Our Story
K9Kindness Rescue is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to the rescue and adoption of all breeds of dogs. We firmly believe in giving every dog a chance to find a loving forever home. We have recently taken on Riley, and are helping him fight for his life!
Riley is a sweet, loving Labrador Retriever puppy who will turn 7 months old on January 24th. On Monday, January 16th, his owner, a nurse, gave him a DHPP vaccination. Riley either was already ill or became ill shortly after this. His owner thought that he had chewed up something and that it would pass through his system, but Riley got worse and worse until last Friday, January 20th, Riley was too sick to eat, get up or even lift his head. His owner decided to euthanize him.
A volunteer for K9 Kindness works in the same office as Riley’s previous owner and when she heard that this woman planned to euthanize her puppy, our volunteer, offered to use her own finances to save the pup, if the owner would turn ownership over to her, which she did. The pup was taken to our veterinary clinic, Animal Family Veterinary Care Center in Davenport, IA and put under the care of Dr. Meredith Grady. Our volunteer, meanwhile, contacted us and asked if we would take Riley into rescue, but she was still offering to cover as much of his veterinary expenses as she could. We said yes.
Dr. Meredith did x-rays, blood work, and other diagnostics to find out what was making Riley so terribly ill. It appeared that there might be a perforation or problem with the intestines, but upon opening Riley up in surgery, there appeared to be nothing there except that his intestines looked purple instead of the nice pink color they should have been. He was placed on IV fluids and medications to help with infection, the cause of which was unknown. Two parvovirus tests came back negative.
Friday night, Riley was moved to the Animal Emergency Center of the Quad Cities for after hours and weekend care. Dr. Angie Penrod believed that Riley has parvo. He was put in quarantine and treated as such. He had bloody diarrhea, vomiting and was depressed and lethargic.
Riley’s bill at Animal Family was right at $1000 for Friday. The bill for Animal Emergency will be between $1500 to $2000. Both our volunteer and I have used our CareCredit to pay for this so far. Animal Emergency must be paid in full before Riley can be released.
This afternoon, one of the vet techs and I were able to get Riley on his feet (but not without him crying in pain). We tried to get him to go outside to potty, but did not get him that far. But still this was a positive step that he could do this much. He whined and let out a cry when I left him with his toy.
Monday, Riley will go back to Animal Family to continue to be monitored until he is healthy enough to go to a foster home for aftercare. More expense will be incurred, so any donations that we receive will go towards paying this bill.
Riley should make a full recovery, even though we are not sure what has caused his illness. His parvovirus tests (he has had more since Friday) still come back negative. But he is beginning to show signs of improvement!
