4 Paws Sake Pet Rescue: Emergency Medical Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

The Emergency Medical Grant helped to pay for Shaun's femoral head ostectomy surgery that our very young rescue would not have been able to afford. Without the surgery, Shaun would likely have been euthanized at our local animal shelter. He was so young and had such a sweet face, we just could not turn our backs on this baby.

The surgery Shaun needed is called an FHO or femoral head ostectomy. I had been assured that this surgery was the least-invasive procedure to help him and that, once healed, he would be a completely normal, active puppy again.

How many pets did this grant help?

Only one

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

Shaun’s story started with a good Samaritan who dropped him off at our local shelter stating he had been hit by a car. The x-rays showed that the dislocation of his hip had happened quite some time before he was brought in and his skin abrasions were already healing, which supports that timeframe. The community reached out to our rescue to save him from the dreaded euthanasia list and try to find help for this very young pup.

We took the challenge, picked him up and headed off to various veterinarians to get diagnostics and a plan together. It was originally thought that just crate rest would resolve his hip dislocation, but unfortunately that was not the case. According to his paperwork from the shelter, his hip dislocation and skin abrasions were likely due to being hit by a car. The veterinarians I spoke to and who had seen the x-rays said it likely happened at least a couple of weeks earlier and crate rest was not going to help. So this poor baby was on the loose, in pain and scared for who knows how long. So sad.

Shaun has since been adopted (third photo).