Layla

Rescuing Layla 

I rescued Layla whilst I was in the East Coast, on the last day of my time there and throughout that week, I had seen numerous homeless dogs and I wanted to pick many of them up but didn’t. 

Strangely, the day before rescuing Layla, I had seen a puppy who looked just like her, and I regret not picking her up, as I’m sure it was one of Layla’s, who you could see had recently given birth, maybe a couple of months prior. 

I saw Layla hobbling along in the cold, at night, looking for food, she had an injured paw and she was thin and obviously homeless. 

This time, I had to stop and she didn’t put up a fight at all, she just lay down and became a dead weight, and I picked her up in my arms and put her in the car. 

She was very smelly and it took me 3 washes to get her clean and smelling nice!!!  

Back To My Accommodation 

I had no option but to take her back with me and I just sneaked her in and hoped for the best. 

The Manager saw me and I explained my predicament, and seeing her need, he very graciously allowed Layla to stay and she slept on a rug on the floor next to my bed. 

At first, she wouldn’t eat anything I offered her as she was very weary of me, but eventually, she ate nachos and milk, which was all I had at the time! 

When she needed the toilet, I had to let her out and not having a lead or anything, she kept trying to hobble away, but not being able to move very quickly, I was able to catch up with her and bring her back. 

Eventually, she slept peacefully and after a short walk the following day, we headed home, on a 15 hour drive.  

Overnight Stay 

Being such a long journey, we had to stop off multiple times for toilet breaks and food, and we always made sure to go somewhere that was dog-friendly. 

Everyone was very kind to her and one café even gave us dog food and some to take away also, and in the car, Layla slept the deepest sleep of her life, the whole journey.

We then had to stay over somewhere and I explained that I had just rescued a dog, and they too, allowed her to stay. 

That night, the only food we could think to get her was KFC chicken, and we got her 2 pieces with chips which she inhaled!!! 

God bless Layla, she has been addicted to KFC ever since and once, when she had been us for a while, we left a packet on the side within her reach by mistake, and it was gone within seconds, bones and all, which was very worrying but thank God she was OK!!! 

Layla’s Injury 

When we took a closer look at Layla’s injury, we saw that a bit of her pad on the underside of her paw had been cut off, perhaps by something sharp, and this caused her to limp, but we believed it would grow back and amazingly, it did. 

But then another problem started and this culminated in about 2 years of research, trial and error and looking for the root of the problem. 

It began with Layla incessantly licking her paw, to the point of almost chewing a hole right through, and we had to keep her in bandages, with frequent changes, until we could figure out what it was. 

Several vets said it was an acral lick granuloma, but that they didn’t know the cause and suggested amputating the paw, which we absolutely did not want to do, especially bearing in mind that they didn’t know the cause. 

And so, we set about finding the cause so that we could treat that and eventually, we found a very experienced vet who determined it was osteomyelitis, a deep-seated bone infection. 

Research & Diagnosis 

By this time, I had done tonnes of research and this was on my list to be checked, together with nerve injury, pressure along the nerves that supply her foot or leg, a pinched nerve in her spine or cervical discs or a bone fracture. 

She’d had biopsies and x-rays, which showed nothing and we’d been to a chiropractor and tried all sorts, all to no avail. 

In the end, I stopped agreeing to see vets, who took my money but couldn’t help, and I waited for a recommendation with someone who really knew their stuff, and demanded a call with them first to discuss Layla in order to see if they were truly able to help. 

When I spoke to the vet who ended up helping her, I knew that he was our man and he suggested everything I had on my list to do, including a culture and sensitivity test to see what bacteria was affecting Layla’s paw so we could target her with the right antibiotics. 

I had a foot infection myself at the time, from going into the Ocean with a small open graze, foolishly thinking it would be good for it, but resulting in a very bad infection which caused pain in my bone, and I believe that God used that to show us what Layla was suffering with. 

Treatment & Wound Care 

We treated her with 3 months of specialised anti-biotics, as determined by the culture and sensitivity test, and for the first 2 months, we changed her bandages and cleaned the wound mostly daily. 

As it began to heal, she stopped wanting to gnaw at it, and we were able to change it every 2 days, and then every 3 days, and eventually it healed completed. 

Unbeknown to us, the cohesive bandages we were using were dangerous as they were tightening on her paw and stopping the blood flow and the vet told us we mustn’t use those and we changed to adhesive bandages. 

There is so much to learn when you are treating a long-standing and chronic condition and perseverance is key. 

After almost 2 years, we finally healed Layla’s wound, took the last bandage off, were overjoyed to find that Layla wasn’t interested in chewing it anymore, but unfortunately, one of our other dogs started licking it and opened it up again! 

Hydrotherapy 

And so we started again, again, but this time, we were very far along and we just needed to get to the finish line a second time, and we were very close. 

Because of 2 years of limping and not being able to put any weight on the injured paw, Layla had lost muscle mass in her shoulder and will likely need to see a chiropractor again for a couple of realignments. 

Next step, as soon as it’s summer, we will be taking her for daily swims in the pool to build up her strength slowly and gently in order to get her back to full health. 

Layla is a very lucky and blessed girl as not many people would go to the lengths and expense as we did for her, but all our animals deserve and get the best and that’s just how it has to be. 

When you shoot for the stars, sometimes you get to touch them.

Layla Laylani

Layla is very street-wise and street-tough, because she had to be, and she is more than capable of looking after herself if necessary.

For the most part, she's pretty chilled, happy to have a warm bed, nice food and she loves going out for walks as often as she can.

Being used to her freedom, going out and about is very important to her and she's the best dog to take shopping and on errands as she just stays close, lies down and waits patiently.

She used to howl when we were trying to heal her first paw injury, so we made her a waterproof shoe with duct tape so she could go out walking with the other dogs.

Layla means night, and Laylani means Royal Child of Heaven in Hawaiian, and one thing is for sure, God was certainly smiling on her when He caused us to cross paths.