Bait dog victim on the mend in SWFL (2024)

Something ugly is hidden in Abigail’s soulful eyes thatshe can’t share.

Outwardly the signs are there: Half her face and her right ear wereripped away.

The stench from infection and rotting tissue overwhelmed the senses when Dr. Thomas Jacksonunraveled the soiled gauze bandage on the pit bull mix, brought to his Estero veterinary practice last month. He estimates the dog’s age at 3.

“We didn’t know if she would live,” he said. “We thought her face was going to rot off. It was awful.”

She was likely abused as a bait dog in a malicious dog fighting ring, abandoned in Miami and left to die from her injuries.

Today Abigail islike a pup, playful and lavishing kisses on strangers. She was given her name by staff at Jackson’s practice, Pets First Wellness Center. Her affectionate disposition wasn’t snuffed out by human abusers.

Physically she is healing after an intensive skin graft surgery. She has a home, food and affection at Love is Fur Ever Rescue in Lehigh Acres.

Arthrex, the global medical device company headquartered in North Naples, donated its advanced wound dressing product, JumpStart, after learning of the dog’s injuries.

Released in 2015 to medical professionals, the product kills infections and accelerates wound healing in humans and canines.

“JumpStart is gorgeous,” Jackson told Vicki Bryant, an Arthrex orthobiologics product manager, at his practice last week.

“I think over 72 hours we got about five days of healing, which was really nice,” he said. “It was really cool.”

Abigail’s recovery is remarkable but will be long-term, said Victoria Frazier, who runs Love is Fur Ever rescue.

It’s too early to speculate about an adoptive home, said Frazier, whose voice cracks ever so slightlywhen she talks about Abigail.

Frazier doesn’t say it but her face says it all; this one may be hard to let go. The day of reckoning will come.

Her dog rescue colleague, Denise Kennedy, knows that all too well.

“Vickinever wants to give any of them up,” said Kennedy, executive director of the rescue. “She has 'foster failed' before.”

Abigail has a collection of colorful bonnets to protect the tender skin graft.Somehave a bow on the right side to provide aesthetic balance for the missing ear. Lately she sports a red manicure on her two front paws, courtesy of an overnighter with a veterinary technician. She's gainingFacebook followers at Bonnets for Abigail.

"She's got a story to tell," Kennedy, with the rescue group, said about the dog'sdark past.

"She is extremely loving," she said. "Really, her tail has not stopped wagging."

Saving a dog

Abigail’s rescue from peril was by happenstance.

Frazier spotted her photograph on a Facebook page, Urgent Dogs of Miami. It’s a site run by volunteers who try to save dogs brought to Miami-Dade Animal Services. Nobody had put a hold on her after more than 500 Facebook shares, Frazier said. She couldn’t resist.

“I have to go get her,” Frazier told herself. “A good Samaritan had brought her into Miami-Dade, but they didn’t take it further.”

She reached out to Jackson, the veterinarian and friend. He agreed.

Frazier’s husband, Brockton Frazier, was in Miami, so he picked up the dog Nov. 14 and brought her directly to the veterinarian in Estero. She had been cleaned up some and bandaged by Miami-Dade animal services but needed so much more care.

The injuries were overwhelming, Victoria Frazier said.

At first the veterinarian believed she was attacked by a wild animal. But old puncture wounds were all over her, as is typical on a bait dog victim. That’s unfathomable given her sweet nature.

“She just doesn’t have the fight in her,” Frazier said.

Abigail needed antibiotics and pain medication. Dead tissue was cut away, and the wound just kept getting deeper and deeper, Jackson said.

Over the first weekend, veterinary staff took turns coming in to check on her status.

“They really have gone above and beyond to give her the care she needed,” Kennedy said.

Arthrex stepped forward with JumpStart, the patented wound dressing, after a clinical specialist with the company saw a television news report about the dog being brought from Miami to Southwest Florida.

“We hear about a case and everyone drops what they are doing and rushes to get resources together,” said Bryant, the orthobiologics product manager.

The product was introduced in 2015 and is suited for canines and humans, she said.

The bandage fabric contains microcell batteries made of silver and zine that generate an electrical current when activated by fluid at the wound site. The dressingsupports the body’s natural healing process and has been shown to acceleratehealing, Byrant said. JumpStart also kills pathogens that cause infections at surgical sites.

“We have cases that show 45 percent faster healing,” she said.

Normally dressing changes are necessary two to three times a day, but with the Arthrex product, it’s once every 72 hours, Jackson said. He had never used the product before.

He was able to do Abigail’s skin graft, using the dog’s own skin from her neck, sooner than he had intended because her healing was faster thanexpected.

“We weren’t planning on grafting for another week or two,” Jackson said. “We grafted way earlier, a lot earlier.”

What’s unclear is if Abigail can hear out of what remains of her ear canal, about half of what’s normal. The veterinarian is hopeful.

“If not, she will adapt,” he said.

For more information or to make a donation, go to Love is Fur Ever Dog Rescue at http://www.lifedogrescue.org. Abigail has a gofundme account for donations athttps://www.gofundme.com/URGENTsupportNEEDED.