Gnawla's Fight for Recovery & Emergency Medical Bills

Hi, my name is Korrie and this is my best friend Gnawla. She's 14.5 and the most compassionate dog I've ever met. It's scary to broadcast my most sensitive moments, but I love her so much and I KNOW she would ask for help for me. So that's what I'm doing, asking for Gnawla, my sweet girl.

On Aprill 22nd at approximately 850pm, Gnawla and I were walking in our apartment complex (on leash) & a man had his 2 dogs OFF leash outside of his front door and they ran up to attack Gnawla! It was horrific. They would not release their bites.

She was in ER for 5.5hrs immediately after the attack. Doctors gave her IV for pain due to the trauma at intake. After reviewing her wounds, I had to make my first hard decision. Gnawla has stage 2 kidney disease that we manage daily with diet and lifestyle choices that keep her healthy (like walking every day and staying consistent with routine). Undergoing anesthesia can be difficult for a dog with her condition, and the reality is that if she goes under she very well could not wake up. The trauma was so intense that I decided to risk it. We put her under to treat the wounds. 9 were deep lacerations, 4 of which were down to muscle and tendons. She stayed stable under anesthesia, and received 15 total stitches to 4 seperate wounds. Her body temp now dropping, doctors turn off the anesthesia & cover her with "The bear hugger" (electric blow dryer blanket) to raise her temperature and I stand there hoping my baby will wake up so they can remove her tube. She wakes up, and we wait for her body temperature to rise, staying under bear hugger and blanket.

We go home early Tuesday morning and are told we are on an hour to hour basis with her healing and aftercare. I now have a 100% handicap dog. She cannot stand on her own. She won't eat. She's completely lethargic. I am now a 24 hour critical care nurse for Gnawla and missing work.

Fast forward to Wednesday morning, Gnawla is still 100% handicap and has been lethargic for 15 hours and will not eat or drink. Because of this, I'm unable to administer any of her antibiotics to combat any infection. She is lethargic, and it's super scary. I call the ER, and they immediately tell me to bring her back in. She needs emergency fluids, antibiotics and pain meds due to trauma and elevated levels on kidneys from the anesthesia.

We continue this pattern Wednesday - Saturday morning. She is drinking some water, but still not eating (meaning still no antibiotics). I'm having to carry her downstairs as often as I dared to try and let her potty holding her up so she doesn't soil her clean bedding. I'm doing everything I can to minimize infection.

Saturday morning (27th), we have our follow up appointment at our regular vet.

Doctor noticed Gnawla now has an infection on her inner thigh near her vulva where she has stitches, and wants to do blood work to make sure the wound was not septic because it was horribly inflamed, extremely red and turning white in the center. He also gave her an antibiotic shot (which is precarious in kidney disease patients & goes directly against kidney care) and recommended I start syringe feeding gnawla so I'm able to administer antibiotics at home.

Blood work comes back on 29th and her kidney levels are so high they're off the charts. Literally. The numbers are immeasurable they're so high. Doctor recommended I hospitalize Gnawla as he thinks she could now have acute kidney failure, and recommends a full kidney flush, 24hr constant fluids & antibiotics.

Upon intake, they notice she has now a small heart murmur. The doctor said it developed because of the trauma her little body has sustained. Now comes the second hard decision I had to make, and it many ways it was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make. I knew with the heart murmur that there was a chance her heart could just stop beating. That her body was tired - that my sweet girl was tired of fighting. She'd been so brave through everything, and I knew I KNEW if her heart gave out I couldn't in good conscience have them try and bring her back. To have her suffer longer than necessary because I couldn't let her go if she was tired of fighting. I couldn't put her through anymore pain like that. I had to be selfless, not selfish. I signed a DNR for my baby....Ultimately, she needed to stay hospitalized for at least 48hrs in the ICU to keep her kidney levels from rising. We were at least trying to get them to plateau even if at a high level.

Finally, Gnawla started to eat a little on her own. While she was there, she had 90% of her sutures removed since they were now completely ineffective after the doctors had to cut away so much dead skin.

She had 2 staples put in her left outer thigh. The rest of her wounds were cleaned, and left front leg was wrapped due to the amount of muscle still exposed. Her inner thigh infection went away with IV antibiotics. I visited her daily for a couple hours at a time. They wanted her longer as her numbers came down to a read-able level. The vet said if I couldn't keep her there, at least to have her do a half day of fluids at my regular vet during their full day of business hours 830am-530pm.

After 48 hours and her numbers improving, she walked out of the hospital on her own! After 9 days, she walked. Very weak, but she walked.

We went to our regular vet the next day on May 2nd for 1/2 day of fluids and continued to see improvement on her kidney levels.

We continued at home with improvement on walking up and down stairs slowly, eating and drinking.

Our most recent follow up appointment was May 7th to have her staples and remaining sutures checked, as well as do another renal panel blood work. Her staples were removed, sutures need to stay in going on 3rd week as they are still holding things in on inner thigh near her vulva. Her blood work came back on the 9th and is a hit or miss. Some levels are up and some are down.

I very grateful for the recovery journey we're on. I feel everything now is borrowed time with her. I can't believe my girl, my best friend, made it through the horrific trauma. She's so special to me. She's my heart dog.

May 13th marks exactly 3 weeks since the attack, and while the massive ER bills have lessened, everything else keeps piling up. ER, ICU and vet bills, blood work, medication, missed work...Initially, the owner responsible for the two dogs who attacked Gnawla stepped up to help pay for some of the costs, but has since resorted to violently threatening me via text (so much so that I've now been forced to contact the authorities to intervene).

At this point, Gnawla and I realize and have been told by loved ones that her and I are usually always the helpers and need help from our community and our friends on this ship. FRIENDSHIP. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts and all the donations will go to her emergency medical bills that I've had to pay for up-front.