Pepper

Meet Pepper. This cute little schnauzer mix had a sad painful journey we don’t know anything about. She was brought into the Walton shelter early this week with obvious injuries; scared, trembling, eyes extremely bloodshot, facial lacerations and jaw injuries. She can't close her mouth or eat/drink normally and spent the last few days mostly huddled in the kennel corner with drool pooling at her feet. A sweet and otherwise healthy looking dog, it was assumed she had a broken jaw or similar injury so she was put in medical quarantine and scheduled for euthanasia on Wednesday if no owner came along.

The director mentioned her plight to a few rescues anxious to pull the healthier cute, adoptable dogs, but nobody was interested in helping her. Not surprising, I suppose, because money is always tight for rescues. Donations are hard to come by and it's hard to step into a medical situation with no clue of potential costs.

But something bothered me and wouldn't let me ignore photos of this girl, so we emailed the shelter on Tuesday night and offered to pay for a medical evaluation. Dr. Durrence at Monroe Animal Care Hospital, P.C. checked her out on Wednesday and gave us mixed news.

Good news is the jaw isn't broken and there are no orthopedic injuries. She was very dehydrated, had some trauma-related injuries, including a nasty infection under her tongue and minor eye injuries. But she also appears to have some sort of nerve related damage causing the problems closing her jaw. At this point Dr. Durrence feels it's trauma related and hopes she'll eventually regain normal use of her jaw.

Paws crossed for Pepper that this is a temporary problem that will gradually improve in a few weeks. Right now she’s still at Monroe Animal Care receiving fluids and antibiotics. Her jaw is wrapped loosely with gauze to keep it from hanging open. I’ll pick her up tomorrow and she'll be hand-fed until she's able to eat normally on her own. We're glad this little girl's life didn't end in the shelter and will do our best to eventually help her find a new home.

Anyone interested in contributing toward Pepper’s care can visit our website at www.wagwalton.com and use the Paypal link to donate – Pepper thanks you in advance!