- Joined
- Jan 29, 2021
Speaking as someone who worked in vet med my guess would be urine-scald. Yes, you're right like any creature's feet are evolved to occasionally walk in muck. HOWEVER that is occasionally and in a temporary contact not a sustained contact with no air flow for long periods.
Cut for graphic description of animal neglect.
In nearly all neglect cases where an animal (or person) has been confined in a small space (and in our case a closet of unknown size), you get urine scald be it cat, dog, horse, hamster etc. I've seen a lot of it in my time. It can even happen in non-neglect cases where the animal is just so ill/elderly they don't move as much as they should.
Urine is usually close to neutral on the pH scale but it can become more acidic or basic depending on diet and internal factors. More so if it's concentrated.
So here's the situation, poor Max is being neglected, and that means little water. So his urine becomes mildly basic or acidic, and he can only relieve himself in that small space. Well soon it becomes soaked in not just urine but also feces. Though only mildly basic or acidic the urine begins breaking down the skin, especially between the toes. As Max was a dachshund he was low to the ground anyway, so likely it didn't take long to travel up the legs. There's little airflow and feces is full of bacteria. It doesn't take long for infection to set in. Infection so severe you get amputation.
And trust me none of this is fun to type out but I am speaking as someone who has seen this exact scenario a lot.
Poor pupper
So you've answered the question of the specific infliction to befall poor Max but there's still a glaring question.
How could urine-scalding happen in a communal building?
Correct me if I'm wrong but urine-scalding most often happens in kennels with hard floors with a surface that lets the urine stagnate, like concrete. How could that much urine build up in an apartment within a communal building without provoking a superintendent?
I realize the info we have on Bella mentions a stinky apartment but not to this level, the flood of stagnating urine that's needed to rot away feet would be costic to anyone near by. There is no chance this could happen in a communal building.