This comes from our friends at Trio Animal Foundation in Chicago:

ALMOST TOO UNBELIEVABLE FOR WORDS… NO DOG SHOULD EVER HAVE TO LIVE LIKE THIS.

Friday evening, TAF received a call from an open access shelter about a matted male dog that needed emergency medical care.

Since our vet was going to be closing soon and the dog was on the south side of Chicago (1 hour away with traffic), the shelter manager actually got into her car and drove the dog to the north side of Chicago where we met her on the side of the road. If it hadn’t been for Diane, everything would have played out much differently for this abused dog that we have named Buddy.

There are no words that could possibly express the neglect and abuse that Buddy has gone through.

Buddy’s thickly matted fur formed a cocoon-like structure around his torso and legs. The fur was wrapped so tightly that it prevented air circulation to his skin, which in turn prevented his damaged, irritated skin from sloughing off. As a result, Buddy has very thin, paper-like skin. A gruesome side effect of this happened while he was being shaved down; parts of Buddy’s skin started to tear away from his muscle like it was tissue paper. This tearing happened on the upper inside of his front legs. This is quite possibly one of the worst case scenarios for a dog covered in extreme filth because besides the pain, the risk of infection is raised exponentially.

When we started Buddy’s shave down he was awake. Once his medical team started to work on Buddy’s sensitive areas, he was sedated to help decrease his stress, allow for more aggressive medical procedures and to get a better look at his rotten teeth.

Needless to say, this is one of the most neglectful abuse cases that we have ever worked on. I think that it is fair to say that Buddy has suffered for more months that we could possibly comprehend or wish to understand.

Keeping quality of life in mind, TAF is going to do everything in our power to give Buddy every chance possible to make a full recovery and find a forever home. Right now he is hospitalized on IV pain medication, IV antibiotics and IV fluids. The good news is that he has an appetite and is able to eat food on his own. Buddy is also in the cage right next to Hannah… at least he has a friend that knows what he has been through.  (For Hannah’s story, click here.)

Please keep Buddy in your thoughts and prayers during these critical days. It may be the first time that anybody has watched over him his entire life.

If you would like to help sponsor Buddy’s medical care, please consider making a donation atwww.trioanimalfoundation.org. You can earmark your donation “Buddy.” If you are making a donation via a smartphone and are not given the opportunity to earmark your donation, please forward your receipt confirmation to sue@trioanimalfoundation.org.

*There is a video of Buddy when he first came to the vet at this link: https://www.facebook.com/TrioAnimalFoundation/videos. It was taken when we met Buddy out of his crate for the first time.