I will start with when we first got Pat.
Pat is a retired racing dog and shortly after he was retired into the RGT in Kent, the vets noticed he was in pain with his front right ankle. They tried many ways to improve this but ultimately they had to remove his leg. The surgery and recovery was a complete success, no more pain! Unfortunately, no-one seemed to want a 3-legged greyhound, but my step-daughter Molly discovered him on Social Media and we decided we would give him home.
Within a couple of weeks we had Pat at home and that was 8 yrs ago now. He has adapted really well to having 3 legs and has great mobility. He is a lovely, kind and sweet dog and until this incident was in perfect health (minus his one leg of course) and a very important part of the family.
My family and I had a holiday in Spain for 10 days at the end of July this year and we usually used friends to look after Pat but this wasn't possible, so needed to use a kennel facility.
The kennel that was able to take Pat is were told how Pat needed to be looked after and cared for and explained his sensitive nature and that he shouldn't and couldn't be left for more 6 hours in this kennels. After going through his diet and regime, they gave me confidence that this was the place. 'Pat will be in great hands here, don't worry'.
So I dropped Pat off on the 25th July and was due to collect him on the 6th Aug '24.
On Friday 2nd Aug, I received a text and call from the kennels, stating lightly that Pat had had a fall and that he was taken to the vets (my vets as directed previously in event of that being needed). He didn't give much information except Pat must have slipped in the night...
I then quickly called the vets to see how Pat was. The vets explained that Pat had sustained multiple serious wounds on his legs, paws, chest and all underneath his ribs etc. I asked them how such serious wounds could have happened overnight and they simply answered, 'they couldn't, these happened over days and that he had also lost 5 kilos. FIVE kilos in a week!?!? Vets advised that he hadn't been fed and barely given enough water during his 7 days at the kennels. So instead of looking after our beautiful Pat, they neglected and abused him from the very first day - shockingly disgraceful.
We weren't due to return until 6th August, but then I had to return to England early and book an earlier flight to return in the early hours of Sunday 4th Aug.
My step-daughter was able to take Pat from the vets and look after him until I returned so I could take him back to the vets the following Monday morning.
When I saw Pat, he was very ill, extremely lethargic, not eating, only taking water through a syringe. He had lost so much weight, you could see all his shoulder blade, spine, hips, a very sad and distressing sight. Whilst he lay he urinated on the puppy training pads. His wounds were all bandaged up so I couldn’t see them but tended to him as best I could, turning him over and changing his pads every hour.
I couldn’t get Pat back to the vets until first thing on Monday morning. 9am Monday 5th Aug, took him to the vets for a wound review and changed of bandages. The vets told me he had horrific deep wounds to his paws, ankles, legs, knees and the stump where his leg used to be. They had to staple his stump as it had worn through the the muscle, stable his front leg elbow as that had also worn through to the muscle. Stapled his two back leg knees and had to treat and bandage his entire legs from paws upwards to keep infections away. There were urine burns over most of his body.
His multiple wounds had to be lazered to take away dead flesh and rejuvenate the healing process and re-bandaged under sedation every time. He is becoming more himself now, but is still very weak and cannot stand, needing our 24-hour care, but needs elevated care soon.
Nearly two weeks after he was taken to the vets he still cannot stand and his wounds need specialist help which we simply cannot afford but owe it to Pat to try and help him mend and get to his former self. We have spent over £3,000 on vet fees to date at current vets, costs growing each day.
The vet has advised that for Pat to heal, he needs to be housed in a specialist vet hospital. This treatment at the specialist vets will cost approximately £15,000 over a 2 week in-house treatment program, which they are confident will yield the best results for his horrific wounds to heal and have the specialist care he needs and deserves.
We are not ones to hold out the begging bowl but we are desperately stressed at his current treatment plan that just isn’t yielding the results he so desperately needs and haven’t the funds to maintain and improve his recovery.
We are asking you kind’ Go-Funders’ to please help us get our lovely Pat the specialist treatment he needs and as soon as we’re able to. Please can you help us raise the £15,000 needed to help fix and save Pat.
We thank you all in advance for your compassion, generosity and kindness.
Kindest regards,
The Wainwrights & Pat