Sunday, March 12, 2017

CPAS: "A Broken Jaw Isn't Extremely Painful." Please Help BJ

BJ
Update:  BJ is free and with a foster now. Turns out he might be Catahoula - he is a beauty.  He is headed to a veterinarian tomorrow.  Nice job by all volunteers and rescue involved and thanks to CPAS for working with them.

 Added: This post has been slightly modified from its original version to reflect the fact that there are indeed some compassionate workers at CPAS and that BJ was given pain meds for his jaw. It is to their credit that CPAS put BJ in a kennel by himself for observation. But, is that enough?

This is BJ.  You see the pollen tassels on his cage?  He's outside in this cold, in a concrete slab kennel, with a broken jaw at Caddo Parish Animal Services.

BJ is of unknown age and breed because he was brought in as a stray. CPAS doesn't bother with those details in stray/hold.

BJ came into CPAS probably Friday March 10, and was put into the stray/hold kennels with several other dogs. To their credit, the workers at the shelter noticed something was wrong with BJ so they took him outside and put him in medical hold.

Carrie Zamora spotted BJ in the outside hold area and noticed he had not eaten and had thrown up bile in his kennel. Unable to chew his food, he swallowed it whole and then threw it up. She alerted a vet tech and as it is obvious that the dog has a broken jaw, (you can see his tooth is askew in the photo), Carrie asked that he be given soft food. Susan Votaw, also with POLA, tried to feed BJ some soft food from her hand, but he simply couldn't do it.

Carrie offered him some peanut butter from her finger but he could barely take that.

Carrie asked for a veterinarian evaluation and she and her team were told that BJ does indeed have a fractured jaw but that it probably isn't extremely painful.  BJ didn't appear to be in any pain when the vet looked at him but he was given an injection Friday for pain just in case. It's unknown if he got another shot.

But let that sink in for a minute.

It probably isn't extremely painful.  A broken jaw.  Which leads to starvation.

Let's recap: Caddo Parish Animal Services brought in a stray dog several days ago. The dog has an obvious facial indication that he has a broken jaw. They did not do a medical evaluation on him on intake, but instead put him in a kennel with other dogs. Eventually someone noticed something amiss and moved him outside where he threw up bile after trying to eat hard, dry food. This drew the attention of rescue workers who asked for an evaluation and were told that a fractured jaw isn't all that painful. They did concede to giving him soft food, which he still can't eat.

That's where we are right now with BJ.

BJ is a sweetheart of a dog: he is probably a lab/hound mix and he wants to please. Look at Susan's video of him: you can see he is wagging his tail as he looks up at her. He wants to please her but he can't eat the food she is offering. Look at the expression in his eyes. Don't shy away from it - this is our reality at this shelter.

POLA Foundation is monitoring BJ and plans to go into the shelter today and feed him via syringe. There's no way of knowing when he ate last and how dehydrated he is because he hasn't had a thorough veterinary evaluation that would include an x-ray for the jaw.

Volunteers Deanna Robinson, Stacy McKeever, and Donna Gill along have been working with Carrie and Susan to help this dog, but he needs all our help now.

In a humane shelter, this dog would be on IV fluids if needed and under veterinary care rather than outside on a cold slab with nothing but a bowl of food he can't eat and water he can't drink.

But CPAS is not a humane shelter: remember, Caddo Commissioner Mike Middleton pointed out on multiple occasions that CPAS "is not a rescue." While CPAS has made token steps toward improvement, there is a very long way to go. There are some compassionate workers there, but in so many ways their hands are tied.

POLA needs donations to help this dog. He will be taken to their veterinarian tomorrow, Monday, for x-rays and probably surgery. Hopefully there is no infection yet, but there likely is. If you can make a donation to help BJ, go here and click on the DONATE button.  Put "BJ" on the notes line and you
Cody
will know that your money is going directly for his care.

How many other dogs like BJ are at CPAS?

There's at least one more.  This is Cody. He came into CPAS a couple of weeks ago and was pulled by Donna Gill who is fostering him in her home because he is severely emaciated and sick. CPAS put Cody into an outside kennel with a larger dog so obviously Cody has been having to compete for food for at least the past few weeks and has continually gotten weaker. He's now in a proper foster situation, but how many more are there?

When will this city get tired of this and demand change?

Addendum: Perhaps CPAS used good protocol by putting BJ in medical hold and erring on the side of caution before giving him an anesthetic to look at the jaw. Perhaps BJ is not in real pain and as I said, I'm told that he received an injection for pain. My main concern is that this animal is at the shelter over the weekend, unable to eat or drink, and could be dehydrated. My issue is that he needs funds and donations to be pulled by a rescue for medical attention. I am at least grateful that CPAS lets volunteers and rescues in who can identify and help with these problems.

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1 comment:

Unknown said...

And so the crap from this shelter continues on and on. Please people wake up and help these poor defenseless animals that don't have a voice except for us.

March 12, 2017 at 11:55 AM

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