HEART Animal Rescue News

I get asked if I am helping with HEART Animal Rescue anymore. The answer is not really. It makes me sad. If they got an older adult dog in that needed foster care I think I am getting healthy enough that I would foster. Puppies aren’t something I can do yet. The bending and them being between my feet would be a tripping hazard for me. I can’t risk that. Thankfully, they have some other great foster homes.

I am still listed as a volunteer, and I look for ways to help if I can. Today, my way of helping is by telling you the latest story from HEART. If hard animal stories are not your thing, just opt out of today’s blog post before reading on. (Mary, don’t read this.)

I am taking the words and pictures directly from HEARTS’ Facebook page.

They write:

Sorry, this is gonna be long, but you shouldn’t get bored reading it!

Early this last week we were contacted about an individual who had been living in unimaginable conditions with 11 dogs. The health of this individual and need for assistance is what uncovered what was going on at this place ultimately, and authorities related to the person’s health & well-being were notified. This person was removed from the residence and is receiving care at another location.

NEW YEAR EVE DAY
This left 11 dogs on the property needing out immediately! With little to no time to prepare or find advanced rescue assistance, we needed to catch and house these dogs. 1 outdoor dog needing live trapped, and 3 geese needing to find placement.

The majority of the dogs were fearful of touch. The condition of the house made hiding and evading capture one of the biggest struggles.

Masks and protective gear was necessary! The dogs ranged from 10 lbs to almost 30 lbs. All were matted to a deplorable degree, with urine, feces, massive fleas & debris embedded.

Two Heart volunteers spent the rest of the day and into the night comfort grooming the dogs. The dogs stayed kenneled until their turn. Early evening a strange sound came from one of the kennels who was still awating grooming. She gave birth to a pup! She was immediatley moved to a comfortable place to finish whelping, and back to the job at hand, but now watching her situation as well. At the end of the night, she had 2 puppies, another female was discovered to be heavily pregnant, and one dog was left ungroomed due to being unmanageable. Everyone was set up in xpens to decompress.

NEW YEARS DAY
Awake to find one of the newborn pups pushed away from mom, cool & weak. Warmed her up and once she was active, tube fed her. She had her first poop protruding and could not finish eliminating. It was slowly eased out with success, however at the exact time it exited her body, her tongue fell out and her body went limp. She had seemed to have died at that moment. Life recovery measures were taken and within several minutes light squeaks were heard. Stayed with it and she ended up making a full recovery. She is not nursing on mom, so at this time she continues to be tube fed and mom takes care of the rest.

Four Heart volunteers tackled the big job of transporting all but the one dog to get bathed. The water ran red from the dead fleas. Got them settle back in.

FRIDAY
Contacted Alicia from Critters & Such Pet Care to see if she could groom & bath the last dog under sedation. The clinic was closed, but she said she had time if Decorah Vet could do the sedation. Within a few hours, this boy was all cleaned up and vaccinated. Alicia was so kind to donate her grooming, and Decorah Vet was awesome making time to do the sedation and providing the space for the grooming & bath. Like all the others, he came out looking like a totally different dog!

FRIDAY NIGHT INTO SATURDAY MORNING
The other pregnant dog had her first pup right before midnight. She has been extremely anxious this whole time and whelping was no exception. Upon arrival, was was panicking, howling, grabbing her pup and seemingly trying to hide it. Obviously due to her prior living conditions, she was fearful for her baby. Once she settle down, she fell asleep. The next pup would not arrive until more than 4 hours later! Then #3 and #4 each an hour apart. 4 pups total.

Later that day it was noticed that one pups umbilical area was spotting blood and appeared to be chewed off unusually low. By evening, this pup had been rejected by the mom and had grown cold. Immediately worked to warm the pup up, gave subq fluids and rubbing to get him lively. He did warm up, but his breathing got weaker and weaker. His umbilical area was inverting and appeared to be a hole. Apparently the mom’s anxious behavior during whelping had resulted in a dire injury that resulted in either sepsis or blood loss. This pup could sadly not be saved! His name was Chaos and he’s an angel baby now.

We have been in contact with other rescues for assistance with the dogs we have, the one that needs trapped, and an individual who will take the geese. All of this is still in the works. We will provide updates on both litters and all of the dogs as soon as time allows.

So friends…if you made it this far, I salute you…What a story and what a tragedy that anything like this should happen. I am sure you already realize this, but this was a mental health issue. Sadly, the dogs suffered right along with the owner.

I told you that I help when I can. I was able to contact some family friends and they are scheduled to take the geese.

My other way of helping is to spread the news and let people know. These dogs are all going to need to be spayed and neutered, along with shots. All of the puppies are going to need puppy appointments with shots. They are going to need dog food and special milk for the bottle-fed puppy. This is going to be a huge expense for our small rescue.

If you are interested in donating, you can go to their website HERE. There is a donation button that will take you to Paypal. If that isn’t your thing, you can send a check to this address:

Heart Animal Rescue
PO Box 322
Decorah, IA 52101

Feel free to put in the notes, “Jo sent me” when sending donations.

If you are interested in what happens to the dogs and puppies, you can follow HEARTS’ Facebook page, HERE. If you are interested in adopting one of the dogs after it is vetted and ready, I would encourage you to fill out an adoption application HERE on the website. You can find that in the “Adopt” section. Any applications will be pre-approved as they come in.

WOW…I knew about this a couple of days ago. I racked my brain on how I could help. That’s when I thought of the blog. You guys have been a great support to HEART. Seeing the pictures and reading the story all over again, punches me in the gut just as hard as it did the first time. I think we can all agree, more needs to be done for mental health. This should never happen.