Surgery for my Sweet Pauline
Donation protected
I'd like to begin this post by saying that Pauline is one of the sweetest dogs I have ever met.
Two years ago she was a stray dog in Greece, missing half of her front leg, afflicted with the tick-borne disease Ehrlichia, a few BB gun pellets seeminly lodged in her skin. She had recently had a litter of puppies. Her story broke my heart and I couldn’t say no to bringing her into my life. Shortly after adopting her we crowd funded enough to have a prosthetic leg made for her. After several readjustments, 3 months of regular training, and a few more months of touch ups and repairs, her prosthetic is perfect. I can’t even begin to tell you how much its changed her life, and how much she absolutely adores her leg. It gave her the confidence to interact with other dogs and has allowed her to go for significantly longer walks.
Unfortunately however, Pauline is now facing a much more serious issue. It seems that whatever trauma she endured that resulted in the loss of her front leg also caused a massive injury to her right hip.
This injury has deteriorated her femur to the point that she is on roughly $300 worth of pain medications each month, and the only long term solution is surgery.
The ongoing cost of her medications is preventing me from putting money away to save up for her surgery as it takes up the last of my discretionary income. I will happily continue to give everything I have to her, however, the real issue is her long term health. I am hoping for a long term solution, and she is quickly running out of time.
Pauline is a young dog, no more than 4 or 5 years old. The combination of medication she is on is quite damaging in long term use (particularly Metacam, which is great for pain management but is harmful over time.) All of the vets and specialists I’ve spoken to are confident that performing a Femoral Head Ostectomy (FHO) would correct the issue and ultimately save her life and free her from immense pain.
A FHO is a surgical procedure that removes the head and neck from the femur in order to alleviate pain. Pauline’s X-rays indicate that the head of her femur is extremely degraded, and is the clear source of her pain. At this point she is in so much pain and on so many medications that the only options are surgery or to make the difficult decision to put her down. The surgery is estimated to cost around $4000, the breakdown for which I have included on this page. If I had the money, believe me I’d spend it in a heartbeat, but the reality is that it’s way out of my reach.
I would be forever grateful for any help in saving my girl. Please help me help her get back to her regular old self.
Two years ago she was a stray dog in Greece, missing half of her front leg, afflicted with the tick-borne disease Ehrlichia, a few BB gun pellets seeminly lodged in her skin. She had recently had a litter of puppies. Her story broke my heart and I couldn’t say no to bringing her into my life. Shortly after adopting her we crowd funded enough to have a prosthetic leg made for her. After several readjustments, 3 months of regular training, and a few more months of touch ups and repairs, her prosthetic is perfect. I can’t even begin to tell you how much its changed her life, and how much she absolutely adores her leg. It gave her the confidence to interact with other dogs and has allowed her to go for significantly longer walks.
Unfortunately however, Pauline is now facing a much more serious issue. It seems that whatever trauma she endured that resulted in the loss of her front leg also caused a massive injury to her right hip.
This injury has deteriorated her femur to the point that she is on roughly $300 worth of pain medications each month, and the only long term solution is surgery.
The ongoing cost of her medications is preventing me from putting money away to save up for her surgery as it takes up the last of my discretionary income. I will happily continue to give everything I have to her, however, the real issue is her long term health. I am hoping for a long term solution, and she is quickly running out of time.
Pauline is a young dog, no more than 4 or 5 years old. The combination of medication she is on is quite damaging in long term use (particularly Metacam, which is great for pain management but is harmful over time.) All of the vets and specialists I’ve spoken to are confident that performing a Femoral Head Ostectomy (FHO) would correct the issue and ultimately save her life and free her from immense pain.
A FHO is a surgical procedure that removes the head and neck from the femur in order to alleviate pain. Pauline’s X-rays indicate that the head of her femur is extremely degraded, and is the clear source of her pain. At this point she is in so much pain and on so many medications that the only options are surgery or to make the difficult decision to put her down. The surgery is estimated to cost around $4000, the breakdown for which I have included on this page. If I had the money, believe me I’d spend it in a heartbeat, but the reality is that it’s way out of my reach.
I would be forever grateful for any help in saving my girl. Please help me help her get back to her regular old self.
Organizer
Sam Pedicelli
Organizer
Toronto, ON
