Hospice Dogs
Hospice Dogs
– Our hospice dogs are dogs with life-limiting medical conditions or dogs nearing their end of life.
– These special dogs often require extensive medical care and lots of patience and understanding.
– We are able to take on these very medically expensive dogs because of our generous donors who help us give them the care they deserve.
– Our hospice dogs are placed in permanent foster homes where they can live out their lives with lots of love.
– As much as we wish we could have more time with all of our hospice dogs, part of the humanity of this program is knowing when we can’t outweigh the bad days with the good days and allow our dogs to have a peaceful and dignified goodbye.
Our Hospice Dogs
Basha originally came into the other shelter as an owner surrender, left to be euthanized. She was used for breeding her entire life before being dumped at the shelter when she no longer could produce any puppies. During her life she lived alone, locked in a room, with no social interaction from humans or other dogs (except when she had puppies).
Sadly, after taking in Basha and giving her a medical workup we found that she was suffering from multiple ailments. She went into a home immediately and became a permanent hospice foster.
When Basha came to Angel’s Retreat, she was terrified and had no “social skills”. She would stay in a corner and grunt or growl, and didn’t come near any people. After several weeks of showing her love and giving her time, she ventured out to let us be near her and even pet her.
Basha started to find her confidence and liked to talk and let us know her opinions on life. She even learned how to do stairs and started to explore a little bit in the few short weeks she was with us.
She loved to be outside and had picked a favorite tree to nap under daily. She learned how to love the humans in her life, and would rest her head in the lap of anybody nearby, letting us know she was grateful to be where she was.
Sadly, in November 2024, we had to say goodbye to Basha. As much as we wish we could have had more time with her, part of the humanity of this program is knowing when we can’t outweigh the bad days with the good days and allow our dogs to have a peaceful and dignified goodbye.
We know her life was not the life she deserved up until this point, but we did everything in our power to ensure she would get the happy, peaceful, and loving ending that all dogs deserve.
We are devastated by the loss of this sweet girl, but so incredibly grateful she was able to get the ending that she did. We wish her many happy days over the rainbow bridge running free and taking long naps in the sun like she loved to do during her time with us.
Despite where she came from, Bella is truly the most gentle and loving dog you could ever imagine. It is miraculous how a dog that endured abuse beyond many people’s comprehension could be so forgiving and learn to love and trust humans again. She is something truly special.
When Bella arrived at our rescue she was extremely weak, especially in her hips (very typical for mill mamas) and had little muscle mass in her legs; due to being confined to a small area her entire life. She only left that area on the day they took her from her mother and for the second time the day we rescued her.
She quickly stole the heart of one of our volunteers, and went into a loving and wonderful foster home with them. Her foster family started the process of giving her a happy life, but just a week after she went into foster, Bella started limping and not bearing weight on her back leg.
The vets confirmed our fears, that Bella tore her CCL. Meaning without healing and the formation of scar tissue, or surgery, the bones in her knee will be rubbing against one another causing inflammation and pain for sweet Bella.
This is a very common occurrence for a dog who was never allowed to exercise and had poor nutrition and no vet care their entire life. Given Bella’s size, being a GSMD, she needs to be able to use all 4 of her legs. Bella has been through a life of nothing but physical and emotional pain, and we just want to prevent her from having anything but comfort and love for the rest of her life. We owe that to her, and are committed to doing whatever it takes to make that happen.
We are working closely with our amazing veterinary team to determine if she is a candidate for surgery, a custom brace, physical therapy, or medical management. Given her age and poor health condition (due to a life full of abuse and neglect) we are weighing all options carefully. We are committed to giving Bella the happy ending that she so rightly deserves.
Bianca is a 5 year old “Aussie doodle” who came to us from a commercial breeding facility in Lancaster county. Bianca was given up for not having profitable or viable litters anymore. Upon picking Bianca up for the first time we could feel something wrong just by having our hand on her chest, and our vet confirmed this was the worst heart murmur she had ever heard (grade 6/6). Our vet team recommended a follow up with a cardiologist as soon as possible.
We were able to get her a cardiology appointment this week and they confirmed she was born with a congenital heart defect, severe pulmonic stenosis.
Due to irresponsible breeding practices in puppy mills Bianca was born with a narrowing of her abnormal pulmonic valve in her heart. This makes it extremely difficult for blood to leave the right side of the heart and causes increased pressure in the heart leading to her secondary issues of ventricular hypertrophy, tricuspid regurgitation, and atrial enlargement. This all puts her at an extremely high risk of right-sided heart failure. Her heart has to work very hard just to keep her alive, and therefore any added stress on her heart can be a very dangerous situation for her. There are medications that can help alleviate some of the symptoms and prevent heart failure, but there is sadly nothing we can do to correct this issue.
Bianca needs to be kept very calm and most importantly feel comfortable in her new environment. Our primary focus is helping her decompress from the horrors of the puppy mill she just came from so she is not feeling so scared and thus putting extra stress on her heart. Luckily, she is staying in a wonderful foster home along with her hospice buddy Billy. She is enjoying all the love and comfort she deserves for whatever time she has with us.
Sadly, it has been determined that Billy is part of our hospice program as he has severe cardiac problems which will lead to his eventual passing. Billy will be on medication for the remainder of his life. He will also receive diagnostic testing to monitor his heart.
Billy has no idea of his health and is loving life in his foster home alongside his hospice buddy Bianca. We plan to keep him happy and healthy as long as possible!