Luna's Medical Bills

On Saturday the 24th, our sweet, loving, friendly girl Luna was playing in the front yard while my family put up Christmas lights because she had missed them all so much when they were gone for Thanksgiving. She wandered off to go explore the creek that runs beside our house and while she was gone, my family heard a gunshot and heard her yelp. She continued to yelp until my family finally found her trying to limp back to them, as she had been shot in the hind legs in the middle of Pflugerville, near the Windemere neighborhood. My family rushed her to the urgent care clinic where x-rays determined that her femur was broken in several places, along with extensive muscle and tissue damage. The vet explained that in order to give our baby the most normal and pain free life possible, the best thing to do would be to amputate her leg.

 

Luna is a 7-year-old Terrier/Italian Greyhound mix. She came from the Pflugerville animal shelter and had been with our family for 6 of those years. She weighs less than 10 pounds (even wearing her favorite Christmas sweater) and standing on all fours is less than a foot tall. Her favorite thing in the world is people, she loves them. Every time I come home from college, she jumps vertically into my arms and uses all of her little baby might to tackle me to the ground so she can suffocate me with kisses and love. She loves to run up and down the fence line in our backyard and play with the neighbors’ dogs, and take car rides, and go to Pfluger Park and all the other stuff that a relatively young, healthy dog should do. This is going to alter her life so drastically, yet we know this is the right choice for a girl like her with years of life ahead of her. We know that she can recover and be the happy, playful puppy that we’ve known for so long.

 

As anyone with pets knows, animal care bills get pricey quickly. The attached estimate is for her to stay the weekend in the ICU while we wait for surgery and/or try to find somewhere that can do it for less than the emergency clinic, as those are often more expensive.

 



In addition to that, we’re looking at anywhere from $2k to $2500 to get the leg amputated, plus whatever costs are accumulated for post operational treatment such as pain meds, check-ups, and physical therapy. Our family includes a teacher and a truck driver for Pepsi who also works weekends all day as a Lyft and Uber driver to pay bills, as well as a college aged kid, a Junior in high school and an 8th grader. Money is scarce and ends only meet with help from the grandparents, who have already put forward the funding for the weekend hospitalization. As I said, we’re looking for a cheaper place for the surgery, but don’t anticipate saving more than a couple hundred bucks, and the surgery cannot commence until the money is acquired. This needs to happen Monday or Tuesday, as the IV antibiotics and pain meds can only sustain her for so long. We are doing everything we can to make that money as soon as possible, but there is no way for us to make it on our own.

 

Additionally, if you live along Gilleland Creek near Parkway Drive or Windemere Drive and have any information regarding someone in that area carrying a weapon, please let me know! Police suspect she was shot with a .22. Any information you have helps. We are also looking for experienced, reasonably priced veteranry clinics in the Pflugerville/Round Rock/North Austin area. Thank you so much for considering helping my baby. (Written by the college student stuck several states over and unable to be there for my favorite creature in existence.)