BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. — A dog with gruesome injuries is recovering in Southwest Florida. Love is Fur Ever Dog Rescue saved the dog from a shelter in Miami-Dade County, and said based on his injuries, it's possible he was a bait dog.
Ronix was rescued on May 18th.
"It was deceiving. He had all these bandages all over him, and we were expecting a collar wound, or something that was like a choker. But we started realizing how gingerly he walked. And he's so sore," Dr Thomas Jackson of Advanced Veterinary said. "Everything on his neck and down to his arms, and going back over his shoulders, is torn up. He's got about a couple hundred bites. The skin is ripped away from the muscle and tissue."
Dr. Jackson said Ronix has a hole in his neck about eight inches wide.
"The whole section is all dead tissue, which means {Dr. Jackson} can literally stick his whole hand into those sections," Victoria Frazier, the Founder of Love is Fur Ever Dog Rescue, said.
"He was supposed to be eaten. He was either fought, or chewed up by another big dog or by some predator," Dr. Jackson said.
"And it wasn't just one time. It's been multiple times with all of these old scars," Frazier said.
That's why Frazier said it's possible Ronix was a bait dog.
"With bait dogs, they start in the front, and they work their way back. The way that he has the wounds on his head, all the way to his back end, it's a good possibility. And then with all the puncture wounds on his back end, likely,” she said.
Ronix spent more than 48 hours hooked up to a wound vacuum with iodine.
"That'll suction all the bad cells away constantly," Dr. Jackson said. "Then we get to do skin flaps and get creative on how we're going to make him presentable."
Though they never expected Ronix's case to be this bad, they're ready to bring him back to health.
"We're pulling the trigger, and we're ready to go with him. We're honored and excited to recover him and pursue his care until he's ready for his forever home. But it's gonna be a little while," Dr. Jackson said.
Ronix's rescuers expect it will take $20,000 to get Ronix recovered.
If you'd like to donate or volunteer with the rescue, click here.
