Monday, September 14, 2009

Meet Frankie:

Frank is a young American Bull dog who was going to be euthanized at just over a year old because of a congenital eye lid deformation. Frank has eyelid enthropia of the upper and lower eyelids on each eye. This means that his eyelids roll inwards and with every blink the hair on them rub against his eyes. Leaving his eye extremely irritated and even caused a massive ulcer in his left eye. This condition is extremely painful, especially the ulcer which is further irritated by being rubbed by the eyelids. Frank has lived his entire life in excruciating pain, pain most of us have never even had to endure. Frank endures this pain every day. Because of how sore his eyes are, he won't even open them up, leaving him blind. This condition can be fixed with an (expensive) surgery that corrects the deformation, plan to have done. Unfortunately he cannot get this surgery until the ulcer in his eye has healed (if it even does). The ulcer in his right eye is so bad that he may lose the eye. He also has a major infection in his right ear, which is extremely uncomfortable. On top of everything, he also had food allergies, which is also very uncomfortable for him. Food allergies in animals shows up on the skin and makes them very itchy.

Despite all of this, Frank is an amazing good nature dog who continues to enjoy life. He is loyal, affectionate and a big sweet-heart. He gets along amazingly with cats, dogs, kids, you name it. He is honestly a really great dog, it is such a shame he has had to live like this for so long.

Since being rescued Frank is now on intensive treatments: He receives antibacterial eye drops twice a day, to prevent the ulcer from becoming infected. Serum in his eye for his ulcer every 4 hours, to help the ulcer heal. Two types of pain relievers for his eyes, eye drops and oral medication. Ear treatments for the infection twice a day. He has also been switched to an expensive veterinary brand hypoallergenic diet for his allergies.

Frank will be getting his surgery as soon as possible, once we determine if we can save the eye with the ulcer or not.

*This is an inherited condition, which could have been prevented with good breeding. Unfortunately back-yard breeders produce a lot of very sad cases like this. Please if you are going to buy a pure breed (and choose not to adopt). Do not go to a pet store or back-yard breeder, go to a reputable registered breeder.