Dog Born With Six Legs and Two Penises is Thriving [VIDEO]

A German Shepard in Indianapolis was born with six legs, an extra colon, four testicles, and a second penis. Most dogs with birth defects like this are typically stillborn or die very young, but Raga the dog has a different story.

Anita Horne, hospital manager at VCA Advanced Veterinary Care Center saw Raga the rescue dog last fall and said, “He probably shouldn’t be alive, he was such a mess." The hospital fostered him for what they thought would only be a few nights, but Raga kept running and playing like a normal puppy. The hospital decided to draw up a surgery plan with the hospital surgeons to fix Raga's birth defects.

 "One of Raga's penises appeared to function correctly, but his body was sending fecal matter to the other one, causing him to be hospitalized on heavy-duty antibiotics to knock down an infection." (USA Today)

Dr. Jae Tobias performed surgery on Raga in December and said the dog had, "an extra bladder, ureter, colon, pelvis, penis, four testicles, and two extra legs that were partly joined." Tobias took out the extra limbs and pelvis.

A second surgery was performed in February removing the bulk of the abnormal internal organs, including the extra penis, and associated urinary tract. Another surgery will need to be performed to remove the two last testicles that are buried in his abdomen.

“Even when you're in a place where it's like, ‘I’ve never seen this before,’ you just practice the skills that you've learned and you follow the rules of surgery and then get through it,” Tobias said.

Raga is a lucky dog, as he has been healthy for about 7 months now. The hospital’s technician supervisor, Gina Elliott grew a bond with Raga throughout the various surgeries and has adopted him.

“I never really thought of myself as a German Shepherd kind of owner, but he was the one that needed me. So here we are. Now I'm a German Shepherd kind of gal" she said.

Read More Here: USA Today