After several months of wonderful hospice care from his loving foster mom, Winston Wallace has crossed the Rainbow Bridge. He will be greatly missed by all those who provided such wonderful care. He was loved more than he could ever dream.
In the world of animal welfare you often see the best of the best or the worst of the worst and sometime you see something in the middle. And every time I sit down to tell a bulldog story I think to myself should I sugar-coat this or tell it just like it is. And today is one of them “just like it is” days where you see a situation and realize cruelty at it’s finest.
Winston has been abused, neglected, starved, kicked and hit just about every day of his life by the man who owned him. He did it for no reason other than the man wanted to. Finally the sister of his owner begged her brother to just let her take him and have him put to sleep. She felt like dying was better than being abused one more day. And Winston’s owner agreed to let him go.
Covered in fleas and scratching every step of the way Winston dragging his back legs limped into the vet clinic to meet his maker. But last week Winston’s life changed forever. Winston met a local vet and there was no way Winston was going to die and leave this life knowing nothing but abuse. Winston was signed over to the clinic and he started his new life. Last week Winston went home with the vet and started his road to recovery. He had the vaccinations, the medication to kills the internal worms, the Capstar to kill the fleas, the ear medication to treat the infections, the medicated baths to heal his skin that felt like it had been set on fire. Winston’s new life began.
Every morning he was lifted onto the Gator and he road around the farm and checked on the animals. He got new sweaters to keep him from scratching till he bled. He was able to eat every day all the food that he wanted. Winston got a new bed, toys and treats. And when the time was right Winston got to leave for rescue.
Today while the sun was coming up Sheilah and I headed to pick Winston up. And what a cute fella he is. All he wanted to do was lick and look out the window. Somehow I think he knew he was leaving his abuser behind.
Winston is heartworm positive and he is very weak in his back legs, either being kicked repeatedly, torn ACL’S, being hit by a car or being forced to live in a place so small he could not build muscle tone, something is going on with his back legs. He can walk, he can even run but then he has to sit and rest. He’s wobbly walking, but today he walked right into rescue and into the hearts of everyone he meets.
2/16/22 Update: Foster boy Winston Wallace came from an abusive situation. When he was not being routinely kicked for no reason by his owner, he was being neglected.
He had an MRI on Tuesday to determine why his hind legs were so wobbly. X-rays had shown at least one problem with his spinal alignment.
Dr. Larsen reviewed the report and we looked at all the MRI sequences. So here goes what we know so far:
1. He has a couple of places along his spine where the cord is badly compressed and the discs degenerated. This is causing the walking difficulty, and his on again-off again incontinence. Sometimes he knows to posture and sometimes not. Sometimes he just dribbles pee and poop as he walks. Dr. Larsen does not think this is fixable. At best, prednisone can reduce some swelling and may give some relief for a brief time.
2. There were various other surprises from the MRI. He has a cyst in his prostate. He has an ectopic thyroid carcinoma or sarcoma. He has mild right-sided cardiac disease and a cardiac mass (most likely due to the heartworms). And there is some issue with a heart valve and the caudal vena cava, which is a main vessel that transports blood in and out of the heart. There are also some enlarged lymph glands.
Dr. Larsen recommends hospice care.
I have spent time with him at the vet clinic, plus he was at my house for about 48 hours and we got to spend a lot of time just hanging out. You will not find a sweeter, more loving dog. I don’t understand how he can love like he does, but he will only stare up at you with those beautiful dark eyes and want to lick you to death.
He does not appear to be in pain and the vet staff believes he is pretty pain-free at this time. With his spine the way it is, I am not sure how much feeling he has.
Stacy has offered the use of an Eddy’s Wheels they bought for her Jax, should Winston need it. Both dogs are close to the same size, so it shouldn’t be an issue.
One of the techs at the clinic has volunteered to serve as his hospice foster mom. That way he will get regular evaluations from Dr. Larsen.
Please keep him and his foster mom in your thoughts and prayers.