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Hermaphrodite dachshund surgery a success
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Back in February I reported on a local dachshund out of Long Beach, Marbles, and his owner, Jennifer Ferrato, who found themselves in a strange circumstance. Ferrato rescued a darling doxie only to realize shortly afterwards it needed an expensive surgery to correct its hermaphroditism.
As a young college student Ferrato sought the help of the dachshund and dog community at large, and in true fashion we delivered. On Friday, February 27, Marbles went in for corrective surgery around 2:30 pm after being dropped off at 8 that morning.
Jennifer said, “Don’t know exactly but I believe it took a couple hours. I dropped him off early morning picked up around 12 hours later. The Vet made 4 incisions. He checked for any female genitalia and luckily marbles didn’t have any! The vet reconstructed his little pee pee taking the exposed tissue and wrapping back up in the sheath.”
She also says the recovery is going remarkably well and affectionately referred to him as “a pitiful cone head” because since he was so close to the ground he would run into everything. Luckily because he was young and healthy, he was back up and running within in a week.
The office manager said checks flooded in even from Illinois and we raise the full amount of the surgery which was $850. In addition to the money Jennifer received good luck cards, messages on Facebook and email of support. “I’m so thankful for everyone who graciously contributed to Marbles surgery,” said Ferrator.
In response to the peope who encourage Ferrato to euthanize him or give him back she says, “The way I look at it is not every puppy is perfect; Marbles was born with an abnormality. If it were a baby no one would say put him or her asleep, they would do everything in their power to help the child. That’s what I was for marbles; a college student, with no substantial income, living off of the sales of my artwork and allowance from my parents. I contacted the right people, sent many emails out and worked so hard for his surgery to happen. Where there is a will, there is a way!”
By all accounts Marbles post surgery is a happy little puppy. He no longer faces the risk of infection or having any complications from his abnormality. He runs around playing fetch and stopping to give me kisses along the way. Ferrato says laughing, “One big difference is that when people meet him they don’t turn away or not pet him because of his bizarre looking penis.”
Ferrato says she has learned a lot from this experience and calls it a happy ending. “I love the little guy,” said Ferrato. “When I look at him I’m able to think about all the people who doubted that I would raise such a large amount of money for such a little guy.”
Ferrato is traveling up to Northern California next week with Marbles and as soon as he has all of his shots Ferrato and Marbles look forward to socializing with other dachshunds and dogs like any other regular dog.
Rufus and I want to especially thank everyone for their contributions and support. I think dog people and dog owners are a really special group of folks and I’m proud of us for helping one of our own in their time of need.
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