Rosie's Surgery

Hi!

I'm a professional dog trainer and my dog Rosie is a Great Dane with a big heart and a great story. Rosie was a death-row dog and it was literally her last sunrise. She was a year old when I adopted her and trained her to become my demo dog; a model of what is possible with hard work and good training. She now gets to follow me around daily, mentoring hundreds of dogs to emulate her good manners and calm disposition!

Rosie is now 5 years old and she was beginning to suffer from arthritis in her knees and lower back. We tried accupuncture, we tried NSAIDs, we tried changes in diet and supplements, but it wasn't helping. She had to begin taking days off to recuperate and recover and it was absolutely sapping her spirit. We began researching stem-cell therapy.

After a month-long wait, on May 17th Rosie underwent a stem cell therapy surgery. Following the procedure, Rosie developed a hematoma the size of a soccer ball. She swelled so much she popped her staples. We were in the veterinarian's office 3 times in 4 days and she was taking steroids, anti-inflammatories, antibiotics, and even Chinese medicine! Visits continued with 6 visits in the next 10 days. The bleeding slowed. 12 days later the round of Chinese herbs ended and the dam that was holding all of her bleeding back broke. Her hematoma ruptured (externally, thank goodness!) and she began to lose blood. A LOT of blood.

She was rushed to the emergency veterinarian, where they concluded she has a rare bleeding disorder (similiar to hemopheliacs). They are studying her blood, but it appears the condition won't make much impact on her life, provided all surgeons are made aware of the condition when she undergoes future surgeries.

However, in order to treat her, they had to administer plasma transfusions. Because of her size, she used all the plasma they had and they needed to source more! $1,200 of plasma later, Rosie finally began to clot and we were out of the danger zone. She stayed the night for monitoring and transfusions to stabilize her ($800), and then was released to let her heal at home. Her hematoma continued to pour blood over the next two days and she had daily bandage changes ($125/per) to keep the area as clean as possible. On May 24th she underwent another major surgery ($1,500) to remove a "canteloupe size amount of dead tissue and coagulant" that had accumulated because of the pressure of the hematoma over the last two weeks. Rosie is a tough girl, but this absolutely knocked her out. She cried for two days as she recovered. Worst of all, the doctors couldn't sew her up for fear that the massive cavity would blow up into a second hematoma, so she was left with two large holes in her side, forced to wait for her body to heal from the inside-out. They stuffed the cavities with gauze to soak up the leaking blood.

Every day since then, we have to go into the emergency veterinarian for them to knock her out, debride the wounds by pulling out the packing gauze and bandages, repack the cavity with new gauze and bandages, wrap her up, wake her up, then send her home, to the tune of $125 each trip.

I budgeted for the original stem cell therapy ($1,900), but have since incurred over $5,000 in expenses to save her life. Rosie is going to need another surgery to close these wounds and the bills are starting to mount. Every dime raised will go 100% to pay her medical bills.

Rosie is my heart-dog. She's an incredible animal that shows that any dog can be a perfect dog if you love, train, and treat them the right way. She is also a testament to the bond that can be formed between man and dog. She is my best friend, my shadow, and my buddy. Her health means the absolute world to me.

I would be extraordinarily thankful for any donations that can be made to help with this. The wonderful specialists working to restore her health are expensive! After these procedures, she's expected to make a full recovery and enjoy the benefit of the original stem cell therapy. Her movement already seems to be boosted by that first therapy, which is wonderful! She just has new complications that must be taken care of before she can return to work and play.

Thank you,

Tyler and Rosie