18/06/2025
❤️🩹 AJ…
We want to thank everybody who supported AJ over the last few weeks.
Your support has allowed AJ to leave this world peacefully.
We want to tell you more about his complex rehabilitation journey.
Whilst in the community, we dewormed a litter of puppies. A local family told us that there was another dog - but he has always been very sick.
As soon as we laid eyes on AJ, we knew he needed testing straight away.
We were concerned about Distemper because of the excessive eye/nasal discharge.
He was cleared of Distemper and diagnosed with Canine Corona Virus. He improved, but the respiratory systems were ongoing.
The family could not cope with the daily support - extra care and extra meals - AJ needed to continue to get stronger.
We would clean AJ’s eyes several times per day because the discharge was never ending.
We expected to see AJ making improvements at that stage, but there wasn’t.
There were moments we saw him thrive the best he could.
But, we still believed his quality of life wasn’t enough.
He moved into our senior enclosure and that’s when we saw deterioration.
AJ’s gums started to bleed and we knew we needed to get those teeth removed but he was just too weak.
He continued to deteriorate.
He lost weight in hospital, although the respiratory systems improved with antibiotic’s.
The vet team didn’t have the answers they needed to put him on the path of recovery…
Yesterday AJ went down for exploratory surgery.
It didn’t go ahead as we had planned as even on their strongest painkillers - AJ was still struggling.
His jaw needed to be examined and it couldn’t open wide enough to even fit the tube inside.
His latest X-rays showed that he no longer had any bone at the roof of his mouth and his teeth were just sitting in his gums without any support.
This would have been because of a severe infection or cancer. Incredibly painful for him.
There was nothing more we could do.
AJ went to sleep peacefully whilst under anesthesia.
We knew it must have been something aggressive that was hindering AJ, but we always believe there will be options.
We will never forget that you raised AJ’s money in one day. 🥺
