Hi, we're asking for help to save Murphy's life. Murphy aka The Murphinator, Murphs or Muffy as our daughter likes to call him, is six-years-old and our best friend. He's the best dog. I know everyone says that, but he really is. He would 100% jump in your lap and make you feel like the only person in the world if he ever met you.

We left on a family vacation to celebrate my mother-in-law's 80th birthday. Murphy was staying with a trusted friend. We're not sure what exactly happened, but the second day we were gone, Murphy started limping. It progressed to him not eating or walking. Our friends knew something was seriously wrong when they offered Murphy chicken and he wouldn't eat it. They took him to our vet where he had x-rays on his elbow done, blood work, a pain injection, and was sent home with pain medications and anti-inflammatories after his x-rays came back negative.

The second day, his elbow looked more red, but he was eating, drinking, and able to walk, but still limping. The next morning, however, the redness had spread to his chest and down his arm. He was taken back to the vet and sent to an emergency intensive care unit because his skin burst exposing his muscle. Murphy was taken into emergency surgery where he underwent an irrigation and debridement surgery to remove the dead tissue and clean the wound. There isn't enough skin to close the wound, so it's being left open while he gets wound care, antibiotics, fluids, nutrition and pain meds. He's spending the next few days in the ICU and he may need to have another surgery. Once the wound stabilizes we can take him home, but it will take months to recover and he'll need to go to the vet every day for dressing changes so the skin can heal and grow back.

So far we've spent $1,200 during our first vet visit and $12,900 at the emergency vet, over $14,000 so far. This has drained our savings in a matter of days, but the alternative is Murphy dying. The intensive care veterinarian doesn't know exactly what caused this, but she's pretty certain it's a bite from something venomous. This is going to be a long road where he'll need more surgery, wound care and medication.

We weren't sure if Murphy would pull through, we wanted to wait and see before we asked for help, but yesterday he ate for the first time. He's wagging his tail again. He even got up and walked. His wound has stopped spreading. He's not ready to die and we're not ready to give up.

If there is anything you have to contribute, we would appreciate it so much. This is going to be a long road to recovery with daily dressing changes at the vet and medication. We'll include the itemized receipts from the vet for his ICU stay and the rest on our instagram (gofundme only allows 5 photos to be posted) so you know your money is going straight to Murphy's care. Murphy's instagram is SaveMuffy. Thank you so much.