Help cover Service Dog Mattis' $10,000 vet bills

Mattis is a 6.5 year old chocolate lab and service dog to US Marine, Chris. In the last 6 months Mattis has required two TPLO surgeries to repair torn ligaments in his stifles in both hind legs resulting in $10,000+ worth of vet bills for Chris. The VA was contacted but they only help pay for vet bills for Physical Assist service dogs, which Mattis is not.

 

THE WHOLE STORY:

Mattis came into Chris' life at a time when everything seemed to be falling apart. Chris was suffering terribly from Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Traumatic Stress due to injuries and things he had experienced in Somalia, Rwanda, Iraq and Afghanistan. The VA Doctor prescribed a service dog as part of his recovery plan, and a local non-profit helped find Mattis for Chris. The pair spent months training together, and Chris' life and symptoms drastically improved. For 5 years, the pair spent giving back to fellow veterans. Mattis became the local VFW honorary mascot and could be found there comforting any veteran or visiter who might be having a bad day.

 

Everything was going well, but Mattis' right hind leg was hurting early last fall. Upon examination by the vet, he had a small tear to the ACL in his left hind leg. The vet assured Chris that it would heal on its own, but Mattis jumped from the car a month later and refused to put any pressure on his right hind leg. The vet told Chris that he had overcompensated for the other injury and had torn his ACL and PCL in the right leg and would need TPLO surgery (plates and screws in the stifle joint) to repair it. The surgery and follow-up would run about $5,000. Chris took the few thousand dollars that he was saving for his upcoming wedding and his credit card and had the surgery done.

 

At 75 days Post Op, Mattis was at the VFW, and someone let him out into the yard. He came back 2 minutes later and wouldn't put any weight on the left leg, which was still mending from the initial partial ACL tear. Off to the vet, they went again and Mattis had torn the ACL completely through and PCL hiswas severely torn as well. The vet informed Chris that he would need TPLO surgery on that leg now as well. It was $5,000 more that he didn't have, but Chris and his soon to be wife (me) knew there had to be a way. We were married on April 2nd and scheduled the surgery to be done after we returned from our honeymoon.

 

The surgery was finally done on May 19th and all seemed well, then on May 28th something was very wrong. Mattis began to bleed from a hole near the surgical site that hadn't been there before. He was rushed to the vet and it was discovered that one of the pins from the TPLO had worked loose and was coming out through his skin and needed to be removed immediately. The emergency surgery resulted in more vet bills. We pray that the removal of the pin does not cause issues with the stability of the joint, but time will tell.

 

We are not the kind of people that normally ask for help, but many of our friends suggested we do a Go Fund Me to help cover the surgeries due the financial strain of it....so here we are. If you are able to contribute....THANK YOU...if you are not, that's ok...thanks for taking the time to read Mattis' story. God Bless you all.