K9 Nova Surgery Novato Police Officer Association

****UPDATE******

Thank you all!!!!

 Thank you so much for donating. We have reached our goal and Nova’s surgery is scheduled for December 14th. We are hoping it will be successful and he can enjoy a happy and long retirement at home. 

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The Novato Police Officer Association is seeking your assistance for one of our four legged partners.

 

Novato Police Department K9 Nova is a Belgian Malinois who has served the Novato Police Department for the past 2.5 years. During this time, he was utilized in handler protection, area searches, building searches, article detection, drug detection and tracking. Nova also served on the San Rafael Novato SWAT team. Nova has been an asset to the Novato Police Department and other Marin County agencies over the last 2.5 years. He has assisted in ensuring the safe surrender of numerous violent suspects and the seizure of copious amounts of illegal narcotics.

Unfortunately, Nova suffered an injury in training to his back leg which required surgery. Shortly after being cleared to return to duty, Nova started showing signs of a bacterial infection. The solution was another surgery to remove the hardware (plate and screws) from his back leg now that the bone was fused and healed.

 

After healing from the surgeries Nova was cleared to return to work. Another devastating blow to Nova’s career occurred when within a month, Nova became injured again during a SWAT training exercise. Nova was initially treated for a broken carpal bone in his front right foot. After the bone was healed Nova was still showing signs that something wasn’t right on his front foot and he was determined to be suffering from a Carpal Hyperextension. Nova had a consult with an orthopedic surgeon and his handler, Brian Ringo, was told that an arthrodesis would need to be performed on his front foot to relieve him of pain and to get his front foot back to a normal posture.

 

At this time, it is apparent that Nova will no longer be able to continue as a police dog and will medically retire at 5 years old. As his handler, Brian will take Nova on as his family pet upon Nova’s retirement. Regrettably the required surgeries are certain to take a toll on Brian’s finances as post-retirement medical cost are not covered by the department.

 

At this time, an estimate for the required procedures is over $11,000. Additionally, Nova’s post-op follow-up care may create some additional costs.

 

We hope that with these future procedures, Nova can still live a fulfilling life as a family pet. Anything you can spare to help Brian look after Nova would be very much appreciated.