Emergency Vet. Bills for Oura - Service Dog

Arianna D'Alelio is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Terese Trepanier.

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Hi, for those who don't know me, my name is Anna and I've created this fundraised to help with a couple of different, but related, issues.

The purposes of this fundraiser are as follows:

1. to help with the eventual purchase and training of my next Service Dog prospect.

2. help to pay off (about 15k worth of ) credit card debt that has been incurred from Veterinary bills that were needed by my service dog Oura to try our best to save her life.

To explain what happened and how, I'll start at the beginning... I'm a 35 year old adult living with autism and EDS-related joint issues (joint hypermobility) and almost 6 years ago I adopted my first trained Service dog.. my sweet girl Oura ("Oura the Service Husky") She was an amazing dog and, at just shy of 6 years old I expected to have so many more years with her. she was young and healthy and still had the soul, energy, and drive of a pup with a work ethic most human employers would envy (she LOVED to put on her vest and go to work, even tho working vest transformed her from a silly goober into a serious working dog focused on keeping her human/mommy (ie - myself) safe and mentally ok.

On Christmas eve Oura was okay. She had thrown up earlier that day but I had figured it was just a tummy ache or her having eaten too fast (Ive seen it happen before where dogs or cats eat too fast and then throw up their food) She seemed otherwise fine at that point, minus a little limp in her leg that had been going on, on and off, for a few months due to a slip on icey snow here in the Northeast. She was a little limpy on christmas eve but was otherwise running around chasing one of her doggy friends that was visiting, trying to sneak kisses on the cheek of an older dog who didnt want to deal with her puppy-like antics. she got her own little piece of steak for dinner and cuddled on the couch seemingly comfortably while we played family board games. All was good. On Christmas eve....

the next day she started Vomitting uncontrollably, she didnt eat any of her food and was throwing up all her water. Something was wrong. She was becoming lethargic and less responsive (she was awake but not moving or reaccting to much... we were able to pick her up and bring her to the car without protest while she lay limp letting us move her around. We rushed her to the Emergency vet the night after Christmas and she was in septic shock. She had free fluid in her abdomen and she needed emergency surgery to find and repair what was assumed (correctly) to be a perforation (we thought maybe from a chicken bone, it turned out to be an ulcer that perforated thru.. we still arent quite sure how she ended up with an ulcer that quickly... she only ever took a couple doses of nsaids for her sore leg) The emergency vet we brought her to did not have a surgeon on call over the holidays so we had to wait for them to get Oura stable, (while they also called around to find somewhere with an on-call surgeon we could get her to) when she was stable enough, we then got her back in the car to self-transport her an hour south to another vet hospital for surgery.

She made it thru the surgery and was stable for the first almost 24 hours ... her prognosis was still gaurded but she was holding on and we were hopeful... until 4am the next day after her surgery we got a call that she was going down hill fast .. she was going septic again.. her lungs were filling with black fluid.. they believe there was a secondary perforation higher up (in the esophagus) that was missed.. (the surgery was a chest surgery, so it would have been difficult to see both issues going on) If she were to survive this she would need a 2nd surgery... but she was just out of the first surgery... she was going downhill quickly and the possibility of getting her stable enough to be put under again for another surgery was pretty much out of the question. We raced down to the vet again basically... to say goodbye. We opted for humane euthenasia at that point to help ease her pain in her last moments. She was awake and I was able to be there with her and say goodbye and tell her she was the best good girl and the best service dog i could have asked for. No matter how many times i say it or tell her story it doesnt get easier. One moment I feel so numb I dont want to say anything, the next I feel like i need to tell her story a million times just to make it make sense (even tho it never does... how does a dog go from healthy and happy to gone so quickly... for no obvious reason that anyone can realy say?)

It hurts too much to go further into this right now but suffice to say we spent over $15k we dont have to try to save my babygirl's life. (I will include invoices from the vets) . Its not a regret. We'd do it all over again in heartbeat... she did so much fr me in her short life and she was a young and healthy dog that you couldn't just 'give up on' .She was young and healthy and it would be insane to just not even try to help her and let her die... sadly, despite our best efforts, that was the end result anyhow..... she was so strong, her body just coulnt handle it.

Losing my service dog has been one of the hardest things Ive ever gone through. She was a huge part of my support system and helped me to become independent when I was barely able to leave the house before due to autism related anxiety, sensory overload and agoraphobia/ social anxiety. Without her I feel less confident to do all of the things that I do and continue becoming a person that I strive to be. The bond a handler has with their service dog cannot be put into words. I wont just be able to 'replace' her; she is irreplaceable. But eventually getting another dog I can have trained to be my service dog will help me maintain my independence and navigate the world as an autistic and disabled person. Its hard to think any dog could ever be as good as she was for me, but I know I will need another dog in my life, both for having a service dog as well as to ease the loneliness and empty hole in my heart.

So again, anything anybody feels comfortable donating to help.

The first couple thousand is what I need to be able to set aside money to purchase and train a service dog, and, everything else will slowly go toward helping to pay off credit card debt.. the sooner we reach goals the better so we dont incurr too much interest but it is what it is... I kind of feel like im just going to be in debt for the rest of my life.

My car also died last month and what I just spent to try to save my dog could have been a whole car sooo yea that was one thing that had already put a dent in my independence and now ive lost my service dog too... makes it hard not to want to just crawl in a hole and pull the ground up over me... again, obviously I dont regret anything we did or spent to save my dogs life. She was a healthy not-even-quite 6 year old dog who should have had so many more years ahead of her. Went from healthy one day to a freak illness and then rushing her to the vet, finding out she needed surgery, rushing her in there and and then having her pass away within 48 hours of even showing anything wrong. I could not live with myself if I didn't try to save her, but at this point we are now in financial debt AND without my Service Dog.

BUT im trying stay as positive as I can be. Im devastated and I need help.

Ive only ever asked for help when its actually neccesary.

I am on government SSDI/disability so very low income without much to spare and it would take me years to save anything on my own (especially since I barely am given enough to live off of, much less to actually SAVE money)

This was a completely unforseen circumstance as I expected to have many more years with my service dog and

, as far as when it came time for Oura to retire, i had expected to have had time to set aside money slowly for a new service dog prospect to train as Oura reached retirement age (but she was still young and I had so many more years and adventures planned for us).

Any amount anyone can help with is appreciated and if you are unable to donate, we would appreciate if you can simply share the link to this Fundraiser with those you know.

saying goodbye to my sweet girl... sent her off like a soldier in uniform.. wearing her vest with honor one last time. Holding it together as she looks into my eyes, telling her im gonna be ok so I dont upset her.... she's got her vest but she doesnt have to work anymore.... just rest baby. Mommy loves you so so much and you were THE BEST i could have asked for.