Sponsor Rouane

17th Oct 23

This little girl was brought to our attention in early August. She had been spotted straying, over the course of a week, but was way too scared to allow herself to be caught. Thankfully, she had picked the right house and farmland to hang around and thanks to the family, who left food out  & a shed door open, she was trapped in one of their outbuildings until we arrived.

A scared, totally emaciated, young little Saluki girl. Nothing unusual there but this girl had much bigger issues that we had no idea about at the time. It became clear that the blood we could see was not from a cut but she was bleeding spontaneously, which can be a sign of something sinister going on (poison being one).

Rouane was bought to our vets at A Country Practice Vet Clinic where she started treatment immediately. The vet made another diagnosis on top of the existing ones. Rouane couldn’t eat normally. All her food was gathering at the top of her oesophagus and was being regurgitated.

Had her food pipe, stomach, intestines been damaged by poison or was this something else ?

To get answers and to rule out problems, Rouane was referred to UCD for tests. After a week Rouanes many tests and Xrays were inconclusive. What we did learn was that none of her organs or oesophagus were damaged and they were functioning.

She still couldn’t feed normally from a bowl nor could she eat normal food. Everything was being liquidised. Rouane came back to our sanctuary and she was more emaciated than before due to her only being able to eat and keep down gastro wet food, when fed from a height. The problem was that it was not going to put weight on her.

And so began our special feeding routine for Rouane, liquidised feeding 3/4 times a day from a height. Some days were better than others but we kept going and kept hoping that it may improve. And through all of this Rouane remained the sweetest, kindest little girl. Rouanes food was costing $100 euro a week and we knew this was never going to be sustainable should we find her a forever home. As a rescue we were struggling to finance it but we had made our promise to Rouane and we weren’t ready to give up on her.

She remained skeletal and there were days she seemed so weak but she was a fighter too. If we tried to change her food, she regurgitated.

So our struggle continued. Fast forward to last week and with all our hard work and commitment and slowly trying different methods we chanced changing Rouanes way of feeding her. We had been slowly lowering the height of her food bowl. We had started off on a high table until last week we chanced a regular raised feeding bowl. We also chanced changing her food to Naturo pouches and adding a handful of very small nuts!! And it has been a SUCCESS!!

To say we are over the moon would be an understatement. Not only are we seeing the weight come on it means that Rouane is now on a “normal diet” that most homes could susstain which, in turn, makes her “very homable”  And that’s the final goal …a forever home 

Rouane herself is in fantastic form. She is flying around our fields, has started taking trips into our local town and is just the happiest, most loving little girl.

It is likely that Rouane will always have her condition. Megaesopagus, but it is now very easy to manage and Rouane is fed every day just the same as our other dogs (from a raised bowl and slightly diluted naturo food). Life is now looking so bright for this brave little girl and she is going from strength to strength.

If you would like to sponsor Rouane on the rest of her journey with us, any donation of Naturo pouches would be so gratefully received. THey are available in Supervalus and many other supermarkets/pet shops.

Donations of Naturo can be left at our shops:-

Briarhill Tuesday to Saturday 1-4pm

Athenry Thursday to Saturday 11-4pm

Ballinasloe Monday to Saturday 10 – 4 pm

Our sanctuary in Heathlawn, 7 days a week