My husband found a dog wandering late at night in the middle of nowhere. We contacted animal shelters and put up notices, but no one claimed her. She is old, but the vet does not know how old. She is apparently deaf, but we think she hears high pitched sounds. She has stage three heart worms which we will begin treatment for after antibiotics, etc. Her rear legs carry her, but they are not normal looking. The vet thinks she has two torn acl’s and something more wrong with her patellas. She sleeps and sleeps, but if we take her out she is curious and would run if we let her go (we haven’t). She doesn’t seem to understand petting, she doesn’t look in our eyes, but she is very docile. She has calluses on her joints, so we are pretty sure she was an outside dog. She had only a choke collar on when we found her. She doesn’t understand toys or treats, and will not take anything from our hands. She is extremely thin and we are finding it difficult to find dog food for her, she ignores it, but will eat meat from our meals eagerly (we know this isn’t good, but are desperate!). We live in an area where there are a lot of hunting dogs, and she is some kind of hound. We are wondering if she could have been a hunting dog, and wondering how a hunting dog would react to having a family take her in their house and care for her? Is there some other way to communicate with her? We’ve tried hand signals. She pays no attention. She is more or less oblivious to everything except the outside. What are hunting dogs typically fed? Do they typically sleep or just lie down most of the time? Would the leg problems be typical, or what would cause this? Any insight would be greatly appreciated!