Client stories

Animals with multiple health issues like Maui don't usually get a second chance, let alone a third, fourth or fifth.

But Lort Smith won't give up on him, or any other animal who can be rehomed.

Five-year-old shar-pei cross Maui was brought to Lort Smith by his former family when they noticed his eyes were swollen and his mouth was full of blood.

They admitted they didn't know how long he'd been like that. Maui was mostly kept in the backyard by himself, as they said they didn't have much time for him.

His family said they couldn't afford the cost of admitting him to hospital. They felt he deserved a better life than they could give him, and decided to surrender him into our care so we could give him that chance.

It was the best decision they could have made. Knowing all the medical issues Maui would soon face, it's a relief to know he was in safe hands.

One thing after another

When one of our vets, Dr Geoff, had a closer look at his mouth, he found a piece of old bone stuck behind Maui's last molar, painfully piercing the gum. Dr Geoff removed it successfully, and advised that the wound would need monitoring to make sure it healed.

Poor Maui didn't take well to being in hospital. As a backyard dog used to being alone all the time, he wasn't used to all the sights and smells of a busy hospital with so many other animals.

Our staff did their best to comfort him, moving him somewhere quieter, away from other dogs, and giving him gentle reassurance. But Maui's anxiety only got worse, so we put him on anti-anxiety medication to help him cope.

Then, as we prepared him for desexing surgery, which we perform on all animals who go up for adoption, we noticed Maui had a lump on his testes.

We sent a sample to pathology, and found Maui had squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), a tumour of skin cells.

After his desexing surgery, our staff noticed that Maui's pen was soaked with urine. When they took him for walks, he weed without seeming to notice. He had developed urinary incontinence, possibly related to his prostate. And to top things off, Maui caught kennel cough, which is common in unvaccinated dogs.

The poor boy just couldn't seem to catch a break!

A home with Cindy

We knew he'd need a very special foster carer, one who would understand his various issues and be empathetic and patient in his recovery.

Our long-term volunteer, Cindy, fitted the description perfectly!

"I walked him and spent time with him for maybe a month before I took him home," she says. "As soon as he was up for foster, I put my hand up."

Having recently lost her own dog, Cindy felt she and Maui could both offer each other something: her, a place for him to recover in peace and safety, and him, the familiar sounds and soothing presence of a dog in her home.

"The thing is though — Maui was my first-ever foster!" Cindy says. "A bit of a challenging one to start with! He's certainly been keeping me on my toes but he's just such a beautiful dog."

After a lifetime spent mostly outside or in a hospital, it seems Maui couldn't believe his luck at getting to sleep inside with Cindy. He relaxed so much in foster care that we could take him off his anti-anxiety medication almost straight away. And Cindy says even his incontinence improved.

A scary night

Things were looking up for Maui, and we were even thinking about putting him up for adoption … until one horrific night that Cindy says she won't forget anytime soon.

"I knew he was a bit off that night, that something was up, but I thought maybe he just needed to sleep it off," she says.

"Then at maybe one in the morning, he fell off the bed and the sound woke me up. His eyes were darting side to side, and he was vomiting and peeing everywhere. I was totally freaking out … I just kept thinking, 'Oh my goodness, he's going to die'. It was so scary."

Our foster carers truly are heroes. They take sick and injured animals into their homes and hearts knowing things like this can happen, and they do it anyway. Cindy was remarkable that night. She rushed Maui to emergency, where he was stabilised, and we were able to run tests to find the cause of his seizures.

We don't like to think about what would have happened if this had happened while Maui was still living alone in that backyard.

Nor do we want to imagine what would have happened if he'd been taken anywhere but Lort Smith. Here, we have the advanced medical equipment, compassionate staff and sheer determination to help even the most complicated cases like Maui's.

Another of our highly skilled vets, Dr Lucy, took over Maui's case, and suspects he has vestibular disease. This condition is characterised by sudden loss of balance, disorientation, head tilting and irregular, jerking eye movements.

"He's still head tilting and he's still a bit wobbly," Cindy says. "When he's calm, he seems to be ok but if he sees or smells something interesting, or if there is someone at the door, then he'll tilt a bit more and that causes him to lose balance."

Maui is still a bit unsteady on his feet, although a recent CT scan thankfully showed he hasn't had a brain injury. But when it comes to Maui, one thing is certain: we won't stop until we've figured it out.

Mouth trauma, anxiety, tumours, incontinence and a mysterious neurological condition: Maui has been through the wringer.

There will always be animals like Maui who come through our doors needing our help. And with your support, we will always be there to fight for them.

Please donate and change the lives of animals like Maui today.

