Pages

Sunday, November 18, 2012

The Story of Tank


A couple weeks ago, a gentleman called our clinic saying that his dog had been attacked by a pit bull and asked if we had an available veterinarian to tend to him. Of course we did, and I told him to come straight away. I warned our doctor, Dr. H, that we had a bite wound coming in.

Tank, a 1.5 year old English Bull Dog, had not fared well against the pit bull that attacked him. The entire backside of his neck (along his topline) had several (and I mean, several) puncture wounds from the attack dog. In case you're wondering what an English Bull Dog looks like:


This breed is not exactly my cup of tea. They are sweet dogs, but I'm not a fan of the smooshed-face dogs. However, in Tank's case, he grew on me.

Because of his injuries, Tank was very sensitive and not overly cooperative. However, Dr. H and the tech were able to clean up the wounds. Dr. H told Tank's owner that she wanted to at least keep him over-night. The owner understood and left Tank in our care.

A couple days later, I came back in after a day off, and at some point in the morning Dr. H was working on Tank. His wounds on the back of his neck was now all dead tissue and was needing to be cut away. The end result was ugly. It was down to the last layer of skin that covered muscles.

Tank's neck later that night.

Taking Tank for a walk proved to be interesting. I put a leash around his neck very carefully, and just kept calling to him for him to follow me.

Tank's owners came to visit him daily. The first time the wife and her kids came in and I took them back. I had to warn them how ugly the wound was. I mean. Ugly. You can see for yourself. I also had to warn them about the smell. The poor dog was stinking up our treatment area pretty badly. I nearly cried with them when I took them back. The wife got teary, and her kids started crying. It took all I had to not lose it with them. I spoke to the wife about the dog attack and she said she got pictures of the dog that had done the attacking, including blood all down it's front. I told her that she needed to file a complaint with the police department - Animal Control wouldn't come get the dog unless they managed to trap it on their property. Evidently the owner of the pit bull has a total of 5 pit bulls (in CA you have to have a kennel license if you have 6 or more dogs), and they all keep breaking through the property fence no matter how many times Tank's owners patched it up. And all 5 dogs run wild and are aggressive. Tank's owners worry about their own children. I told her she really ought to file a complaint with the police and to take the pictures to them as evidence. I don't know if they have or not to date. But I sincerely hope they have.

As I said, they visited him daily. I told them that pets know when their people come to visit. Tank was kind of out of it, and not overly responsive the first few days. But they do know and they do like seeing their people while in the hospital. Just like people like having their family visit them.

After roughly two weeks of a hospital stay, the owners had to make some tough decisions. Tank had a very long road ahead of him in the healing process. And the owners only had so much money. In fact, they were out of money. Their bill was sitting around $1200. Tank's bill could easily run up to $5000 or more before long and the healing road would be long and hard. Tank still needs a lot of pain medicine and antibiotics and would require them for quite some time. We had been giving him IV fluids as he didn't always drink or eat enough.

Part of my sucky Saturday last weekend was that Dr. H called me at 9am (I went in at 10), to tell me that Tank was probably going to be euthanized because the owners were simply out of money and didn't want Tank to suffer anymore than he already had. She said that they'd discontinued the meds because of the euthanization.

The wife called the clinic a couple times saying that she couldn't get a hold of her husband and didn't want to do it with him there. The doctor on call that weekend told me to tell them that when they could come in, to call our answering service and he would meet them at the clinic.

I was asked to do treatments that evening, but was told that there was nothing to do for Tank. So I took care of the two parvo puppies and then when I was done I went to see Tank.

And I cried.

It was the worst thing I've ever seen. I could see the pain in his eyes. I have never in my entire life seen any living thing in that much pain. I petted him along his back and back legs. I felt it was important that he get some love. His owner wouldn't show up to put him out of his misery without her husband. They insisted on being there. I told him over and over that I was so sorry. I was so mad that I couldn't do anything. That the doctor wouldn't "give" away some pain meds so Tank wouldn't suffer so badly. I could only imagine the pain this poor dog was in, and even then, I still don't think my imagination came close.

My heart broke for Tank.

I left there to have dinner with my BFF. I got hugs. I got home, and I told my parents. My parents have never seen me cry over any animal that has come into a clinic I've worked for. I usually can hide it fairly well. But I couldn't hide my anger and broken heart over Tank. I got Mom hugs.

When I came in on Monday I asked the tech who had been on-call on Sunday if the owners came in over the weekend. She said no, there had been no need - Tank was dead when she walked in Sunday morning. He had died alone and in the worst kind of pain.

Rest in peace, little man. Rest in peace.

ox, me.

