Sampson

Sampson was welcomed to BAGS Dec 7th, 2015 after he was rescued from a kill shelter in Ohio. This sweet boy was found as a stray and dropped off at the shelter in bad shape. The dog warden was required to hold him for 3 days, but was planning to euthanize him as soon has his hold was lifted due to being blind and in poor health. BAGS pleaded with the shelter to allow us to take him to our vet to see if there was anything that can be done for him before a decision was made. Reluctantly the warden after researching our group and learning that we specialize in these types of conditions, asked that we be onsite when the shelter opened and he would release him to us.

Sampson’s condition was shocking. He was obviously blind and carefully walked along the walls smelling his way with each step. He had to 2 large erupted abscesses, one on his neck and the other on his side, both severely infected and oozing blood. You could tell by looking at his ribs that he had been hungry and lacked nutrition. When he was lifted into the vehicle for his freedom ride he yelped in pain. Little did we know that was just the beginning….

….Within, the first 2 days of arriving at BAGS Sampson started to cry in pain and was urinating blood. He had to undergo emergency surgery to have more than 50 bladder stones removed. The vets couldn’t believe he was even moving let alone wagging his tail. The surgery was stressful and difficult for Sampson. Some of the stones had perforated his bladder and our vets worked diligently to repair the tears. His open sores, bad teeth and right eye which showed advanced signs of glaucoma would need to be cared for in a later surgery.

Update 2/28/2016

It has now been a couple months since Sampson’s arrival. He is now fully vetted and is on the mend. He has overcome some incredible challenges and has proved that with love, great vet care and some yummy food you can turn even those most dire situation around. His days are now filled with joy and hope. He enjoys hanging with his other hound dog friends at BAGS and is sure to be one of the first in line for feeding time. One of Sampson’s favorite activities is refereeing the other dogs play session barking to cheer the on. Now that his abscesses have healed and he has had a few months of good food he is the fluffy and soft. He loves to shower his mommy with kisses as if to say, thank you for believing in me. At 13 yrs old, we are hoping for many more years of loving this sweet boy!