Meet Rhea, our beloved 5-year-old German Shepherd. 

On Wednesday, February 26th, Rhea suffered a spinal injury due to undiagnosed Intervertebral Disc Disease and is now paralyzed from the waist down. My husband and I are trying to raise money to help pay for her surgery, hospitalization and recovery expenses.

Two days prior, Rhea was playing in the kitchen and her legs fell from under her, landing on her butt. Rhea can be pretty clumsy, we assumed she just bruised her tailbone. She could walk, but it looked like she was in pain so we took her to the vet to get examined. She didn't show any serious signs at this point and was given anti-inflammatory medicine to help with the discomfort she was experiencing. The next morning she could barely walk. We took her straight to the vet for an x-ray - the results didn't look good so we were sent to an emergency animal hospital to see a neurologist and get an MRI.

The MRI showed multiple ruptured discs in her spine, a ruptured blood vessel and internal hemorrhaging. She was rushed into emergency hemilaminectomy surgery by 5:00 p.m and was out by 8:30 p.m. Post-surgical call we were told she had suffered 5 ruptured discs total, a ruptured blood vessel and extensive internal hemorrhaging. She is paralyzed from the waist down but can still use her front legs. So much changed in such a short time frame… words cannot express the devastation we feel.

The neurologist believes Rhea must've had undiagnosed intervertebral disc disease and that simple fall while playing was all it took to rupture the affected discs.

What breaks our hearts the most is that Rhea is still the same snarky, witty, absolute love of a pup who woke up one day unable to use her legs and can't figure out why, no matter how hard she tries.

Despite what she's going through, Rhea is bright-eyed and determined to heal and deserves every chance we can give her to make a successful recovery.

We appreciate your help and support and will be making updates about her progress.


Post-op Day 1


Post-op Day 2





Post-op Day 3 - this was a particularly hard day for Rhea, the tube in her nose is to relieve the gas build-up from her stomach and when she woke up from anesthesia she began having trouble with her front legs and we don't know why yet.




Post-op Day 4