Six-year-old Pekingese Maggie arrived at Lort Smith in seriously bad shape.

She was so lethargic and dehydrated; she could barely lift her head. Dr Jonathan Crawford gave her pain relief and examined her. He quickly realised she had a life-threatening uterus infection known as pyometra.

This infection is one of the most common reproductive emergencies seen in our veterinary emergency rooms. It typically affects older, undesexed female dogs and sadly, due to the condition of her tired body, we suspect that Maggie’s uterus had been overused.

Unable to commit to Maggie’s uncertain future, her owner surrendered this sweet girl into our care. Dr Jonathan performed the surgery to remove her infected uterus and ovaries the very next morning.

Her surgery went well but given how sick she was, Maggie developed hyperthermia and a slower heart rate, which needed to be closely watched by the in our intensive care unit. Our dedicated nurse team syringe fed Maggie to keep her strength up and knew Maggie was pain-free when she would wag her tail in appreciation. But she still couldn’t eat on her own.

Determined to do what was best for Maggie, the team enlisted one of Lort Smith’s most experienced foster carers, and staff member of 13 years, Jacqui.

With a whopping 338 fosters under her belt, Jacqui’s experience with feeding at-risk companion animals made her the perfect choice.

“Maggie would sleep for 23 hours a day when she first came home with me,” Jacqui said. “But that one hour of the day, she’d come out of her shell … She wanted nothing more than to be cuddled and cradled like a baby.

“Maggie is one of the sweetest, most quirky dogs I’ve ever met.”

Within days, Maggie was happily eating on her own, and by day seven, Maggie was out and about on adventures to the park and beach with her foster family!

But during one of their many cuddles, Jacqui noticed an unusual skin tag above Maggie’s eye and a lump on her rump. She brought Maggie back into the hospital to have it checked out.

Now that Maggie’s immediate issues with her pyometra were resolved, Dr Jonathan was able to have a more thorough look at Maggie’s overall health. While under anaesthetic for her lump check and skin tag removal, he gave her an oral review and realised she had a tooth that needed to be removed. She also needed her ears cleaned.

“Luckily we were able to do it all in one go,” Dr Jonathan said. “This is often the case with dogs with a history like Maggie, they have a range of issues that haven’t been treated.”

Luckily Maggie’s lumps were nothing to worry about and she was very quickly adopted by a lovely family living on the Mornington Peninsula. This beautiful girl will now get to spend her days feeling the fresh air in her fur and the saltwater on her paws. And her bright future is all thanks to the incredible support of our donors and bequestors.

We would never have been able to dedicate as much time, care and resources to her recovery if it wasn’t for you.

Donate today, and help more animals like Maggie get their second chance at a happy life.