Help Minik's hernia surgery cost

Hi all, you might have already seen my previous posts about my dog’s neck hernia and his surgery last week. He is doing very well compared to last week. He is happier :)

After those stressful days are over, I had a chance to reflect on; what happened, how much it cost to me, and what is waiting for me in future as well as whether it would have an impact on my cats. Therefore, I decided to ask for donations.

I would like to explain the reasoning behind this a little bit because initially I felt it would be unethical and people who need help more than me would be harmed while the insurance covers the most part of the cost (officially covers 80% but with yearly maximum amount in certain treatment, it becomes about 75%).

I am a PhD student at UvA so my income is a little bit higher that minimum wage but I don’t get any financial support from my family (They live in Turkey and the economy is really bad there). I thought of dog sitting but Minik is in strict crate rest so having another dog may make his recovery period very stressful. That’s why I decided to not dogsit until he gets better. Also I have two cats and I live in a student studio so I cannot look after every dog (only calm and/or non-reactive dogs and relatively smaller ones as Minik is a small dog) or separate the dogs and my cats.

For the surgery cost, I borrowed money from a friend to give it back when the insurance reimburse the cost so I was able to pay everything. I plan to continue with the physiotherapy for Minik to reduce his pain, improve mobility and maximize the benefit of this surgery. That will be partially covered too (200 eu is covered in a year if I’m not mistaken).

Considering everything, I thought it might be better to create a campaign for this emergency I had last week. I would appreciate any amount and please donate only if you really feel like this is a fair request. I can provide you all the invoices, decisions from the insurance company or any other document you’d like to see.

Hope to not have something like this in future but I will definitely make savings specifically for my pets. Last week was way too stressful for me. Lessons learned! And I don’t want my financial situation to influence my pets’ health and the care/treatment they can get.