Maggie August 2003-July 15, 2005

Maggie came into rescue May 29th , 2005. Rescue was told that Maggie had broken her leg and the owners, unable to fix it, had tried to let it heal on its own, but now her leg was swollen and painful. We hoped to find out what was wrong, how to fix it and set Maggie on her way to a happy, pain free life.

When we met Maggie, we were shocked. She was 20-25 pounds underweight, had a horrible coat, and her leg was swollen to three times the size of her other leg and hot to the touch. Maggie often hopped to avoid putting any weight on her sore leg. Simply watching her was painful.

In foster care Maggie learned all about good food, lots of love, comfortable beds and loved to play with her foster sister, Jaz. Maggie started to put on weight and become comfortable being a part of a loving family. When Great Dane Rescue Inc. heard of the success of the Rescue Me Walk, we were delighted! We could afford to fix Maggie's leg no matter what! We could afford the x-rays and the surgery and whatever else was needed to help this beautiful, young girl.

Our fantastic vet looked at the x-rays from Maggie's former vet and took some new ones. Maggie had immense swelling of the soft tissue that was not healing as well as the bone beneath. On a quest for more answers, Maggie was sent to an orthopedic specialist. Here it was suggested that Maggie have a bone and soft tissue biopsy to determine what was causing all this pain and swelling. Thanks to the Rescue Me Walkathon, we were able to do this and Maggie went in for her biopsy. After the biopsy, Maggie quickly developed a horrible case of demodectic mange. Within a period of two days Maggie's head was bald. Her coat fell out in clumps and sores and blisters started to form all over her body. When the blisters broke, blood erupted all over Maggie's hot, inflamed skin. Every scratch was agony; her immune system was shutting down. It was then that the biopsy results returned and the news we had been fearing since the first day we met Maggie became reality. Maggie had bone cancer, a cancer that was ravaging her immune system leaving her unable to cope with the mange or the cancer treatment. It was then decided it would be best to free Maggie of her itchy, painful body and Maggie was humanely euthanized.

Maggie was one and a half years old.

Dear, sweet Maggie I hope you are playing freely now, running on all four legs, with a thick, full coat that never itches.

Thank you Rescue Me Walkathon for allowing us to give Maggie every chance possible and thank you Donna and Bob Petrie for being exceptional foster parents and giving Maggie a few months of the love and devotion she should have known all along.