Emergency surgery for sweet, tiny Milo!

Sophie MacKay is organizing this fundraiser.

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My name is Sophie, and I recently moved with my dog to Brooklyn, NY to pursue my dreams as an actor. Milo has been by my side for his entire life, and has been there for me through some incredibly tough times over the past few years. I love him with my whole heart, as does everyone who meets him. He has brought so may people joy, especially here in NYC.

Last Thursday, the day after I turned 26, my almost three-year-old, 8 lb, Havapoo began yelping when touched, hiding from everyone, and couldn't stop shaking. For those who know Milo, he is the sweetest, friendliest, most energetic pup, and this behavior is not at all like him!

12 hours later he wasn't improving, and since I don't have a regular vet here in Brooklyn yet, I found the closest animal ER to our apartment, and brought him in. We were sent home three hours later with pain meds, and told that he needed strict rest. They were unable to tell where his pain was coming from, and since he didn't have any broken bones or visable bruising, they didn't do an X-Ray. Jump to Saturday, he hadn't improved whatsoever. Then, Sunday morning, I woke up and he barely had control over his hind legs.

I had called the ER several times between Thursday evening and Sunday morning, but each time they told me to just finish him off on the pain meds they prescribed and to make him an "actual" vet appointment. But when he suddenly couldn't walk, I couldn't wait until Monday to try and make that vet appointment. I took him back to the ER, and this time they took him up to see the Dr. very quickly. Not too long after that, she came down to tell me that she thinks he has a ruptured spinal disc and needs emergency surgery, but that he can't receive the procedure at this hospital - we'd have to go to the Animal Medical Center on the Upper East Side. She then told me the range of what the surgery will cost: $8,000-$10,000.

Yesterday, I left Milo at the hospital for the night, and I put down $4,851 on my credit card in order to do so, with the expectation that he would be put under anesthesia and recieve an MRI, which he did just a couple hours ago (Monday afternoon, 6/12). It showed that he does indeed have a herniated disc in his thorasic spine, and they took him into surgery shortly after.

If left untreated, he would become paralyzed.

The total cost of the entire procedure is $9,200, plus all the medications he will need, plus whatever post-op care supplies we need to get him once he's home in a few days. There is no rhyme or reason for why this happened - it's evidently genetic, which makes this pure bad luck.

I currently do not have an income and have just enough savings left to pay my rent through August, and then I am out of money. This surgery has already, and will continue to put me into an immense amount of debt that is going to take me years to pay off. I couldn't have ever really planned for a medical emergency like this, which is why I am reaching out to you, my network, and beyond for help. Everything that I receieve will go directly to fund his hospital stay, the MRI, and the surgery. If you have anything at all to spare, even $5 would mean the world.

Milo has a 90% chance of full recovery of his hind legs, but the process is going to be long and hard. Spinal surgery on such a little guy is no joke (more info about the procedure here ). Just last week he was sprinting around after the bigger dogs at the park, his little ears flopping around... Send all the good puppy thoughts his way that he will be back to doing what dogs are meant to do in a few months!