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 Bella Over the weekend, I received a call from a vet tech in Johnson City, TN. She told me a story about a little Papillon who had been seen in a neighborhood for at least several days. A woman had been leaving out food and water for her, but now the tiny girlie had been hit by a car. The vet tech, Julia, said she had a microchip, but it lead nowhere. Julia went on to explain that the lady who had brought in the little dog at first thought she would pay for her care. But as the vet found out the extent of the injuries, the good Samaritan knew she could not afford it and Julia had spent 2 hours calling people who might help - but with no success. She wanted to know if Pap 911 Rescue would help? Knowing that our group is stretched with huge medical bills right now, I told Julia to give me a few minutes to think about what we could do. Minutes after I hung up and sat there thinking, Pam Johnson called with an update on the MO transport. I told her about the poor girlie and that I felt she had been put in our path for a reason. Pam immediately agreed and said it was absolutely right. We would get the money somewhere. I called Julia back and told her we would welcome this battered butterfly into our group. I talked several times during the day to Julia and Dr. Dell of the Young Animal Clinic and Dr. Dell knew the extent of the injuries were beyond the capability of anyone in the area. She felt that our best chance to help her was at the University of TN. Dr Dell would care for her until Monday, and either Julia or the lady who brought the Pap in would take her to UT for us on Monday. And so we named the little girlie Bella - beautiful - and sent her all our strength and positive thoughts. Today at 5:30 pm, our Bella arrived at UT and was seen by Dr. Mark Bohling. Judy Ceccucci was there to officially accept Bella for us and she will be watching over Bella while she remains in the hospital. Dr. Bohling went over every detail with me. Bella has multiple pelvic fractures and a broken femur. The hardest part of the surgery will be to put her tiny little pelvis back together with screws about the size if those in your eyeglasses. He will not be able to see where he is working in the hardest places, but he has done similar surgery successfully before. Dr Bohling feels that if the surgery goes well, Bella will be able to walk about normally. The bad side would be if nerve damage occurs during surgery. There are very little internal injuries although they will be testing for kidney problems and do all kinds of bloodwork and tests tomorrow. Surgery will begin Wednesday. He will work on Bella for as much time as is safe for her. Then if necessary, they will wake her up and then continue surgery the next day. Judy says Bella is a beautiful girlie and has a very good attitude. She has been very loved and cared for this weekend. Look closely and you will see that someone has painted her toenails to match her vet bandage! We are in need of donations to help with the cost of Bella's surgery. The estimated cost for Bella's surgery is $2,000.00 plus. Please help us with bella's surgery costs. If we receive donations in excess of Bella's surgery amount needed the overflow will go towards the care/vetting of the rest of Papillons in our rescue. Please click on the below link to donate to Bella's surgery. Thank you! Bella's surgery fund. Bella's surgery 8/15/07 They were able to repair the femur and the areas of her pelvis that they were targeting. Bella will need 4 to 6 weeks of cage rest to heal. She should have no pain even though there may be a little limp. She was in surgery for 6 hours with no problem, is now awake, and the after surgery radio grams show that everything is in good condition. They don't know about the possibility of any nerve damage but she had pain in her legs before surgery and that is a good sign. They will know more about that in the morning. 8/16/07Bella had some pain this morning so they increased her pain meds and Dr. Bohling wants to keep her a little longer for observation. It looks like we will get her tomorrow. 8/16/07 Post-Surgery VisitConsidering everything our little lady has been through she is doing so well, but she doesn't feel good. At 6 PM Erik told me we could visit Bella and take pictures before 8PM tonight. Erik and the doctors had gone home by the time I got there at 7 PM. Earlier today Erik had told me that since Bella's arrival she was not able to keep her food down and that they were feeding her baby food. It is believed this is due to all the meds she is on now and that she will be ok as soon as she gets off them. So, it was no surprise when I was told that she was not keeping her food down. Here are the 2 pictures I got. Notice how straight she is sitting up. Our little lady is doing very nicely.  Bella's incision  Bella's left thigh and hip. Her femur was broken. This is the incision that was made to repair it. Her right thigh and hip look the same. They went in on that side to repair her pelvis. Her pelvis was crushed. She has plates and pins in 7 places in her pelvis. The other breaks were not plated. The doctor feels they will heal naturally. She was in surgery for 6 hours.  a close up of her precious face. She's wearing a collar until the stitches are removed. With all of this, she is still sweet. She licks my hand, wags her tail, smiles...and growls at my girls when they stick their noses in the crate to check out the new girl in town  Excerpts from Dr. Bohling's report: "We performed surgery to reconstruct her femur and partially reconstruct her pelvis. Bella should make a good recovery. After her bone injuries have healed in the next couple months, she sould be able to walk again and carry on normal dog activities. She is likely to have a limp, though this should not have an effect on her long term quality of life. Bella should be kept in confinement for at least 5 weeks in a large kennel and keep a close watch for signs of infection."
Update 8/27/07 For a couple of days, I have been carrying BT outside with the rest of the gang and putting her down on the patio. Until now, she would just sit there and watch the others, but today she got up and walked (on all four legs) to the edge of the bricks and stopped. She seemed to be afraid to step off the bricks into the grass, so I picked her up and put her down in the grass and she took off! She walked around in the grass looking for "the perfect place", then she relieved herself outside! This is the first time she has gone outside, not in her crate! TA DA! Update 9/2/07 Bella's stitches have been removed and she's doing very well.  She's doing her version of sitting. The leg sticking straight out is the one that was broken. She stands on it and uses it to balance, but doesn't bend it, yet.  It has been 6 1/2 weeks since Bella's surgery and she is doing remarkably well, considering the degree of her injuries. Six and a half weeks ago, this sweet little 6 lb. baby was run over by a 2000 lb. automobile and the back half of her body was crushed, so the fact that she is alive is a miracle in itself! Her pelvis was crushed and her left rear femur was broken in 3 places. Her pelvis has healed and the bones in her leg have healed; however, the paradox is that while the bones were healing, it was necessary to keep her primarily immobile, which caused the muscles to stiffen. She walks on the leg, but she doesn't bend it and her spine is not aligned because she "favors" that leg. The next step in her rehabilitation is physical therapy to see if the muscles can be revived. Bella has an appointment on Friday, Oct 5, with a Physical Therapist and on Monday, Oct 8, with the Orthopedist. I'll send out an update when we get the reports from these two appointments. Saving Bella has been, and will continue to be, a very expensive endeavor, but she's worth every penny. I wish every one of you could meet her and hold her. Her loving spirit, in spite of all she's been through, is remarkable. More pictures, soon....... Bella had her first therapy session and she is already getting some range of motion back into her leg. The break was so severe that the femur muscle has gotten fused to the healing bone and is atrophying. so extra effort needs to be made to stretch out the muscle so she can bend her knee. She is swinging it out when she walks and sits with it sticking straight out when she rests.Update 10/12/07  The little yellow booties are balloons to keep her from slipping on the floor. This precious butterfly just works so hard - she never whines or gets grumpy. Bella is worth all the effort and more! For more on Bella's therapy click on Therapy  If you would like to donate to Bella's Therapy Fund Please use the donate button on this page. Thank you! |
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