Carolina's medical bills

Saturday, August 5th the day I wished was only a nightmare.

While I was out of town my two dogs, Lucy and Carolina, got out and ran into the road. Both were hit by a car. Lucy's neck was broken and she most likely died on impact. Carolina thankfully survived, but was left with a dislocated hip, road rash and other minor injuries. Both were immediately taken to my primary veterinary hospital, Village Veterinary Hospital, where Lucy was pronounced dead. Carolina was sedated for evaluation of her injuries as she was in a great deal of pain. Later that day, Carolina was able to go under anesthesia to put her leg back into place and to further address her other wounds. She was discharged the next day with pain meds and her leg wrapped in an Ehmer sling to try to prevent her femur from dislocating again. The bill from her 2 day hospital stay was over $2,000.

The day after Carolina was discharged, Monday, August 7th, I brought her back to the vet for laser therapy to help with inflammation and pain. We decided to take recheck xrays of her hips and realized her femur had again dislocated. Unfortunately, this meant even if we put her femur back into place the chances of it staying in are very slim. The next, best step for her is to go to a board-certified veterinary surgeon to have a femoral head osteotomy (commonly known as FHO). This surgery is going to cost around $6,000 not including post-operative care (continued laser therapy and recheck appointments with my primary vet).

For those that do not know, a femoral head osteotomy is a surgical procedure to remove the head and neck of the femur, of the affected leg, so there no longer is bone-on-bone contact. Over time, scar tissue will end up forming a false fibrous joint. FHO surgery is commonly referred to as a salvage procedure with the goal of the surgery to preserve the function of the hip joint and improve pain or discomfort.

This weekend I felt especially helpless being over 6 hours away. I did not realize when I left on Thursday that that would be the last time that I saw Lucy. I made the difficult decision not to see Lucy's body when I visited Carolina in the hospital because I wanted my last memory of her to be when she was alive and happy. I am grateful that she did not suffer. It is difficult for me to come to terms with Lucy's passing as I couldn't say a proper goodbye before she crossed the rainbow bridge. None of this feels real, I pray that one day I may wake up from this terrible nightmare.

All of this has come with very poor timing. I am moving on August 19th to Canada to start my first semester in vet school. Unfortunately this year, I had already said goodbye to my soul dog, Millie. She passed away from cancer in March, only six months after being diagnosed. I have always been very grateful that I knew how much time I had left with Millie. I was able to cross off everything on my bucket list that I wanted to do with her before she passed. I did not get the same luxury with Lucy. My already broken heart has now shattered after losing Lucy. I have decided that after Carolina's long road to recovery, we are going to go on all of the adventures I had wanted to do with Lucy before she left this world. Lucy was only 6 years old and still had so much life left in her. Carolina is 4 years old and very much does not agree with this concept of strict cage rest. We have quite the journey ahead of us, but I thank God every second of every day that he left Carolina on this Earth with me. I would have been utterly lost if I was left here to continue without all three of my dogs.

***Please know that All donations are going to directly pay their medical bills***