Help Coco Heal from Severe Grooming Injuries

One of our dogs was severely injured at the groomer last week and so far we have incurred $13,500 in medical bills for a hospitalization and major surgery with a 6-8 week recovery time.

Coco is an 8 year old poodle mix that I have had the pleasure of having in my life since she was a puppy. She is a cuddle bug and a lover and so athletic compared to her 10-year-old sister, Penny. Coco is happily glued to my side - always, so when she didn't want anything to do with me for an entire day following her grooming appointment, my spidey-senses were telling me something was wrong. Thankfully I listened to my intuition.

I’ve been using this grooming location for 10 years and the owner recently sold, transitioning the store to a new owner and team in early February. When I dropped my dogs (again, two 10 pound poodle mixes) off last week they were very hesitant to go inside. When I picked them up two hours later they were very eager to leave and seemed ok initially but once we walked down the stairs to the sidewalk, Coco completely shut down. She was walking very slowly with her tail down (she’s a very quick walker and had just walked a brisk half hour walk before their appointment). Her breathing was rapid and shallow and she didn’t want me to pick her up to carry her home. I texted my husband within the same block as the groomer on our way home and said “Penny seems ok, Coco seems traumatized”.

Initially I chalked this up to anxiety (Coco is notorious for grooming anxiety and I had given her CBD prior as I usually do). It was a new to her groomer, after all. I let her decompress in the dark bedroom and checked on her throughout the day. She didn’t really seem to be calming down so later that day I texted the groomer to ask if anything had happened and they said no, Coco was her fine happy self throughout the appointment.

The next morning Coco started coughing up blood so I immediately took her to our vet who (after a thorough exam and poking and prodding without any reaction from Coco) decided it was likely kennel cough and offered an Xray option, which I thankfully took. Those results shocked the vet because Coco didn’t show the signs they thought dogs would under what they noticed in the Xray: a pneumothorax bullae that was allowing air to leak from her lungs into her chest cavity, making it very hard to breathe.

Once they stabilized her with oxygen we transported her to Animal Medical Center where we were warned she might need surgery. Later that evening I got a phone call that upon studying that X-ray further they noticed a recently fractured rib. Her liver levels were also very high, indicating a liver injury.

Surgery was performed Thursday to remove two masses in her lungs and the bullae. That required the removal of part of two lobes (from my understanding) that decreased her lung capacity by 20%. When the surgeon opened her up she said the bruising looked like she had been hit by a car. She had Hematomas in her gall bladder and lungs (which were the masses they removed) all on the right side of the body indicating severe, recent trauma. Here is the verbiage from her discharge notes: "Coco presented as a transfer to AMCS for further workup and treatment of pneumothorax. Coco was admitted to the hospital on 5/21/25 and she was kept comfortable. She had a CT scan on 5/22/25 that showed that she had lesions in the right cranial lung lobe +/- right middle lung lobe and a lung bleb in the periphery of the left cranial lung lobe; it also showed that she had hematomas in the right side of the liver. Coco went to surgery that afternoon after the CT scan and surgical findings included hematomas in the right cranial lung lobe, bleb in the left cranial lung lobe, bruising and hematoma of the right internal thoracic wall and mediastinum, and a tear in the right side of the pericardium. Coco did well under anesthesia and recovered uneventfully.”

I arranged a call with the new owner of the salon, who said based on talking to her staff (who denied anything happened) and video footage they have of Coco in their lobby acting “fine,” that nothing happened.

There is absolutely nothing else that could have happened to my dog. She and her dog sister are in our care unless, on a rare occasion, we go on vacation without them and when that happens, my father flies into town to watch them. They don’t go to dog parks. They’re never off leash. They don’t play with other dogs we don’t know. I only work two evening shifts per week so we are with them more than most dog parents and we take them with us to restaurants and bars all over the city when we venture out. This absolutely did not happen on our watch — if anything to cause such injury would have happened to our knowledge I would have taken her to the vet immediately. I’m just glad I took her in when I did and opted for the Xray. I don’t think she would still be with us if we had just taken home the medications for kennel cough.

Thank you for taking the time to read through this saga and for considering supporting us as we help Coco heal. We have alerted animal control and asked them for insight regarding a local animal rights lawyer. I don't want anyone else to ever have to deal with the horror of what we have gone through the last week.