Our First Night With Delilah

Our first night with Delilah was really heart breaking. Cathy from Bff4Pets Rescue brought her and all the supplies we could ever need over around 6:00pm on Wednesday April 24th. She was bloated and panting due to the pain. She either wouldn't or couldn't walk on her own, so we had to carry her anywhere we wanted her to go. You could clearly see her spine and her hip bones even though she had a bloated round belly. The bloating was from the worms. She had received her deworming medication already and Cathy shared with us that she had passed a large quantity of worms earlier that day. 

We set up a pen for her in our dining room and placed her inside of it. She just lay there. She did not wag her tail. She did not whine or bark. She did not care about our other two dogs roaming about. She reacted to nothing. 

Although we placed a dog bed and blankets in her pen she did not lay on her bed. We had to physically pick her up and place her on the bed in order for her to understand its purpose and that it was meant for her. She clearly had never had a bed before. 

Laying on the cold hard tile with her broken hip.

In her bed after we picked her up and layed her there. 

This is also a good picture of how bloated she was.

She was barely strong enough to drink some water and even then she wouldn't stand up to drink. We placed the bowl of water beside her and she drank from her laying position.

At around 11:00pm we carried Delilah outside for one last attempt to allow her to go to the bathroom. Finally she was able to go. It was a worm infested disaster. It sounded and smelled just as bad as it looked. She must have been in so much pain and discomfort. We felt terrible for her. When she was finished we carried her back inside and lay her down on her bed. We set an alarm for 3:00am to take her out again and went to sleep. 

When the alarm sounded at 3:00am I got up and walked out to Delilah. I flipped on the light and approached her pen speaking in a sweet voice and saying something like "Hi there pretty girl. I've come to take you outside one more time. You are such a sweet girl. Don't worry I'm going to take care of you." To my surprise for the first time since she had been dropped off at 6:00pm, she wagged her tail. This was the first major breakthrough and it had only taken 9 hours.