
Help Rocket with his IVDD surgery
Hi friends, we’ve struggled with the idea to start a GoFundMe during COVID but we figured it can’t hurt to try. We know the financial stress during the pandemic is hard on you all and your families and it is difficult to ask for help right now. However, this morning our baby Rocket had to undergo emergency surgery. For backstory, Rocket was diagnosed in March 2020 with IVDD (a degenerative disc disorder of the spine/slipped or herniated disc) which is quite common in dachshunds due to their long backs. We have been crate resting him ever since with limited movement throughout the day. We’ve gotten back braces. We’ve tried pain medications. Things seemed to be going well and we were doing everything we could do avoid further complications. Unfortunately, the disc sometimes will just continue to slip into the spinal cord. This causes lots of pain for the dog and loss of function below wherever part of the spine the disc is impacting. In Rocket’s case it’s just below the hip and he has lost function in his hind legs now. Many of you may know that Rocket also has epilepsy which causes his body to move uncontrollably, but it is hard to know what may have contributed to this progression of his disease. Anyway, the surgery is costing us about $10K which of course was very disheartening but we will do whatever we need to for Rocket. If you can help and want to donate we appreciate it so much! If you can’t please know we completely understand, especially during this time! Even just sending us positive and healing thoughts is so appreciated. His situation as of right now is that we were able to get him to the ER pretty quickly, he is still feeling pain (which is good) so the doctor gave us a prognosis after surgery about 90% to return to normal function (being able to walk again). We hope our baby Rocket can pull through this like he always does. We will continue to update here as we learn more but right now we are just trying to stay positive and hope the surgery goes well so We can save Rockets life and hopefully he can return to normal after healing and likely physical therapy. Thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you for donating if possible, and thank you for sending us good vibes! We love you!
~Gill, Mike, Rocket and Sunn