Volunteering at FBM in Spain (Part 1)
I arrived at the Fundacion Benjamin Mehnert (FBM) shelter located near Dos Hermanas in Spain on 10/22/15. In less than 24 hours of my arrival, I was introduced to the galgo that you see below. He was abandoned on the roadside in extremely poor condition. His weight was only 14 kg (30.8 lbs). He was unable to stand on his own and had many open, deep wounds including a degloved right elbow. The staff gave him the name Kenzo.
On Saturday, 10/24, Kenzo was located in the hospital area at FBM. He had been given a bath in addition to getting each of his wounds cleaned and treated. I helped him in any way that I could and at one point, I gave him some food which he was more than happy to eat.
A very special moment occured when he gave me his paw after he had eaten the food from my hand.
The lady that discovered Kenzo on the roadside stopped by on Monday, 10/26 to see how he was doing. She was pleasantly surprised with his improvement.
After several days of marked improvement and daily bandage changes on the right elbow and both hip areas, it was decided to bring Kenzo into surgery on Thursday, 10/29. Nuria, one of the amazing vets at FBM, sutured up the two deep open wounds on either hip, in addition to an area on the left front leg and an area on the left rear leg. There wasn't enough skin to completely suture up the right elbow; however, it looked so much better than before. His weight (right before surgery) was up to 39 lbs!
He did incredibly well on daily basis after his surgery. He left his sutures alone (no e-collar) and was extremely patient with the daily bandage changes on his right elbow along with the daily cleaning of any remaining open wounds.
I learned so much from the incredibly resilient and strong galgo. I left to head back to the US on Tuesday, 11/3. He continued to gain weight (was at 42 lbs when I left), loved running around with the rest of the hospital crew, and went for several walks with me around the hospital. He has been reserved with a rescue group in Italy and will be headed to his forever home on 11/27/15.
