Wizard My Story
Wizard, aka Serena's Wizard, is a 3½-year-old red brindle male born June 3, 2004. His sire is Kiowa Sweet Trey, making his grand sire Oswald Cobblepot, and his dam is Smart Serena, making his grand sire Molotov. Look at Wizard's record and you will see he had quite a promising racing career, even in his 64 races. On the morning of November 5, 2007, his racing career was terminated, as Wizard suffered multiple fractures of his central tarsal bone, metatarsal bone and the calcaneous on his right rear leg. This happened when he collided with another greyhound during schooling trials at Valley Race Park in Harlingen, which is scheduled to open on November 23. Ironically another greyhound, Cabot suffered a fractured central tarsal bone in a totally separate incident at about the same time. Wizard and Cabot were flown to Addison Airport by "guardian angels" Jane and Michael Scott. He was immediately taken to Dr. Jeff Ellis of VCA Preston Park Animal Hospital who x-rayed and evaluated Wizard, then referred him to Dr. Bob Radasch at Dallas Veterinary Surgical Center. Wizard will have surgery on Wednesday, November 7. Check back for updates after then.
For now Wizard is headed towards his forever home, which will be found after his extensive surgery and recovery.
UPDATE 11/09/07
Dr. Radasch performed 3 hours of surgery on Thursday, November 8 with no advances made in repairing the calcaneous fracture which was in 6 pieces, in addition to the fractures in the central tarsal and metatarsal bones. After conferring with Dr. Jeff Ellis and GALT, the decision was made to amputate Wizard's leg to offer him the best quality of life. The amputation was performed by Dr. Radasch on Friday morning, and if Wizard does okay this weekend, he will be dismissed on Monday, November 12.
UPDATE 11/12/07
Wizard will not be dismissed for several more days. Dr. Radasch says he is depressed and not eating well. The staff there has taken Wizard under their wings. Please keep him in your thoughts.
UPDATE 11/14/07
Because there was a considerable amount of fluid and blood oozing from Wizard's incision, Dr. Radasch took Wizard into surgery this afternoon. They discovered a significant blood clot that had formed after his incision was closed last Friday. It was removed and the area flushed out, and the incision was again closed. Wizard will be staying longer at the Surgery Center, until they are sure he is on the road to recovery. Every effort is being made to ward off any infection, which would set him back significantly. Please continue to send healing thoughts to Wizard.
UPDATE 11/16/07
Wizard is being dismissed from DVCS late this afternoon after 10 days. His weight is now 61 pounds, down from 73.8 when he arrived. The trauma he has been through has taken its toll on him. He doesn't look like the same greyhound that arrived on November 5. Wizard will require lots of special care to say the least, which his foster home will certainly accommodate.
