Luka the Miracle Dog
Donation protected
Hi everyone. My name is Morgan and my boyfriends name is José. Together we have two beautiful Siberian Huskies, Niko and Luka. Luka is a two year old female and has the best personality. She’s spunky, sweet, and just the right amount of crazy. I know a lot of people say this, but our dogs are literally our children. We love them with our entire hearts and more and would be devastated if anything happened to them. My heart is shattered in pieces writing this.
As some of you may know, huskies are known for being Houdini grade escape artists. In the early morning of Wednesday, June 2nd 2021, Luka and Niko managed to rip a plank off of our neighbors fence and squeeze through. We noticed fairly soon after and were able to get Niko right away, but Luka was nowhere to be found. After searching on foot and by car for about two hours, we headed home in hopes that she had come back on her own. To our dismay, I received a call no pet owner wants to get; she was found on the side of the highway in bad shape. She had been hit by a car and fell off the 20ft overpass onto the highway. We immediately rushed her to the emergency vet to receive urgent medical care.
The prognosis is not great. She has a severe pneumothorax and contusions on her lungs on top of major shock. Worse yet, she has multiple fractures in her pelvis and a broken tibia. While we don’t want her to suffer, we also want to do everything in our power to save her if viable. She’s just so young and full of life. It’s an immensely difficult decision that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
So far she’s had a few chest taps to release the air in her lungs. She’ll likely need more throughout the day, possibly even a chest tube if she doesn’t improve more. Getting her stable on that end is the priority, but that still leaves a big question mark on her pelvis. We’re waiting to hear back from more orthopedic surgeons in our area, but so far we got a brief synopsis from one saying that it could be fixable. We don’t know exact costs yet, but the emergency treatment alone is already at $7,000 and climbing. Update: Michigan State University reviewed the X-rays. They quoted us $11,000-$12,000 for the surgery.
We’re not ones to ask for help but we’re desperate to do everything we can for our baby girl. Every penny that gets donated will go directly towards her care, whether that be supportive care, surgery, or rehab. Anything that exceeds the cost of care will be donated to a charity. We greatly appreciate every single donation and we understand not everyone is able to donate monetarily. Simply sharing this page to get the word out is just as helpful. So with broken hearts we ask for your help in saving our little princess.
Please and thank you,
Morgan and José
June 22nd, 2021 update:
Luka stayed at the emergency vet from June 2nd until June 6th. After multiple chest taps, days on oxygen support, and many medications, they were able to save her life from the immediate life threatening injuries and get her stable enough for surgery. So on June 6th, Jose and I transferred her to Michigan State University so they could start surgically repairing her pelvis and legs.
She had a left tibia fracture, right acetabular fracture, right sacral fracture, and bilateral sacroiliac luxation. Long story short, and in the words of a vet themself, her pelvis was pretty badly obliterated. The amazing surgeons at MSU still held out hope and made a plan to repair it all.
Her first surgery was June 7th where they repaired her tibia and acetabulum. Everything went as expected and she recovered from surgery well. They gave her a day to rest and began her second surgery on Wednesday the 9th. The hope was to only have the two surgeries, but unfortunately there were some complications with the second one. Her pelvis just wasn’t lined up properly, so they ended up having to go back in on Thursday the 10th for yet another surgery. Luckily it went well and the surgeons were happy with the repairs. She stayed 2 more nights to be monitored and was finally able to come home on June 12th. A few days at home and we noticed her and our other husky, Niko, developed a cough. We took her in immediately to ensure it wasn’t residual lung trauma. Come to find out, she contracted kennel cough at some point and brought it home to Niko as well. They’re both on antibiotics and getting better. Luka is also recovering well from surgeries. She’s starting to get up and move a lot more. We have a long ways to go but I know she’ll be back at it in no time.
When Luka first arrived at the emergency vet the day it happened, they recommended euthanasia based on the prognosis. We absolutely refused, Jose and I were willing to go as far into debt as need be to save our baby. The emergency vet alone came out to $7,100. The surgeries on top of that were about $16,000 all together. That’s not including the cost of follow up appointments and rehab. Her total care will be about $24,000 total. While the bills turned out to be incredibly expensive, we don’t regret it for a second. We’d do it all over again, all that matters is our girl is alive and getting better. Even the vets were all awestruck and shocked that she made it out of this. She’s our little miracle girl ❤️ Once again, we greatly appreciate every donation, every share, and all the kind words. We are eternally grateful for all the love we received thus far. Please feel free to continuing sharing our page to gain traction. Every little bit helps. Thank you ❤️
July 1st, 2021 update:
As some of you may know, huskies are known for being Houdini grade escape artists. In the early morning of Wednesday, June 2nd 2021, Luka and Niko managed to rip a plank off of our neighbors fence and squeeze through. We noticed fairly soon after and were able to get Niko right away, but Luka was nowhere to be found. After searching on foot and by car for about two hours, we headed home in hopes that she had come back on her own. To our dismay, I received a call no pet owner wants to get; she was found on the side of the highway in bad shape. She had been hit by a car and fell off the 20ft overpass onto the highway. We immediately rushed her to the emergency vet to receive urgent medical care.
