medication but her neurological signs and vocalizing increased dramatically every time she was handled at all and there was no way to comfort her -  so I was unable to even examine the wounds without sedating her.  Both rear legs were twitching, and the wounds were far worse and were exposing tendons on the right side. The legs were still swollen below the hocks.  We shaved and flushed the wounds and applied honey wraps with extra outer material so that we could wait a day between bandage changes, since we had to sedate her each time her wraps were changed. There did not appear to be enough tissue to place drains and close wounds nor would she have been a candidate for that type of anesthetic procedure in her condition.  She still vocalized much of the time and Dr. Salmon and I as well as 2 doctors from different hospitals remain unsure as to whether it was voluntary or involuntary and – if it was voluntary- what was stimulating it (fear, pain, frustration, other).  The pain medication seemed to sedate her enough to cause her to stop vocalizing for up to an hour or so at a time, but this was no life at all for this girl.