Gwen’s Recovery and Merlin’s Passing

Hi, my name is Meghan and on November 17, 2024, the worst month and a half of my life began. I would normally never consider doing a go fund me but the financial burden of this has been very difficult. It was a Sunday morning and my car was sideswiped, ending with my mirror being ruined on the driver's side. Fine, I have insurance, not the end of the world. Later that day, I was playing ball with my 2 dogs when everything changed. I threw the ball, and my best girl Gwen was running full speed after it when I heard a sickening bang and saw her flipping over and screaming. She was lifting her front leg, and I raced down to grab hold of her. I knew in that moment that she had broken her leg. There was a plastic cover, I think for the septic tank, in the yard of our rental property that she put her leg in at full speed.

Luckily, we live close to an Emergency Clinic and were able to get her there almost right away. They told us that her best chance for recovery would be surgery after an X-ray to confirm the break. She was taken back, and we had to go home without her. The diagnosis was a broken radius and ulna. This surgery was estimated to cost between $4,000-7,000. I hadn't gotten her insurance yet as I was going to get it for both dogs before the next sports season. Gwen does dock diving and FastCat, and George does FastCat and is starting scent work. She was scheduled for surgery Tuesday morning, November 19th. Gwen woke up that morning with a slight heart murmur and had to be seen by a cardiologist before her surgery. Luckily, it was due to the IV fluids, and she was able to get her surgery. She had 1 plate and 6 screws in each bone to hold everything together. We were able to pick her up on the 20th, with the grand total being just under $6,700.

Due to my lack of sleep along with stress, I ended up with pneumonia, which then was given to my boyfriend who lives with me. This caused us both to miss at least a week of work each. I had to take care of Gwen, who had very strict post-operation restrictions and care. It would be at least an 8-week recovery with physical therapy that I would be doing at home, along with the potential for needing physical therapy after. Her incision was checked on December 6th and looked great, thankfully. Just 6 more weeks of crate rest.

Around this time, we started hearing noises in the walls of our rental property. We told our landlords, who were very slow to do anything, taking over 2 weeks to bring 2 small traps by even after we showed them that something was eating the wall and carpet in different spots. We only caught 2 mice with our traps, but I thought it had to be something bigger as the droppings I saw were too big. On Monday, December 23, I was visiting family over 4 hours away when I got a call from my boyfriend at 5:30 PM. The animals that had been chewing everything attacked one of our sugar gliders. They tried to rip him out of his cage, ending with his front legs being broken and his tail being eaten off. I drove home the over 4 hours to try and see what we could do.

Due to Gwen's almost $7,000 vet bill, I could not afford to bring Merlin to be humanely euthanized. My friend consulted her vet, and we had to put him down at home with an overdose of CO2. I am hoping to cremate Merlin, costing between $150-$200 as it’s the least I can do for him after everything he went through during his life. He was only 4 and sugar gliders live between 12-15 years. We had to get our other two gliders, Luna and Momo, out of the house the next morning when we moved into a hotel, paid for by our landlords until their Airbnb opened up on Saturday the 28th. To end the worst month of my life, I then broke my glasses. I'm currently looking into getting a therapist due to the panic attacks I have been having anytime Gwen tries to move faster than a walk, crying pretty much every day, and sleeping horribly this entire month. She has her final X-ray on January 15th and hopefully will be cleared for full activity. This is also going to have to be paid out of pocket. All funds will be going towards Gwen vet bill ❤️