On May 17th 2017 Jules had been found by 2 of our volunteers, walking over the "Queen Juliana Bridge" in Curacao. He had been totally underweight and had scabies all over his body. There wasn’t a single spot on his body that had not been infected.
The first step had been the check up at the vet. Jules had been underweight of course, and his blood test results were not very positive. On top of that he appeared to have a dislocated hip, probably caused by an old traffic accident. Obviously he had never been treated for this, and had been walking around with a lot of pain for years. According to the Vet he should be approximately 9 years old. Jules' teeth were damaged and some of them even were gone, probably caused by chewing on a chain or eating little stones.
We had left the vet that day with a bunch of medicines, and that was the beginning of a long recovery.
I still remember the smell in our car…it was caused by his scabies and was really horrible. Poor Jules was so afraid of what was coming next.
When we got home, Jules met our other dog "Wolf". Though they accepted each other, they would never be friends. It was obviously Jules had lost his trust in humans and pets. We couldn't blame him for that.
Those first days at home showed no improvement what so ever in regards to Jules’ condition. The thought crossed our minds that Jules would not make it, since he was in a really bad shape.
However out of the blue a miracle occurred and Jules started to eat..and eat.. and eat.
Yet unfortunately Jules didn't put on weight in the next week and his blood was far from OK. Nevertheless, he needed the surgery to fix his hip.
It took a couple of weeks for Jules' blood to stabilize, in order for him to be able to get anesthesia for his surgery.
Sadly, the hip trauma was so severe that 3 vets couldn't manage to put his hip back into place.
So with even more medicine we left the vet again. Jules needed to become strong enough for a surgery.
The days that followed afterwards showed improvement and Jules was doing great under the circumstances. He started to put on more weight and developed more fur day by day.
So little by little his condition got better, which meant that he was finally allowed to have the surgery.
The operation was tough but Jules did a great job.
The whole intention of the surgery, was to free Jules of the terrible pain he had been suffering for years. Yet the recovery and physiotherapy eventually cost him a lot of pain. I had to cool his wound 3 times a day, move his hip and leg so that the muscles around the hip would get strong again. Jules hated physiotherapy, but I found a way for us both to make it fun and easier. We swam every day and I saw Jules' paw getting muscular each day.
He developed his social skills more and more. In the beginning he obviously had an issue against men, but now he let them pet him as well. And I can tell he loves the attention. He is also friendlier when he meets other dogs now, primarily because he feels good and isn't in pain anymore.
Jules has turned into a lovely, beautiful dog. And if you gain his trust he will be the most loyal and dedicated dog for the rest of his life.
We found a new home for Jules where he can live a happy for the rest of his life
Watch the video here