• Cindy and Maui: a foster carer’s story

As a vet nurse at Lort Smith, Vanessa looks after countless animals every week. But every now and then, an animal comes in who truly captures her heart. Bobbins is one of them.

The young cat had been hit by a car, causing multiple fractures to her pelvis. She wasn't able to walk or go to the toilet on her own, and sadly her carers couldn't afford the extensive rehabilitation she would need. A CT scan showed she had a narrow pelvis, which would make it difficult for her to pass faeces.

Vanessa worked around the clock with Bobbins, manually expressing her bladder, giving her enemas to help her pass faeces, giving her regular pain medication and doing gentle physio.

"We just formed a bond," Vanessa says. "She was a very spicy girl as you can imagine with all she had been through … but I saw improvement and I knew she wasn't going to give up. And neither was I."

Going home to recover

Vanessa put her hand up to take Bobbins home as a foster, to give her time to recover somewhere quiet and stress-free. At least, stress-free for Bobbins!

"It was incredibly stressful for me!" laughs Vanessa. "But I would do it a million times over."

"She was on four to six different types of medications and giving her those was no easy task, but we managed. She gained trust with me and let me express her bladder and give her enemas when needed but it was always a waiting game to see if she could toilet on her own."

"The day she did I cried, filmed it and sent it to all the vets and nurses who had helped her. Every time she pooped, I got so excited!"

A perfect match

Soon Bobbins was up and walking, and Vanessa knew their time together would need to end so Bobbins could go to her new home. Bobbins is now in a foster-to-adopt arrangement, and Vanessa thinks they've found the perfect home.

"They have bonded so well, and I get updates regularly.

"That's why I love fostering — it's truly incredible to see the transformation that a loving home and a bit of time can do to change the lives of these animals and ultimately the lives of the human who takes them home."

If you'd like to give a temporary home to animals who need a little more TLC, find out about our foster care program.

Little Luna was found as a stray and taken to a local pound, where staff noticed something unusual about her. Her feet and legs were swollen, causing her a lot of pain and discomfort. At nine weeks old, she should have been running and playing like a normal puppy. But this tiny poodle cross could barely walk without yelping.

The pound transferred her straight to Lort Smith, where we diagnosed her with congenital lymphoedema, a malformation of the lymphatic system. Unfortunately, there's no cure for this condition, but we were determined to give this sweet little puppy the best chance at a normal, pain-free life.

Finding what works

We placed her in a loving foster home, so she could be constantly doted on while we tried different treatments. We tried compression stockings to reduce the swelling, different kinds of oral medication, daily massages and short walks. But the most effective treatment so far has been Luna's regular acupuncture appointments with Dr Amanda.

As with humans, acupuncture in animals is used to help the body heal itself by correcting energy imbalances. The technique involves inserting fine needles into the dog's body at specific acupuncture points, where nerves and blood vessels meet.

Over five months, Dr Amanda performed acupuncture on Luna once a fortnight. Of course, like any puppy, Luna wasn't overly well behaved at her appointments, and food and treats were always on hand to distract her! But gradually, we noticed her lymphoedema symptoms were reducing, and we decided she was ready to be fostered with a view to adopt.

Inseparable

Within 24 hours, Luna caught the eye of Gaby and Mitch, and this trio has been inseparable ever since! Luna now spends her days at the local dog beach, basking in the sun and enjoying seawater physio, which helps reduce the swelling in her legs.

And while Luna still needs to visit Dr Amanda every month, this pup is definitely enjoying a healthier, happier and pain-free life.

Donate today and help more animals like Luna get their second chance at a happy life.

Eleven-year-old Kobee wasn't in the best shape when he arrived at Lort Smith. He had an eye disease that had been left untreated for months, making his right eye squinty and clearly very painful. He had a heart murmur, dental issues and some lumps on his face that needed investigating. He was very underweight. And on top of all that, he had a healthy dose of sass that our team likes to call "cattitude".

But all we saw was a cat in desperate need of some love and care. After assessing his eye, our vets decided Kobee's best chance of living pain-free was to remove the eye. Once the delicate surgery was done, he went into foster care to recover with Lisa.

"He certainly wasn't a happy boy when I first met him," says Lisa. "But fair enough … he was skin and bones and had just been through a big surgery. He was just a cranky old man who needed a quiet place to fatten up and recuperate."

Lisa says Kobee hid in her walk-in robe for about two weeks before he eventually started to show some interest in her.

"Once he started healing, he came out of his shell… If I was reading in bed, he'd come and sleep next to me or at my feet. He's really a sweet soul; he just needed someone to be patient with him."

See all the beautiful, "perfectly imperfect" pets waiting to find their new homes on our adoptions page.

Or make a generous donation to Lort Smith today, and help us heal, rehabilitate and change the lives of even more animals like Kobee.