Donations needed for Hector:

Hector came to us from the Morgantown, WV pound.  We responded to a plea from the shelter volunteer about a sweet, little, scruffy dog that the shelter was going to euthanize because there was a terrible smell coming from his mouth and they suspected he had advanced tooth decay, which is something the shelter could not treat.

Happy Whiskers agreed to take little Hector and, on January 18th, the shelter took him to their Vet for a quick evaluation to see what might be making his mouth so stinky.  The Vet quickly diagnosed that the source of the smell was from a fractured jaw that had not healed correctly, allowing it to become infected.  No x-rays were taken at that time and Hector was prescribed an antibiotic to take care of the infection.

Hector arrived on a transport from Morgantown on January 22nd and we took him straight to our Vet the following day for a more extensive evaluation and x-rays of his fractured jaw.  The shelter had said that Hector was picked up in a remote wooded area and that they suspected he was probably dumped there.  We assumed that maybe he was hit by a car and was fortunate enough to escape with only a fractured jaw.

Imagine our surprise when our Vet called Monday afternoon with the news that little Hector did not just have a fractured jaw, but he had been shot in the jaw causing the loss of a large portion of his jaw bone!  He reported that there were bone fragments and damaged teeth and that he had removed all that he could and cleaned up the infected area of Hector's jaw.  He also felt that the wound was approx. 3-4 weeks old. 

Poor little Hector!  He is the absolute sweetest dog ever and such a happy boy despite all he's been through.  Our Vet feels that Hector is just 1 year old because he still had some of his retained baby teeth which never fell out when his adult teeth came in.  This poor boy has been through so much in his short life!

We can only imagine that someone took Hector into the woods to dump him after he was shot or they shot him when they arrived and left him for dead.  Poor Hector! 

Our next step is a consultation with a surgical specialist to see if he feels that we need to try and repair Hector's jaw or just let it heal as it is.  Hector can chew and eat but has some difficulty.  When he licks his lips, his tongue sticks out of the right side of his mouth instead of the front which we feel makes him even cuter.  He's a little messy with water but he doesn't seem to mind at all.  We will post an update after our consultation today.  Once we get the green light from Hector's Vet, Hector will be available for adoption.  This is one special boy.  He's good with all other dogs, cats, kids, people, etc.  He's just a happy, friendly, tail-wagging, sweetheart of a dog!