Maisie in hospital

Thank you to all the generous souls who donated to or puppy Maisie’s treatment fund. We are so sad to have lost her. She was a natural when it came to her therapy dog work, and she has set high expectations for whoever follows in her very large paw prints. She has changed the culture of our Practice, and I have decided to go into partnership with a well-known therapy dog provider in their canine-assisted therapy program.

• The costs of treatment for Maisie were in the vicinity of $45K in the end, and I had provided about $20K. However our insurer came through with about 13.5K as a refund from the vet hospitals. 
  
• All funds donated will be used to support our Practice in the canine assisted psychotherapy program. The current level of donations covers about one third of the total cost of training all staff in the program. 

Thank you again to everyone for your generosity and words of comfort and support. I could not have made it through this terrible time without you. 

While it still hurts to read my original post below and the updates, I feel that her life will take on new meaning as the catalyst for expanding the use of therapy dogs in our Practice (and beyond, as the canine-assisted psychotherapy training is in a pilot stage for the youth cohort). 

I am leaving this Go Fund Me page open for the next two weeks, in case any of your friends and colleagues wish to donate to our therapy dog program. 

Original post:

“Our beautiful therapy puppy Maisie, 12 months old, has come down with aspiration pneumonia and has been in critical care on a ventilator with specialist vets for the last 48 hours. Maisie is an Irish Wolfhound, a giant breed who are apparently predisposed to this kind of illness - we just never thought this would occur in such a young pup. The vets are also similarly perplexed but are doing a wonderful job of treating her with antibiotics and anaesthesia while she is helped with her breathing on the ventilator.

Because of Maisie’s size (58kg), the amount of medicines and level of care she needs is very high, and the predicted total cost is now $50,000. These costs are paid in instalments each day she is in critical care. We do not know how much of this total cost will be reimbursed from the insurance company, but already it is difficult to keep up with the daily (eg today: $10,000) payments.

Maisie is the gentlest and most affectionate therapy dog I have ever met and she brings so much joy and comfort to all the child and adolescent patients, their families, and staff at our clinic. And of course, to her family.

if you are able to donate to Maisie’s treatment fund, your donation will contribute to maintaining her care for as long as possible. If the insurance company covers all of her costs, I would like to donate any received funds from this page to pet rescue and therapy dog training organisations.

Thank you for considering and updates on Maisie’s progress will be provided daily.”