SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Mark Pugh has been coming to the vet hospital in Sorrento Valley every day for the last month to visit his dog Indy.
It was back on February 1, that Indy, a retired police dog, fell more than 50 feet into an abandoned well in Chula Vista.
It took hours to get him out.
"All the firefighters and the rescue people if it wasn't for them he wouldn't be here," said Pugh
But that was just the beginning of a long battle to survive for Indy.
In the weeks after Pugh says Indy developed a very serious bacterial infection in the large gash he had from falling into the hole, which was part of an old septic system.
"It was very, very bad. It was killing his wound, his skin, they had to keep opening it up, cleaning it out, disinfecting," said Pugh
After multiple rounds of antibiotics, Indy is finally healing and recently started eating solid food again
But he still can't walk on his hind legs, and doctors think he may have an injured disc.
"He can move his tail, you can pinch his paws, he'll flinch but he can't get up," explained Pugh.
Pugh says Indy will have another MRI and CT scan this week to see exactly what the problem is and will hopefully be healthy enough to undergo surgery soon.
"They're your family. Imagine if you had your brother or your son, what would you do? So, yeah they're your family," said Pugh.
Indy was injured while playing on a piece of property Pugh had rented through an app called Sniff Spot, a private dog park rental service. ABC 10News reached out to Sniff Spot about Indy's vet bills, and they issued the following statement that reads in part:
"Both the host and the team at Sniffspot are devastated. We have referred this to our host insurance in regard to the medical expenses."
