Cape Painted Wild dog severely injured and in hospital

Cape Painted Wild dog severely injured and in hospital

At 6 am I was woken up by parks and wildlife. A cape spotted Wild dog was hit by a car on the tar road to Katima. Dog was in severe shock and totally recumbent. I immediately placed an IV drip and treated for shock. I applied a dog muzzle to prevent it from biting me as it was very scared. It is a young dog approximately 9 months old male. It was exhibiting classic symptoms of upper spinal shock called Schiff Sherrington. The front legs are rigidly held out while the hind legs are totally paralyzed. Dog recovered from shock and I administered pain killers, antibiotics and worm medication. There were various scrape wounds all over body due to road rash. 

After 2 hours the dog was stable enough to x-ray. At this stage he had already regained some use of his front legs and had retracted a hind leg so prognosis is improved. Amazingly on X-ray he had a previous spinal injury mid thoracic where his vertebrae had been broken and it had healed. I imagine a lion must have bitten him there to have caused such trauma. A huge bone spur had developed were it healed. I hope that this previous injury has caused the spinal shock and was aggravated by car hit. I did not see any evidence of recent fractures to his spine He does have a broken rib but it is stable.

 He has such powerful jaws that he broke the dog muzzle by just opening his mouth. He allowed me to pet him with comforting words and relaxed. When I gave him some water by syringe in his mouth he clamped down on syringe tip. It was like a vice grip. I do not want to have my fingers caught in that Jaw.

Hopefully he will recover overnight as I gave him some Valium to sleep comfortably. Prayer will be said for his recovery. I have no clue how I am going to medicate him if he does recuperate but he has been very gentle and non aggressive. It’s still scary since he is a wild animal.

Please say prayers for him. I will keep updated on his condition.
We cannot afford to lose this dog