Meet Xena 💜Poor Xena was has spent her life suffering in a puppy mill and was ultimately dumped. When we were asked to take her in, we had no idea the extent of her issues and nothing could have prepared us for her arrival.Xena arrived filthy, stinky, stained, matted, and unable to close her mouth due to a fractured jaw… and this is not something that just happened. It has been this way for a long time and warrior Xena has simply adapted and survived. She figured out how to eat, drink, persevere, and survive puppy mill life while waiting for help to finally arrive.Today, Xena met with our board-certified oral surgeon here at Animal Dental Specialists in Birmingham, Alabama and tomorrow she will undergo CT imaging so we can get a better understanding of what is happening with her jaw and what options she has. What we suspect is that severe infection has invaded the jaw bone, causing significant decay and bone loss that ultimately led to fractures. Because this has gone neglected for so long, we do not believe there will be enough healthy bone remaining to repair the jaw. If that proves to be the case, the infected and decaying bone will need to be removed, leaving Xena with a partial lower mandible. While that may sound upsetting, Xena would be expected to have an excellent prognosis and would be able to live with less pain and managing with less difficulty than what she is currently enduring. Dogs are incredibly resilient, and sweet Xena has already proven herself to be a fighter.While we so wish we could have helped Xena sooner where she would have more options available to her, we are committed to helping her the very best we can and ensuring she is able to move forward with this second chance at life with comfort, dignity, and quality of life. We won’t know more until her imaging is completed tomorrow morning… with surgery expected to follow. We will be sure to share more as we learn more 🙏🏻

UPDATE MAY 29, 2026: Warrior princess Xena is only 2 days post-op from her extensive oral surgery where part of her fractured lower mandible was removed, and she’s still giving us all the wags 💗 She has been an absolute trooper through both her surgery and recovery, facing every step with resilience and a brave little spirit that continues to amaze us.
Today, Xena will leave Birmingham, Alabama, where her surgery took place, and head back to her foster home in Atlanta to continue healing and recovering ❤️‍🩹 She’ll return back in 2 weeks for a recheck with her surgeon.
We are grateful to everyone who generously donated to help with her medical expenses. Your support is providing her with the gift of comfort and quality of life — something this sweet girl so deserves after suffering for far too long 💜💕

Watch Xena's Video

Watch Xena enjoy Her first Pupcup!

UPDATE JUNE 28 , 2026: 
When Xena arrived into our care, after being dumped by her bad breeder, she was filthy, matted, stinky, stained, terrified, and with injuries we never saw coming - a badly fractured jaw 💔Xena saw our board certified oral and dental specialist in Birmingham, Alabama, and because of the severity of the fractures and significant bone loss, repairing her jaw was unfortunately not possible. Instead, a portion of her damaged lower jaw was removed. Xena did exceptionally well through both her surgery and recovery, and she recently returned to her surgeon for her post op recheck and was deemed fully healed 🙌🏼Perhaps the most incredible part of Xena’s story is that despite the abnormality of her jaw, she lives a completely normal, happy life. She eats very well (and is quite the chow hound!), and now full healed, has even discovered the joy of chew sticks! 💕Xena, being fostered in Atlanta, Georgia, has officially been cleared for her next step - her spay surgery, which is scheduled for tomorrow 💜