Herccy Fund!

BACKGROUND:

Hercules has had a bit of a rough life. He came from a Breeder up North as a too young to be sold, 6-week old puppy and spent 9 years with his former owner before she entered rest home care. Hercules was mostly an outside dog. A couple of years ago, Hercules was run over and lost the use and feeling in his tail. Once Hercules’ owner entered care, he was taken in temporarily by a family member initially. However, it soon became clear it would not work out.

Hercules was collected by our Trustees one winters night and remained with them for a period of around two months while undergoing his medical assessments, operations and rehabilitation. During this time, Hercules required a lot of medical care. Hercules arrived with a terrible flea infestation that led to flea dermatitis. He developed large, itchy, weeping welts on his lower half. We set about treating his fleas and the skin irritation left behind. Secondly, we conducted a full blood and urine panel on Hercules to discover why he was drinking so frequently and to ensure he was healthy to undergo surgery. In May 2019, Hercules was de-sexed, micro-chipped and had a dental to remove several rotten teeth. We also finally addressed his tail injury by x-raying his lower half. Unfortunately, we found jaggered fractures in his hips and that his tail was without any feeling. Another pressing issue was Hercules’ heart – he has an enlarged heart and prominent murmur. We began two types of heart meds immediately so as to improve the quality and length of his life!

Although it has definitely been a journey for Hercules, he has come leaps and bounds from his first day in care. As a result, Hercules has now been moved to a family who are able to give him more one-on-one time and great experiences for the rest of his life. We are not sure how long – or short, that may be, but we are sure that we are committed to making that time as amazing as possible for him. Unfortunately, we came a bit too late to be able to prolong Hercules' life by very much or be able to medically clear and adopt him out. We will make the difficult call in time, once he has had the opportunity to learn what it is like to be a much-loved companion and pet!

In terms of his monthly costs, Hercules is on:

- Metacam for pain = $129.00 per 100ML

- Vetmedin (heart) = $79.80 (one month supply) - a cost of $1.60 per day

- Fortekor (heart) = $74.00 (one month supply) - a cost of $0.66 per day.

- Small breed ACANA = $34.00 (per 2kg)

If you'd like to be able to help us to help Hercules in particular – please consider donating towards his ongoing medical costs as above. Each month we spend on his foods, flea and worming, heart and pain medications. With so many dogs in our care, we do worry about the constant costs associated with keeping him under trust care - but remain committed to giving him the best quality of life possible, for as long as possible! We would greatly appreciate your assistance, any donation big or small helps!