A rescue dog whose jaw was completely destroyed by a mysterious infection that left the poor pup’s face rotting and ‘smelling like death’ has made a miraculous recovery – and is now living a healthy, happy life with new owners.
Two-year-old pit bull Bud was left at an animal shelter in Mexico in the summer of 2020, where workers found that he was suffering from a horrific infection that was causing his jaw to decay.
The infection had worked its way through much of his mouth and was so severe that carers were unsure whether they would be able to save him.
They turned to the experts at Animal Pad, a San Diego-based shelter, which brought Bud to the US and helped to secure a vet who agreed to perform a risky operation to remove the rotting half of his jaw.
Transformed: A two-year-old pit bull named Bud has made an incredible recovery after being dumped at a Mexican shelter with a horrific infection that was causing his mouth to rot
Upset: The mysterious flesh-eating illness left Bud ‘smelling like death’ – and workers at the shelter were unsure that they would be able to save him
Miraculous: Thankfully, San Diego-based shelter the Animal Pad offered to bring Bud to the US, where he was able to undergo life-saving surgery to remove the decaying half of his jaw
Remarkable, the surgery went off without a hitch, and Bud was back on his feet the very next day, barking and wagging his tail – clearly unfazed by the fact that his tongue now dangles permanently out of the side of his mouth.
In an even happier twist to his tale, Bud caught the eye of San Diego local Jill Catellano, 27, who saw his story on Instagram after the Animal Pad shared an update about his condition.
Seeing his happy face and sweet demeanor, Jill quickly fell in love with Bud and contacted the shelter straight away in order to start the adoption process.
After one quick meeting in a local park, Jill knew that she was meant to give the pit bull his forever home.
‘He came up to me and licked my face, and he sat right down in my lap – I couldn’t stop laughing at how much he wiggled his butt and how his tongue always hangs out of his mouth. He was a goof, and I wanted him to be my goof,’ Jill, a journalist, said.
She adopted Bud in late July 2020 and brought him home, where he settled right in to his new life with Jill and her partner Andrew, 30.
‘Bud is very sweet and also very energetic. He loves people. He falls in love with everybody he meets,’ she revealed.
Horrifying: When Bud arrived at the Animal Pad, half of his face was rotting and he was left with a huge gaping wound
Recovery: The sweet-tempered pup has made a full recovery – and is now living happily and healthily, despite being left with his tongue permanently hanging out of his mouth
Fur-ever home: After reading about Bud’s story on Instagram, San Diego resident Jill Castellano, 27, was incredibly moved – and decided to adopt the pup with her partner Andrew
Happy as can be: Bud has now become quite the Instagram star after Jill began posting images of his sweet lopsided face
‘He walks up to strangers all the time for head scratches, and he whines when we have to leave.
‘He loves to cuddle under the covers at night. During the day, he runs around and plays with his toys.
‘He doesn’t let his half-a-jaw or crazy tongue stop him from having a good time.
‘Amazingly, he can still eat his food without any usable teeth, although he always makes a mess because his tongue causes food and water to splash out of the bowl and fly all over the yard.’
After sharing posts about Bud on her Instagram, Jill says she gets a lot of ‘funny’ questions about him.
‘One of them is whether we clean his tongue. Bud’s tongue gets covered in dirt when we take him on walks because it drags on the ground,’ she said.
‘We do brush his teeth and tongue when it gets overly dirty, but usually he cleans it himself when he drinks out of his water bowl.
‘Another question we get is whether his tongue dries out – it does. It becomes very wrinkled and silly looking when he sleeps. But we always have water around so he can hydrate when he wakes up.’
Intrigue: Jill is also flooded with questions about Bud’s condition, with Instagram users asking whether they have to clean his tongue and how he manages to eat and drink
Answers: ‘We do brush his teeth and tongue when it gets overly dirty, but usually he cleans it himself when he drinks out of his water bowl,’ Jill explained
Process: Since undergoing his first surgery, Bud has had several other treatments, with Jill revealing that he’s had operations to remove more teeth and scrape bacteria from his jaw
Bud has needed several medical treatments since his initial surgery.
Jill said: ‘Since his big surgery, he has had to see multiple doctors and dentist veterinarians because of his osteomyelitis (chronic infection), and get multiple CAT scans.
‘He has had additional surgeries to remove more of his teeth in the hopes it would finally kill off the infection, but they didn’t work.
‘He continued to lose bone mass in his jaw because of the infection. Finally, as a last resort, a group of surgeons did an invasive procedure earlier this year – sometime around March – where they removed all of his remaining lower teeth, opened up his jaw and scraped out the bacteria.
‘Miraculously, it was a success and the infection is gone. I am beyond grateful to The Animal Pad and all the veterinarians who helped him on this path to healing.
‘Every single one of them smiled when they talked about Bud, because of how friendly and happy he is even in the face of all this adversity.
‘Nobody knows what caused the original infection. One theory I have is that he was hit by a car.
‘A veterinarian told me once that Bud has splintered bone fragments spread around in his skull, as if there was some large impact that caused his problem.
‘But as far as I know now, Bud is a cured and fully healthy dog.’