Kabang, the hero dog that lost part of her face when she was struck by a motorcycle after getting two young girls out of the way, has finally been cleared to go back home to the Philippines, according to University of California, Davis.
The Shepard-mix lost the top half of her snout and upper jaw when the vehicle hit her in 2011. The accident left her with a gaping wound in her face.
The dog's survival story gained attention from the media.
Kabang was brought to the veterinary medical teaching hospital at the University of California, Davis, in October of 2012, where the veterinarians discovered that on top of her injury the dog was also suffering from heartworm and an infectious type of cancer called a transmissible venereal tumor.
Those conditions would have to be treated before surgical and dental procedures were to be performed on Kabang's face.
UC Davis formed a group of specialists to cover all of the treatments that Kabang needed. Each treatment needed to be completed, and the corresponding condition cured, before the next medical process could begin.
"Kabang's care at the teaching hospital was a great example of the synergistic approach we have toward veterinary medicine at UC Davis," said professor Frank Verstraete, chief of the dentistry and oral surgery service at the School of Veterinary Medicine's William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. "We were able to treat all of the complications that arose with the best specialists available."
In February, Kabang finally completed her parasite and cancer treatments and was ready for surgery to be performed on her face.
In March, the veterinarians reconstructed one of the dog's eyelids and removed two of her top teeth. In a later maxillofacial surgery, they improved the condition of Kabang's facial injury.
In the complicated surgery they covered Kabang's facial injury with pieces of skin from the top and sides of her head. Then Verstraete, Boaz Arzi, and William Culp, a veterinary soft-tissue surgeon at UC Davis, worked to rebuild the dog's nasal passages. The team reconstructed the nasal passages and inserted stents which allowed new nostrils to form around them.
"The surgery was long but went just as planned, in large part due to the collaborative nature of Kabang's veterinary team," Arzi said.
The team was not able to reconstruct Kabang's top jaw, but the dog is now protected from infection and ready to go back home to the Philippines and lead a normal life.
"We were extremely pleased with the overall progress Kabang made while at UC Davis," said Gina Davis, head of outpatient medicine at the veterinary medical teaching hospital and a clinical veterinary professor. "Kabang ideally completed each stage of treatment throughout the nearly eight months she was with us, and it was a pleasure having her as a patient."