The prognosis is not great. She has a severe pneumothorax and contusions on her lungs on top of major shock. Worse yet, she has multiple fractures in her pelvis and a broken tibia. While we don’t want her to suffer, we also want to do everything in our power to save her if viable. She’s just so young and full of life. It’s an immensely difficult decision that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
So far she’s had a few chest taps to release the air in her lungs. She’ll likely need more throughout the day, possibly even a chest tube if she doesn’t improve more. Getting her stable on that end is the priority, but that still leaves a big question mark on her pelvis. We’re waiting to hear back from more orthopedic surgeons in our area, but so far we got a brief synopsis from one saying that it could be fixable. We don’t know exact costs yet, but the emergency treatment alone is already at $7,000 and climbing. Update: Michigan State University reviewed the X-rays. They quoted us $11,000-$12,000 for the surgery.
We’re not ones to ask for help but we’re desperate to do everything we can for our baby girl. Every penny that gets donated will go directly towards her care, whether that be supportive care, surgery, or rehab. Anything that exceeds the cost of care will be donated to a charity. We greatly appreciate every single donation and we understand not everyone is able to donate monetarily. Simply sharing this page to get the word out is just as helpful. So with broken hearts we ask for your help in saving our little princess.
Please and thank you,
Morgan and José
June 22nd, 2021 update:
Luka stayed at the emergency vet from June 2nd until June 6th. After multiple chest taps, days on oxygen support, and many medications, they were able to save her life from the immediate life threatening injuries and get her stable enough for surgery. So on June 6th, Jose and I transferred her to Michigan State University so they could start surgically repairing her pelvis and legs.
She had a left tibia fracture, right acetabular fracture, right sacral fracture, and bilateral sacroiliac luxation. Long story short, and in the words of a vet themself, her pelvis was pretty badly obliterated. The amazing surgeons at MSU still held out hope and made a plan to repair it all.
Her first surgery was June 7th where they repaired her tibia and acetabulum. Everything went as expected and she recovered from surgery well. They gave her a day to rest and began her second surgery on Wednesday the 9th. The hope was to only have the two surgeries, but unfortunately there were some complications with the second one. Her pelvis just wasn’t lined up properly, so they ended up having to go back in on Thursday the 10th for yet another surgery. Luckily it went well and the surgeons were happy with the repairs. She stayed 2 more nights to be monitored and was finally able to come home on June 12th. A few days at home and we noticed her and our other husky, Niko, developed a cough. We took her in immediately to ensure it wasn’t residual lung trauma. Come to find out, she contracted kennel cough at some point and brought it home to Niko as well. They’re both on antibiotics and getting better. Luka is also recovering well from surgeries. She’s starting to get up and move a lot more. We have a long ways to go but I know she’ll be back at it in no time.
When Luka first arrived at the emergency vet the day it happened, they recommended euthanasia based on the prognosis. We absolutely refused, Jose and I were willing to go as far into debt as need be to save our baby. The emergency vet alone came out to $7,100. The surgeries on top of that were about $16,000 all together. That’s not including the cost of follow up appointments and rehab. Her total care will be about $24,000 total. While the bills turned out to be incredibly expensive, we don’t regret it for a second. We’d do it all over again, all that matters is our girl is alive and getting better. Even the vets were all awestruck and shocked that she made it out of this. She’s our little miracle girl ❤️ Once again, we greatly appreciate every donation, every share, and all the kind words. We are eternally grateful for all the love we received thus far. Please feel free to continuing sharing our page to gain traction. Every little bit helps. Thank you ❤️
July 1st, 2021 update:
She had her first post operative follow up appointment at MSU today. Shortly after her X-rays were taken, the surgeon called us in to chat. Unfortunately, Luka dislocated her hip due to her femoral head being necrotic. There were a few different options to remedy this but the best one was something called a Femoral Head Ostectomy (FHO) surgery. Basically, they are going to completely cut off her right femoral head/neck. This will be followed but rigorous physical rehabilitation over the next few weeks. If that fails, she will need a total hip replacement on the right side. This adds another $3,500+ to the $24,000+ we already paid. It’s a step back but we’re not losing sight of the goal. The good news is everything else is healing well. We’re getting there; slowly, surely, and very expensively, but we’re getting there nonetheless. Please feel free to continue sharing her story/ GoFundMe link ❤️
Organizer
Morgan Briggs
Organizer
Muskegon, MI
