Police K-9 survives life-threatening infection

Since May of 2017, Kane, a 9-year-old Belgian Malinois, served alongside Grand Prairie Police Department police officer John Killian to protect and serve their community. Kane was hardworking and focusing on his job, which is helping to protect his fellow officers as they search for illegal substances.

“He’s trained to alert to 5 different odors of illegal narcotics,” Killian said.¹ “Primarily, we use him on traffic stops if we have a reason to believe there may be narcotics in the vehicle. We’ll have him walk around the exterior of the car and if he alerts, we’re allowed to search the car for illegal items.”

Kane is also trained to help the department by tracking and apprehending people who committed violent crimes, like his most memorable moment in 2018 when him and Killian, alongside their current assistant chief of police Tim Sliva, chased a man on a motorcycle who crashed the bike and then ran on foot. Kane ended up catching him and they discovered the man had a loaded pistol and ‘a bunch of methamphetamines’ in the bag he was wearing. Kane received an award for saving the lives of the officers he was with during this pursuit.¹

Kane, a 9-year-old Belgian Malinois, was treated at Texas A&M Small Animal Teaching Hospital for skin necrosis (Images courtesy of Karis Olsen)

A bigger problem

Kane regularly would develop benign, fatty cysts throughout his life that would be removed by his local veterinarian. However, in June of this year, a cyst on Kane’s shoulder became a much bigger problem.

“The cyst was removed on a Monday, and by Friday the incision site had started to turn black,” Killian said. “We started an additional antibiotic, but by Sunday morning it had gotten to the point where it was bleeding and oozing, so we took him to the emergency veterinarian. That’s when they shaved the rest of his abdomen and discovered the black had spread all the way down to his back end. It was way more than anyone expected to see.”

The incision site had become exposed to bacteria that causes necrotizing fasciitis, a rare bacterial infection that causes the death of soft tissue underneath the skin.¹ Due to the seriousness of the infection and the rate at which it was spreading, Kane was referred to the Texas A&M Small Animal Teaching Hospital (SATH). There, Vanna Dickerson, DVM, MS, DACVS (SA), noted that essentially, all of the skin on Kane’s chest leading down from where the mass was on his shoulder, and all the way from his neck to scrotum had died.¹

Kilian left Kane with the team at SATH, but stayed in a hotel for about half of the 2 months that Kane was a patient at SATH because he struggled to leave him alone at the hospital. After going home halfway through Kane’s stay, he would make the 3 hour drive serval times a week to provide support to his partner and best friend.

“There was no other option,” Killian said. “He’s more than just a dog to me; he’s someone I love and truly care for, so I wanted to be there for him when he was going through this really difficult time.”

Kane’s journey at SATH

Within his first week at SAT, Kane’s veterinary team focused on stopping the infection from spreading and removing the dead skin. Because he had extremely large wounds, Kane ended up getting more infection that was resistant to a lot of SATH’s antibiotic options.

“He was just very sick and had a lot of complications related to the fact that he was losing so much fluid through this wound,” she said. “We couldn’t really do any big procedures other than just taking care of his wound until we got him a little bit more stable.”

As soon as Kane finally started stabilizing, the team started to reconstruction the skin around his chest and penis using a special technique involving the creation of a “flap” of skin still connect to its blood supply. The team then flipped it over to cover the areas where the skin died. However, after the successful surgeries, he developed an infection on his heart valve, leading to a blood clot in his brain, causing him to develop temporary issues with his sense of balance.

“Once we got him as stable as we could from the blood clot, he had his last big procedure, which was a really big skin graft,” Dickerson explained. “We took some of the skin from underneath his neck and put it on his chest, as well as a couple of other smaller grafts to fill in the skin on his belly.”

After Kane recovered for 10 days from his final procedure, Kane was determined to be healthy enough to finish his recover at home. Dickerson and the team said he was in really good spirits during his almost 2 months of intensive care, and believe Killian visiting him so often kept his spirits up.

Moving forward

For the duration of his stay at SATH, Kane was cared for by more than 50 hospital clinicians, staff, 4th year veterinary students, all of whom went to say goodbye to him the day he was discharged. As he returns home with Killian, he will have to keep an eye on Kane’s heart and chest for the rest of his life, but Kane had recovered amazingly from the severe infection according to his doctors.¹

Faculty, staff, and 4th year veterinary students saying goodbye to Killian and Kane the day he was discharged from SATH

“Anytime you have a wound on the skin, it never heals to 100% strength. His entire belly may be a little bit more sensitive to injury, but it’s completely healed,” Dickerson said. “We only see a few cases of necrotizing fasciitis a year and when it happens, it’s usually pretty scary. Kane is very lucky to be alive.”

Kane will return to work for a few months, but then will be able to retire. Killian said he plans to bring him on trips and potentially the beach. Kane will also be able to serve and protect his family while he is on duty and hopefully enjoy some down time.

“What the doctors did for Kane was nothing short of a miracle,” Killian said. “It was a huge team effort to get him to even leave the hospital, and the fact that things are still going well and he’s going to have a retirement means the world to us. We didn’t think we would get this opportunity and the fact that we do just makes us forever grateful to A&M.”

Reference

1. Bennett M. Texas A&M Veterinary Team Saves Grand Prairie K-9 From Life-Threatening Infection. VMBS News. Published November 11, 2024. Accessed November 19, 2024. https://vetmed.tamu.edu/news/press-releases/vets-save-grand-prairie-k-9/