Brave Dog Got Sick From Being Abandoned And Lost Her Nose

Emma was found living under a bridge in Dowdy Ferry, an illegal dog dumping ground in Dallas. Dead and unwanted dogs are dumped there every day.

A local rescue group, Dallas DogRRR, discovered Emma living in Dowdy Ferry, and tried for weeks to rescue her but was unable to catch her because she was so scared. While living on her own, Emma became very sick, and was eventually too weak to run away anymore.

After being rescued, Emma went to live with Corbin Imgrund, who was supposed to be her foster dad - but after meeting Emma, he knew he had to adopt her.

"I said I would foster Emma, but decided to adopt her about a week later after learning how serious her medical needs were," Imgrund told The Dodo. "I fell in love with Emma immediately and knew very few people would be in the financial position to save her, so I decided to adopt her."

When Emma first went to live with Imgrund, she was very weak. The vets were unable to figure out what was making her so sick, and her health continued to decline.

"Emma was incredibly sweet, quiet and low energy," Imgrund said. "Her illness was definitely affecting her personality."

Imgrund already had two rescue dogs at home, who were a little unsure of tiny Emma at first, but ultimately accepted her as part of their pack. "The other dogs could definitely tell she was sick when I first brought her back," Imgrund said. "My Chihuahua-terrier mix, Lizzie, was frightened by the way she looked initially, and my beagle, Butters, was extremely protective of her. He would sleep in front of her kennel at night to protect her."

Weeks went by, and Emma only continued to get sicker. The vets treated her for a staph infection and histiocytosis, but nothing worked. As her health declined, her nose also began to deteriorate, which affected her breathing.

"When Emma was at her worst I had to wake up hourly during the night to give her breathing treatments," Imgrund said. "There were definitely long periods of time where we weren't sure if she would survive."

At a loss for what to do, Imgrund had Emma's blood work completely redone and sent to Texas A&M;'s medical research hospital for further analysis - and finally, there was an answer.

Emma was diagnosed with histoplasmosis, a rare fungal infection that she'd contracted while living in Dowdy Ferry. The vets immediately changed her meds, and within days, her health finally began to improve.

Unfortunately, as Emma healed, her nose fell off completely and healed shut, leaving her only able to breathe out of her mouth. Surgery was attempted to try and open her nostrils up, but was unsuccessful, and so Emma's vets decided to wait until her histoplasmosis was gone to try again.

Six months later, Emma was finally ready for her next surgery, and this time they decided to open just one nostril slit instead of two. The surgery was successful, and Emma is now, finally, in recovery.

"Emma is doing great," Imgrund said. "She is my most playful dog and goes around sniffing everything now that she can breathe again!"

To help other dogs like Emma, you can donate to Dallas DogRRR.