5.21 UPDATE: Samantha has left the hospital! She is in the best place ever - medical Foster with our founder, Tom, and his wife. What we know about this girl so far — she is the sweetest, most docile, quiet little girl. She is eating great, going potty, and sitting up. Tom will be working on walking/mobility. Her staples come out in 10-14 days. Thank you to Specialized Veterinary Services for taking such good care of her!
5.20 UPDATE: Sammie is doing well and this lucky girl had two wonderful people visit her today and spend the whole afternoon with her. She took a relaxing nap when they were there, they got to see her start to try to move around outside, they cleaned her up and applied fresh Jumpstart bandages from Arthrex Vet Systems, and she ate a delicious dinner. She has a long road ahead of her, but she is doing great and has already come so far from week ago when we didn’t even know if she would make it. We are so proud of her!
5.18 UPDATE ON SAMMIE: She is doing great in recovery and being so well taken care of by the wonderful staff at Specialized Veterinary Services in Fort Meyers, FL. She is gobbling down her food, which is a great sign and makes all of us so happy. She is going to stay there for the weekend so they can monitor her and then should be leaving there on Monday to begin the next part of her recovery with SNIP. We are learning that she is just the sweetest little girl!!
5.17 PM SAMMIE UPDATE: Sammie came out of her final surgery and she did great!!! She is recovering at the hospital and will stay there for another day or two. She will then head into temporary foster to get through her initial recovery. Not only is she recovering from surgery, but she is also going to need to learn how to move around on 3 legs. In addition, we have to remember that she wasn’t in a real ‘home’ before this. We aren’t sure what she knows about being a true family member and being a household pet. We will be focusing on her physical recovery. As well as getting her on a healthy diet and teaching her what love and home are. SNIP and Sammie have a lot ahead of us, but we believe that she will come out the other end of this way better off than we found her! Her care and expenses continue. Please share her story. After ALL of this, we will be looking for a foster for her while we find her the perfect forever home.
5.16 PM Update: GREAT news first. Sammie is through her first surgery and she did fantastic. The doctors are very comfortable that she will regain full mobility and strength on the side they operated on today. Now for the not so good news. They performed surgery on this side first because there was less damage. Her other side is in worse shape. She has nerve damage and isn’t feeling anything in her leg at all. They feel confident that even with surgery, she will have lack of or no mobility in this leg/hip and will suffer because of it. The best thing to do is amputate. Yes, we know, this was not what we wanted either, but we knew it was a possibility with all she has been through. And she can live a full wonderful life as a tripod. In fact, our founder has a dog that has 3 legs and boy does he love life and run around like crazy. So, tomorrow, she will have an amputation on her rear leg. And from there, we will start her road to recovery and we will be by her side every step of the way. And we know she has so much support in all of you as well.
5.15 PM UPDATE: Our girl is back!!! She is alert, moving around and the doctors believe she is ready for surgery. Sammie will go into surgery tomorrow for her hip (FHO) and bilateral leg fractures. She is strong, but she definitely has a road to recovery ahead of her. Her bill is topping out at just under $4,500, and that is just to get her through the surgery. That does not include post-op appts, and further medicine and vet care she will need post-surgery. Remember...every little bit helps. #SammieStrong
5.15. AM UPDATE: What a good morning it is!!! Sweet little Sammie is waking up and sitting up!!!! Check out this sweet photo they snapped of her this morning. The vet is very very happy with this. If she continues in this direction throughout the day, they are even talking about doing the surgery to repair her leg and pelvis this week! We are beyond thrilled. We are continue to try to raise money. As long as she is fighting, we will fight for her, but it is getting expensive. Anything you can donate. Did you know that if all of our followers donated $5 only (the cost of one coffee), we would be able to raise $3,000. Think about it...skip one coffee this week and you can help save the life of this sweet girl.
5.14 AM UPDATE: Tom went and visited our girl this morning. She is comfortably resting. We have named her Samantha/Sammie. She deserves a name. She hasn't made much progress one way or the other since last night, but the doctor told us that it takes time for swelling to come down in situations like this. He said we should wait until Wednesday to get a better feel for her prognosis. We will keep you posted. Keep praying that with the medicine and fluids that Samantha continues to improve. She is not in pain, she is in good hands and we are doing everything we can for her.
5.13 PM UPDATE: Positive news. She is sitting up and showing signs of real improvement. This is the update we have been praying for. What we hope this means is that the swelling in her brain is going down and that this will continue to happen and she will continue to improve. We are eternally optimistic. More to come tomorrow...
5.12 PM UPDATE: She is currently at SVS Emergency Services in Fort Meyers, FL. She is resting and receiving fluids and pain meds. We will know more if she makes it through the night. They suspect she has a leg injury and possibly a head injury. Just to care for her over the weekend and run the right tests to determine what is wrong will cost SNIP $2,800-$3,800. This is not what we usually do, but we could never just walk away. We Will never just walk away. If it is determined that she can pull through this, whatever care she needs will be in addition to that. We will keep you posted here and on our Facebook page with updates on her.
May 12 - While out in Immokalee,FL today to transport 3 dogs that were owner surrenders, we came across something that unfortunately happens far too often. Two little boys came running up to us from across the street with a limp dog. They said she was hit by a car. We went across the street to talk to the father who was sitting on the porch. (NOTE: we have been to this house many times asking if we can help with their dogs because they let them run loose and we knew it was a matter of time before they got pregnant, or worse. But they always refused help). We asked the dog’s “family” what they were going to do and the man said “nothing” and walked in the house. Well, we could not let that happen, so we are on our way to the emergency vet hospital and SNIP Collier is going to do everything we can to save this girl.
This is NOT ok. We see a lot of things doing what we do, and we don’t get angry often but we are angry. And this happens. All the time.
If you are not a responsible pet owner, you should not hav pet. Period.
Say prayers for this sweet innocent baby.
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