Operation Fix Opus - Hurt Service Dog
Donation protected
Opus is my 7 year-old Diabetic Alert Dog. He is a beautiful English Lab that was trained and placed with me by Service Dogs of Virginia. In the nearly 5 years we have been together, Opus has saved my life countless times. He has given me back the independence that Type 1 Diabetes has been slowly stealing from me since my diagnosis at age 8. And he has allowed my family to breath easy knowing that I will be safe even when they cannot be with me.
Unfortunately, Opus started experiencing trouble several months ago. He was slowing down considerably on our outings and started to refuse to jump into the back of my vehicle. Occasionally he would pull up lame on a rear leg. I was hoping some rest would allow him to heal. Soon after friends at Service Dogs of Virginia noticed some muscle atrophy of the rear legs and Opus started to miss alerting me to serious low and high blood sugars. Visits to 2 veterinarians and X-rays did not allow us to diagnose a problem. We tried a conservative approach to treating his symptoms and hoped for the best. . .
Memorial Day weekend Opus went for a swim and by night he could barely walk. Back to the vet we went, and now we know he has a neck injury that the swimming greatly aggravated. Opus needs an MRI next so that we can make an appropriate treatment plan and hopefully restore him to health and service. He likely has a herniated disk and the MRI will show us where to go in and fix it. It should also show if there is a different issue like Wobblers Syndrome, a tumor or a cyst. If the MRI looks clear we will be able to test for meningitis. We plan to travel to The Veterinary Teaching Hospital at Virginia Tech to see what we can do to help Opus out. The vets here in Charlottesville estimate the costs of diagnosis and treatment will be between $4,000.00 and $7,000.00. We have already spent beyond our means trying to help Opus. Please consider helping us to fix Opus.
Below is a commercial made for Service Dogs of Virginia that shows how Opus helps me:
Unfortunately, Opus started experiencing trouble several months ago. He was slowing down considerably on our outings and started to refuse to jump into the back of my vehicle. Occasionally he would pull up lame on a rear leg. I was hoping some rest would allow him to heal. Soon after friends at Service Dogs of Virginia noticed some muscle atrophy of the rear legs and Opus started to miss alerting me to serious low and high blood sugars. Visits to 2 veterinarians and X-rays did not allow us to diagnose a problem. We tried a conservative approach to treating his symptoms and hoped for the best. . .
Memorial Day weekend Opus went for a swim and by night he could barely walk. Back to the vet we went, and now we know he has a neck injury that the swimming greatly aggravated. Opus needs an MRI next so that we can make an appropriate treatment plan and hopefully restore him to health and service. He likely has a herniated disk and the MRI will show us where to go in and fix it. It should also show if there is a different issue like Wobblers Syndrome, a tumor or a cyst. If the MRI looks clear we will be able to test for meningitis. We plan to travel to The Veterinary Teaching Hospital at Virginia Tech to see what we can do to help Opus out. The vets here in Charlottesville estimate the costs of diagnosis and treatment will be between $4,000.00 and $7,000.00. We have already spent beyond our means trying to help Opus. Please consider helping us to fix Opus.
Below is a commercial made for Service Dogs of Virginia that shows how Opus helps me:
Organizer
Hedman Hedman
Organizer
Charlottesville, VA
