Jayda was born on December 25, 2007 and she's probably a poorly-bred, long-haired black Bandit Chihuahua... Currently she weighs 9 pounds... While she's a bit over the AKC standard for the Chi, she's also nursing 4 puppies right now, which were born on June 28th inside one of our local shelters...
Doesn't sound so bad, huh?... Well, settle back and allow me to tell you just the absolute depths of inhumane treatment a dog can get from their owner...
According to our vet yesterday, Jayda has an old injury - probably was hit by a car - and where the top of her leg bone should be (where it should be connected to her pelvis at the hip joint), it is sticking up and out several inches higher...
Basically, if you took where the top of your leg folds as you sit down and put it up at your waist, you'd be in the shape Jayda currently is... Accordingly when Jayda walks, she is holding up her right leg as it is now much shorter than the left leg... She has limited use of it and can step down on it, but it is hanging (more or less)... And in her short life span of 18 months, it healed like this WITHOUT medical attention... Her owner never had the injury attended to at a vet's office and while it must have been excruciatingly painful when it occurred and she recuperated, the inhumanity didn't stop there...
Jayda was not spayed and she was allowed to become pregnant... And two days before she delivered her puppies???... Jayda was picked up by Animal Control as a stray (and with a microchip)... The owner never came to claim her from the shelter...
At this point, we have Jayda and her four pups (all female and all appear to be doing fine)... After seeking another medical opinion yesterday, we've confirmed that she is not in pain from the old injury and the wound on her side is slowing healing as well (not connected with the old injury, if you can imagine!!!)...
If you look at the picture above, her cream-colored puppy is resting her head on the top of Jayda's femur bone that protrudes and when comparing the length of her two legs, you can see how much shorter the right leg is from the left... We intend to seek another medical opinion to see if anything at all can be done, but options we were given so far is to do nothing about the leg or amputate it once Jayda has weaned her puppies... As we were told, "She's not had any use of it for quite some time so she wouldn't feel as if she's lost anything if we go the route of amputation"...
Jayda is an EXCELLENT mom already with her pups... And she's not aggressive or mean - if she were, we might be able to understand (??) why someone wouldn't take care of her like this... Maybe...
She's undergone many things since she's been with us... Trips to the vets... All that manipulation, poking and prodding to determine if she was in pain from the old injury... Repositioning her and her pups to accommodate her need to stretch out (we found a HUGE dog litter tray that has one side lower so she can readily step out, but the pups are still contained so they don't accidentally fall out)... A bath which required her to be held up gently by one person as the other person gave her the bath... Moving and touching her pups... You name it, we've had to do it and NOT ONCE has Jayda growled, snapped or showed any sign of aggression despite having a very young litter of puppies...
She's been put on a highly nutritional diet for her sake as well as her puppies' sakes... Jayda now is clean, well fed and comfortable (or as comfortable as you can be in a situation like this feeding a litter of puppies)... She greets us with a wagging tail and is already getting spoiled with extra home cooking and treats, extra protein and goats milk as well... We just say her name and she looks up with a sweetness that breaks your heart as that tail wags for you... sigh...
The puppies' eyes are still closed and as you watch Jayda lovingly attend to them, you cannot help but become angry at her previous owner... Fearful at venting unbridled angry emotions at the human race, we'll leave it at that! However, this will be a long-term care endeavor and rehabilitation, so stay tuned to her blog for more details and photos as she recuperates and her puppies grow.
If you would like to donate towards Jayda's medical costs, please visit our website HERE... Even a few dollars will help procure a specialist to address Jayda's health conditions...
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