As he headed home this week, he still looked thin and wore a cast on one paw, but after 22 days recovering at the University of Saskatchewan’s Western College of Veterinary Medicine, the improvement in his condition was obvious. The seven-year-old Labrador retriever was found curled up at the bottom of a three-metre deep well in the Estevan area Oct. 14 almost a month after owners John and Cindy Billesberger noted he was missing. He took the dog to the vet in Estevan — about 200 kilometres southeast of Regina — where they started treatment for severe malnutrition and dehydration, as well as injuries from his trying to get out of the well, which Billesberger estimated was roughly a metre wide. The dog, who was missing for nearly a month, was found Oct. 14 trapped in a well near the Billisberger’s Estevan-area farm. The family initially brought the seven-year-old retriever to the Prairie Animal Health Centre in Estevan, but after a few days of good news and promising test results, Bruno experienced “refeeding syndrome,” a condition experienced by animals that have not consumed food for a prolonged time. He’s still very food-motivated, but he’s got a lot of energy back and he’s starting to show more of his personality.” 
 
 The dog was monitored 24 hours a day by clinicians in the veterinary centre’s intensive care unit. “That’s hard to see, because he was quite hefty before,” she said. Back at home, he will now remain on a special diet and continue physiotherapy. His paws were treated with cold laser therapy, and his electrolyte levels, which were affected because of refeeding syndrome, were constantly monitored and supplemented intravenously. (CBC) 
 
 "They were definitely Bruno's heroes," Cindy Billesberger said of the veterinarians and staff in Estevan and Saskatoon. “Bruno would have never survived,” she said, noting the couple’s other dogs, Esme and Luna, have been depressed without him. A case study for vets 
 
 Douglas Freeman, dean of the veterinary medicine college at the University of Saskatchewan, said Bruno's remarkable recovery will be written up as a case study.
– After 27 days starving and injured at the bottom of a well and another three weeks in the hospital, a 7-year-old Labrador retriever finally went home. When Bruno disappeared, his owners, John and Cindy Billesberger, searched their little corner of Canada for weeks, CBC reports. On Oct. 14, the Billesbergers' two other dogs refused to move away from an old well hiding in some grass during a walk, according to the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. Ten feet below, Bruno was sitting in the mud. "He was pretty rough looking," John tells CBC. Bruno was dehydrated and had lost nearly half his body weight. CTV News reports he had severely injured his paws trying to escape. “You’ve got such a feeling of helplessness when you pull an animal out like that, and they’re suffering, and there’s nothing you can do," Cindy says. Over the coming weeks, vets nursed Bruno back to health, monitoring him 24 hours a day. He almost didn't make it. “I don’t think many dogs would have survived this,” Dr. Alison Khoo says. “To continue to see him improve has been so rewarding.” Bruno's recovery will become a case file to help vets save other dogs in the future. Bruno, who still has a cast on one paw, went home Thursday and will continue to require a special diet and physical therapy. But that's not dampening his family's enthusiasm one bit. "He'll be happy," says Cindy. (Fire officials think this dog died a hero.)