Estevan dog ‘beat the odds’ – survived one month trapped in well

Bruno the dog, two days after he was rescued from the well. (COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE)

It’s amazing he’s alive at all – because seven-year-old Bruno the chocolate Labrador retriever spent several weeks trapped at the bottom of a well near Estevan.

“His eyes were sunk in, they were infected. Cuts along his eyes, all his paws – he’s lost pads. He’s lost fur off his back end and was just a mess,” an emotional Cindy Billesberger, the dog’s owner told CTV News.

Billesberger said Bruno had gone missing nearly four weeks ago while he was out in the field about a half mile from their farm.

“We called vet clinics within a 100 kilometer radius,” she said. “We called humane societies and I even called the Regina Humane Society, to see if maybe somebody had taken him and brought him there.”

“We thought somebody had taken him,” she added.

Weeks passed, the temperature dropped to minus seven and it began to snow. The family started losing hope in finding Bruno alive.

On Oct. 14 Billesberger’s husband took their other two dogs for a walk. One stopped in the tall grass a half-mile from their home and refused to move.

The canine uncovered a ten-foot-deep well – and Bruno was at the bottom.

Bellisberger said her son jumped in the well and was able to pry the pooch’s paws from the drying mud. He lifted Bruno – with ease – and passed him to safety.

The chocolate Labrador lost nearly half its body mass since the family last saw him – weighing a mere 55 pounds.

According to Kristin Caldwell, chief of veterinary operations at Prairie Animal Health Centre in Estevan, Bruno was “barely alive” and “beat the odds.”

Caldwell and other staff members assessed the pooch. They determined he was battling anemia in combination with low phosphate levels – which could result in organ damage or death.

Luckily, Bruno eluded both.

“To be honest most of us don’t feel that he had more than a couple of days left in him,” said Caldwell.

She said rainwater and snow kept him alive, but most dogs would not have pulled through.

Bruno is being treated for his injuries at the College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon and receiving 24-hour care.

It remains uncertain how long it will take the beloved family dog to fully-recover; however, Billisberger said, “There’s a steak with Bruno’s name on it when he gets home and able to eat.”