18 comments:

  1. Oh poor Tank; what a sad story; I am glad he is out of his misery, but definitely such a sad horrific way to die. I do hope the owners press charges. Honestly, I know a lot of people like pit bulls but they scare me to death.

    betty

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gosh, the more I thought about it, while I can understand the owner's reluctance not to have Tank put down until husband could be there, I have to say that was a bit selfish on her part in then allowing Tank to have to be in so much pain without agreeing to keeping the pain medicines going. Our corgi has had some scary things happen to him that have resulted in emergent visits to the vet (low blood sugar, high blood sugar, pneumonia). Each time hubby has taken him to the vet (hubby has a better work schedule than I do) I told him specifically that if the doctor recommended that Koda be put down because he was in so much misery/pain that I would want to be there, but if I could not be there because of my work schedule and he would be in a lot of pain until I could get there, I wanted hubby to go forward with it to save Koda pain and suffering. We specifically talked about these issues too before we even agreed to get him as a puppy and each time hubby has left in a dire situation to take Koda to the vet, I have said goodbye to him wondering if I would see him again or not. This makes me just a bit upset with the owners, although I know they were suffering in their own way with losing a loved pet.

    betty

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I, too, understand the owners both wanting to be there. I was also upset that the wife chose to wait until she could get ahold of her husband while he worked out of town. You can't see a wound like that and think they are not in pain. Either way, it was a lose-lose situation for everyone involved. Just a heartbreaking story.

      Delete
  3. UGH.

    Now that's a sucky story. I'm so sorry honey. (((HUGS)))

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. It truly was a sucky story. I was pulling for him.

      Delete
  4. Owners of pit bulls like that are idiotic wasted afterbirth. They should be invited to take a bath in fresh blood and sent out to play with their nice doggies.

    Have more civil things I could add, but just not in a mood to.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The day he came in, I was so pissed about it. And I wasn't so civil about it.

      Delete
  5. That was just aweful. Poor Tank :-(

    I'd like to add an edited version of what CW posted: Owners of ANY dogs like that, not just pit bulls! Idiotic morons like that are what cause the breed to have such a bad reputation in the first place. Personally, I've come across far more bad tempered Chihuahuas than I have Pit Bulls.

    A big hug to you from Indiana.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, morons like that give pit bulls a bad name. Any dog could have done this, not just a pit bull.

      And I think for Chihuahuas its a size thing. They think they're just as tough as a big dog and owners think they are so dang cute that they get away with EVERYTHING.

      Delete
    2. I concur, understand I'm not bashing pit bulls. Owners of these animals tend to be a-holes and that gives the animal more of a bad rap than they deserve. The "pit-bull owner attitude" is what I was getting at.

      But I would still throw the chihuahua owners in with the pit bulls. Being mauled be Chihuahuas just isn't the same.

      Delete
  6. I was not expecting that. I just cried my eyes out. How absolutely awful.

    I had to let my Scooby go at 13.5 years. It was a dire situation, she was in pain, and no vet offices were open. I tripled her pain meds and made the decision to let her go the next day, even though my husband was in China. It's selfish and cruel to allow the animal to suffer when they are RELYING on us humans to let them go or put them down. Poor Tank couldn't slink into the woods.

    I'm thankful that you had a kind heart and a loving attitude towards him. That you pet him in his time of need, when he was so hurt and desperate.

    I'm pissed that the owners discontinued the pain meds. That is where they went wrong - it was not the right decision in light of the female owner not allowing him to be euthanized quickly once they had made the decision. The poor little fellow. What a horrible end.

    Thanks for petting him. Thanks for being there. I'm sure he appreciated it, too. And I'm crying again.

    I'm all for good pit bulls. Good ANY breed of dog. It's the irresponsible asshole owners who are to blame - train your dogs, keep them enclosed, respect the safety of the other people around you. Clearly their 5 dogs aren't being trained and have probably taken on pack mentality.

    That woman should be afraid for her kids. Just like any other shitty owner with aggressive, dangerous dog(s).

    Poor Tank.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry to hear about your Scooby. It's the worst decision any pet owner ever has to make. Every time I read comments on this post, I start crying again.

      Delete
  7. Well...I'm sobbing. This is why I don't watch animal movies, read animal books...and it's why I should never, ever, under any circumstance, read picture-filled posts that are beautifully written by friends who were there to hold the little guy's paw in his final days.

    While I can still semi-see my computer screen, I just want to thank you for doing all you do for animals, and for writing such a lovely tribute to little Tank.

    Okay...gonna go let the tears and ugly-face sobbing take over. *Hugs to you*

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh every time I think about Tank I wind up sobbing. And I figured he deserved some kind words and a kind hand after the pure hell he'd been through. It was the least I could do.

      Delete
  8. Oh my. I had tears in my eyes reading this. I'm an owner of a pit bull, and I detest the reputation that they have. It infuriates me that some people are so irresponsible. My pit is a very loving, docile baby. BUT, I would NEVER have more than 1 at a time, and I would NEVER have one that I didn't raise from a puppy. My heart goes out to the family. I hope they throw the book at that owner.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hate that pit bulls have such bad reputations as well, but it's really the owner's fault. Owners like this one who let their dogs run wild and aggressive and don't care. They are good dogs and I've known a few nice ones, but the sad thing is that there are so many people who don't take the time to train them.

      Delete
  9. Thank you for stopping over at Just Breathe. I was just reading your Wednesday Hodgepodge and come over to read this story. How tragic and so very sad. I am a dog lover and this story breaks my heart. ((HUGS)) Pit bulls scare me to death!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for the hugs. And thanks for stopping by. :o)

      Delete

I love comments. Please leave one. :o)