When Vincent was first presented to us, he didn’t have a name and he was a very sad sight. He had been running stray in the mountains for an undetermined length of time. He was extremely emaciated, or underweight, and had frost bite injuries to both of his ear flaps, the tip of his tail, and to his scrotum. A complete laboratory work up showed internally he was in remarkable shape for as bad as he looked on the outside. His heartworm test was negative, and his new adopted owner wanted to try and help him as best she could. Vincent was fed a hearty calorically dense meal for dinner, and surgery was scheduled for the next day. The poor fellow had to be neutered first and then have the dead tissue of his scrotum removed. Both of his ear flaps had to be amputated, and he lost the tip of his tail. Being the tough boy that he was, he did well with the surgery and went home the following day on a special diet designed to put weight on debilitated animals.
We saw him back 10 days later for suture removal and vaccinations. He had put on quite a bit of weight in that short time, and his wounds had healed nicely. He had a name at that time as well, Vincent, actually Vincent Vango (sic)
Two weeks later, he was up to normal body condition, and has been a beloved pet to his new owner. We still see Vincent for routine procedures 3 years later, and he has been a remarkably healthy dog despite his terrible experience lost in the mountains.
