When Billy arrived at Lort Smith, he was dazed, unresponsive and in pain.
"It is very upsetting to think of an animal being in pain and suffering like this, for so long," says Dr Kassandra, one of our vets. "Billy came to us with significant head injuries, but they weren't fresh – they were likely at least a week old … He had been walking around in pain all that time."
A mystery
Billy had very serious burns to his face, and how he got them is still a mystery. "We initially assumed that Billy had been hit by a car," says Dr Kassandra. "[But] a lot of the trauma normally associated with being hit by a car, such as grated nails, were absent with Billy."
"His general condition was pitiful – he was skinny, and his coat was matted and flea-ridden. He was moderately anaemic because of the fleas. I was very shocked at the state of him."
He was so unresponsive that our team first thought he might be deaf. After cleaning his wounds and starting pain relief and antibiotics, Dr Kassandra found he could hear. Billy was dealing with something that can be even harder to manage: severe emotional trauma.
He is a completely different dog to the one I first brought home.
Jacqui, foster carer
Learning to feel safe
We asked one of our long-term foster carers, Jacqui, to look after him. "My colleagues know I am a sucker for the 'underdog' and really desperate cases, so Billy was the perfect next dog for me to welcome into my home," she says.
At first, Billy was terrified. "He had shut down to the human-animal bond and was so scared of me," says Jacqui. "I slowly introduced him to my two dogs who are experienced foster siblings, and he was pleased to see them … but if I approached him, he panicked and fled.
"He would cower shivering in the corner and pretend I wasn't there, in the hope that I would go away."
Then one morning, he had two seizures in 20 minutes. Jacqui rushed him back to Lort Smith, where he spent two nights in our Intensive Care Unit. A CT scan of his head found an old pellet lodged in his jaw. "We found it incidentally – you cannot feel it from the outside, and there was no associated swelling, which indicates it must have been an old injury," says Dr Kassandra.
A different dog
Our vets are carefully weaning Billy off his seizure medication, to see whether he needs it long term, and he has regular acupuncture with Dr Amanda to help with his fear and anxiety. "He is always very relaxed and calm afterwards," says Jacqui.
Slowly, Billy is learning to trust. "He is a completely different dog to the one I first brought home," says Jacqui. "Whilst he is still quite shy, he's very comfortable with me and loves to crawl into my lap for cuddles and seeks out all the pats he can possibly get!
"There is definitely a family out there that will love a special little dog like Billy."
"If we had not given Billy a second chance by providing top class veterinary care for free, we would never have realised his potential as a much-loved animal companion," says Dr Kassandra.
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