Kirby’s Medical Bills and Rehabilitation

Hi! My name is Zinny and I’m Kirby’s mom. On Sunday 9/17, Kirby was viciously attacked by a family member’s 80-pound English bulldog. These dogs have hung out together on many occasion and, in fact, we’re getting along super well just 45 mins before the unprovoked attack.

I was reading a book when the English bulldog growled lowly at Kirby and within 3 seconds, had lunged and latched on to Kirby’s 11-pound body. In a moment of panic, I went into “mom mode” and tried to get this extremely strong animal off of my baby; I was mildly injured in the process.

I immediately drove to the 24-hr vet ER in a panic. I was told that Kirby had suffered a “de-gloving injury” that covered a generous amount of his lower body. When told the repairs would be between 2200 and 6000, with no guarantee of survival because of the potential of necrotic (dying) tissue. I began to weigh my options. Both of those prices up front were just not something that I had. The ER recommended a few “low-cost” clinics that would be able to help. I paid $480 for him to be bandaged, administered opioids, and to be sent home with liquid antibiotics and pain medicine.

12 hours later on 9/18, I arrived at Safe Haven Animal Hospital where I was given hope that he had a chance to overcome this traumatic injury. My mom (whose dog was the attacker) encouraged me to take care of Kirby and offered to pay the $853.40 of the low-end estimate. Little did either of us know that he would be hospitalized for 7 days, each day accruing a fee. Since then, it has been an additional ~$700 in order to pay for his hospitalization, including a constant IV to avoid dehydration, medical supplies, and the surgery to repair the Level 3 laceration.

Kirby is home now, but will require a lot of care, including bandage changes every other day (at $50 each visit), and an enclosed area so that he doesn’t move around too much. The wounds are still open underneath the bandage, but the tissue looks healthy so that’s what we can hope for. He will continue to be monitored, and may need a 2nd surgery, but I’m cautiously optimistic that he will recover.

Additionally, I missed 5 days of work with no PTO because I am a server and aspiring law student. The money I spent in this emergency was supposed to be used to complete my law school application fees, LSAT registration, and bills at home.

I would really appreciate any amount of money that can be recovered from this unfortunate attack. My mom doesn’t have the money take care anymore than she has, and I need all the help I can get so that I can finish applying to school, resume paying bills at home, and for the 3-4x week $50 bandage changes and potential 2nd surgery that may be required.

Thank you for reading, and that you for your consideration in helping us!