K-9 Sarge of the Lakewood-Busti Police Department underwent emergency surgery to correct a pulmonary disorder.

LAKEWOOD — One of the newest four-legged members of the Lakewood-Busti Police Department is recovering after successfully undergoing emergency surgery to correct a rare pulmonary disorder.

K-9 Sarge is expected to rest at home for the next month with its handler, Sgt. Casey Casselman. The young German shepherd was named after Stephen Fardink, a former sergeant with Lakewood-Busti police who passed away in 2017.

After completing a recent training exercise, Sarge began vomiting and seemed to be in pain, prompting a visit to a local veterinary office. With no signs of improvement a day later, Sarge was referred to Orchard Park Veterinary Medical Center.

“He was still lethargic, very weak, could barely stand, seemed painful and had acute respiratory distress with abnormal lung sounds on the right side,” the medical center said in a message posted to Facebook last Friday.

A scan showed that Sarge was suffering from a lung lobe torsion in his right lung. “The condition causes lack of blood flow and air flow to that portion of the lung and can be fatal without surgical intervention,” Orchard Park Veterinary Medical Center said.

Sarge underwent emergency surgery in which the dog’s right middle lung lobe was successfully removed. The German shepherd later received both a plasma transfusions and canine albumin transfusion.

“Slowly, over the course of several days, his albumin crept up and was no longer dropping,” the medical center said. “He was also eating well and the protein from food plays an important role in preventing the albumin from dropping further as well, as the body uses it to naturally create more albumin.

“The edema in his limbs was resolving, however, we were still removing fluid from his chest several days later. While it was concerning, it was not unexpected and we simply stayed the course, and because Sarge was otherwise looking great clinically, we decided to pull the chest tube and allow the body to absorb whatever remaining fluid accumulated in the chest.”

K-9 Sarge was eventually discharged after nine days in the hospital.

Chris DePonceau, Lakewood-Busti police chief, said Sarge was picked up in April from Shallow Creek Kennels Inc. in Sharpsville, Pa. The department went through the same kennel almost a decade ago for its current canine, Miro.

DePonceau said K-9 Miro will likely be retired from the department once Sarge completes training. In addition to human tracking and patrol, Sarge will be trained to detect explosive materials.

A fundraiser through GoFundMe (https://gofund.me/86c85065) has been established to aid in Sarge’s ongoing medical care. As of Tuesday afternoon, more than $2,600 had been donated.

DePonceau said the department relies on donations from the community, organizations and businesses to support its K-9 unit. “We’re a small department,” the police chief said. “Everything is done through donations.”

He added of K-9 Sarge, “Right now he’s home with his handler resting for three to four weeks just doing light stuff — not any type of training.”