They say you can’t keep a good dog down, and a local canine named Rumble, shot last weekend while defending his home from intruders, is proving them right.
The four-year-old American Staffordshire terrier is recovering at a veterinarian a week after he was found at home, bleeding from a severe beating and a gunshot wound to the chest.
Rumble was initially rushed to the local vet, but his injuries required that he be moved to a specialist surgical facility where he required more than three hours of surgery.
Michael King of the Canada West Veterinary Specialists performed the operation.
“When he came in, he had obviously lost a lot of blood,” said King.
“The bullet caused a huge fragmentation of the humerus bone … so we had to remove some of the bullet fragments as well as stabilize the fracture.”
“Actually, it was quite lucky” King added.
“If the bullet hadn’t hit the bone, it would have gone right through the chest, and that would probably have been fatal.”
Lucky or not, the bone was too badly shattered to be simply set.
“Rather than trying to put all the little pieces back together again … we ended up inserting a large metal plate to stabilize the bone and line up the joints.”
Some fragments of bullet and bone will remain in Rumble’s shoulder for the rest of his life.
There is a chance that he will suffer some permanent nerve damage, but King noted that the dog is already responding to pressure on the foot, which bodes well for the recovery process.
The vet’s office said that Rumble should be home by Tuesday, but will require several months of recovery and extensive physiotherapy.
Local news from metronews.ca/vancouver
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