One of the things I love about shelter medicine is the ability of a shelter and its staff to take an animal that would easily be overlooked or considered for euthanasia and give them a chance to heal and get a second shot at life.

There are many animals that come into the shelter broken, malnourished or with various medical concerns that need to be addressed. Oftentimes we become so enveloped in caring for the animal that we forget to recognize how far the animal has come in its recovery. We often think back to the grainy image stored in our memory of the animal when it first arrived in our care but have no actual image to reflect back on to remind us and show others how much of a difference we made. That is why I am going to make a concerted effort to take photographs of animals early on in their treatment so that I can share with you the many success stories that we see in animal shelters.

To start off the Before & After series, it is only appropriate that I share the story of Vinnie.

Vinnie came in with another pup as part of the Humane Society of Silicon Valley’s “P.U.P.” program, which stands for Prevent Unwanted Pregnancies, a program that allows people in the public to bring in a litter of puppies or kittens along with the parent(s) to have them all spayed & neutered and after surgery HSSV would keep the litter and adopt them out.

When Vinnie arrived it was clear that he was not healthy. He had been diagnosed with Puppy Strangles, and had been receiving treatment for it. I elected to not neuter him that day because of his condition and because he was on a medication, prednisone, that would impair his ability to heal from the surgery. The shelter took him in, provided him with the necessary veterinary care and placed him in a loving foster home while he healed.

Now that he’s healed, he was placed up for adoption and found his forever home! While he will likely continue to have dark pigmented skin and may never grow hair in the areas that were most affected by his illness, he still has lots of love to give!

Copyright: Erlana Rutherford