Warning: article contains images that some may find unsettling.
Lyann was recently found by a dumpster, suffering terribly.
“She is in shocking condition and very lucky to be alive,” says Jackie O’Sullivan, co-founder of the New York City-based nonprofit Rescue Dogs Rock. “She was as close to death as any dog I’ve seen.”
At the time she was discovered, Lyann’s body temperature was so low she couldn’t stop shaking. She can’t walk. She will need medicated baths for a very long time.
The one-year-old dog is starved, dehydrated, and anemic. She is covered in bloody sores, and has a terrible case of mange, along with a panel of other infections.
Worst of all, O’Sullivan tells BarkPost she thinks that someone did this to Lyann — that someone who should have been caring for her instead caused the dog to become a shivering pile of inflamed skin and weak bones. (A source familiar with the case, who asked not to be identified, tells BarkPost that police are investigating.)
Now, some good people are going to make Lyann better.
Lyann has been with an emergency veterinarian for the last week. Once she’s stabilized, she’ll stay at another vet’s office until she is well enough, and then she will go into a foster home.
Realistically, that might be a ways off.
Lyann has made a little progress every day in the week since she came into Rescue Dogs Rock’s care. But she is still so weak that she can only stand for a few seconds at a time.
She can’t even interact much, so her personality is also yet a mystery, though O’Sullivan has “no doubt [that] she’ll be sweet, as most abuse cases are.”
Rescue Dogs Rock also can’t yet say what treatments it will take for Lyann to get well enough to go home. They are anticipating there will be many, and they will be expensive. (Generous donors have contributed more than $15,000 already.)
O’Sullivan is feeling optimistic for this broken girl. That she’ll get fixed up – and when she does, she’ll go on to the kind of normal, wonderful life that’ll start making up for her abhorrent beginning.
Says O’Sullivan:
We are committed for the long haul. Whatever she needs, she will get. We want her to be healthy, happy and loved. She deserves to be loved and spoiled for the rest of her days.
Follow Lyann’s progress on the Rescue Dogs Rock Facebook page. Donate to Lyann’s care here.
