An innocent dog that was discovered starving and covered in weeping sores and had to be put down was described as “the walking dead” by horrified rescuers.

More than half of Tazer the puppy’s body was covered in lesions and she was retching from hunger when she was rescued from a house in the city of Mackay, Queensland, Australia.

Tazer’s owners Rodney John Bridge, 37, and Lyn Smith, 47, have pleaded guilty to breaching duty of care to an animal from January 15 to February 8 last year, reports the Daily Mercury .

Barrister Patrick Cullinane, acting for the RSPCA, told the court that in February Tazer was taken from the couple and taken to a vet who diagnosed her with the skin disease Demodetic Mange.

The vet took the heartbreaking decision to euthanise the suffering animal.

A post-mortem showed Tazer hadn’t been fed for five to seven days before death and probably had not been fed adequately for at least a month.

RSPCA regional inspector Natalie Aitken said it was the worst case of demodetic mange she’d ever seen, including in her 12 years of working as a vet.

Mange is a condition common among dogs caused by tiny parasitic mites. In malnourished dogs the mites can reproduce rapidly and cause symptoms ranging from mild irritation and hair loss to death.

It is usually treated with antibiotics and medicated shampoos.

“The condition of the dog is the worst I’ve ever seen… that poor animal must have been in so much suffering,” she said.

RSPCA Queensland media and community relations staffer Michael Beatty described the dog as “the walking dead”.

In court, Bridge’s defence Zoe Craven said the couple were waiting for a payment so they could take the dog to a vet and had tried to treat her themselves and said Bridge and Smith were “animal lovers” who didn’t routinely neglect animals.

Magistrate Damien Dwyer said: “This is just cruel. I’m seriously thinking of sending them to prison.”

The pair are expected to be sentenced on June 27.

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