UPDATE!

Rita update.. yesterday (Friday, 11/10/23) morning the vet called and said that Rita had a good night. She got up by herself to go to the bathroom outside, ate breakfast, and was doing well pain wise. However, she was VERY vocal when she was alone. He said that she would do better at home and said we could pick her up. They actually had to have a vet tech sit with her to calm her down until we picked her up. That's definitely our princess Rita lol. Seeing her without her leg for the first time was very difficult, but I keep reminding myself that she's still with us. We got her home and made her a bed in the living room. She definitely was relieved to be home. After her morning pain medicine this morning, she went to both girls rooms to say good morning and went outside. She's now back to relaxing.

Thank you again to everyone for the kind words and generous donations to help Rita. You all are amazing!

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Hi, I'm Brittany, I'm raising money to help cover vet costs for our dog, Rita. She was hit by a vehicle 11/07/23 and the person that hit her did not stop. She has a shattered femur in at least 6 places, but is alive. She is more than a dog to us and is part of our family.

Little back story -

While I was at work, there was a realtor showing a house that is for sale across the road from us and they were parked by the road by our driveway. Rita and our other dog was outside with my husband. They both ran across the road, assuming to say hi. A vehicle traveling out of Boyne City Limits hit Rita and kept going. Another vehicle traveling the other direction actually stopped to check on Rita. She ran back to the house and my husband went to check on her. She was bleeding and clearly had a broken leg.

We took her to a local vet hospital, who refused to do anything except give pain medication -- mostly because the vet was headed to deer camp and Rita was not a routine patient of his.

We brought Rita home, not knowing the extent of her injuries or if she was bleeding internally, to figure out what we were going to do. We called multiple local vets, most did not answer as it was after-hours. At this point, we had no idea what to do and actually how difficult it is to get an animal the care they need. We ultimately took her to Bay Area Animal Hospital, in Traverse City the next day. They did full body x-rays, ultrasound, and blood work to see what the next step was. She had a shattered left femur, but was stable in all other aspects and no internal bleeding. We had to wait for them to send Rita's information to various orthopedic vets around Michigan who would be willing to take Rita's case on for surgery.

The first vet who responded was Oakwood Vet Hospital, also in Traverse City. They said they would be willing to repair her femur with extensive follow up care, or amputation. Repair quote was $4,200-4,800 plus $600 in aftercare, amputation quote was $3,800. We met with them and weighed all of our options. Repair was not a 100% guarantee and Rita would have to be confined mostly to a kennel for 12-16 weeks, if she had the slightest slip, fall, bump, the surgery could be a failure and we would be back to amputation and a second surgery and more pain (and money).

Today, Thursday, Rita underwent surgery. The vet said that after he got into surgery and seeing the extent of her fractures, he thought amputation was the best route. Everything went well and she will have to spend 2 overnights at Oakwood. Another update will be tomorrow when the vet contacts us.

The emergency visit to Bay Area cost almost $900, while the first visit to the vet that would not help cost us $120. Now the cost of surgery. All contributions will go directly to the costs and care of Rita.

If anyone knows of who drives a new black Jeep Cherokee style vehicle, not certain if it was a Jeep -- just that style of what witnesses described, that hit Rita on Tuesday November 7th around 5:00-5:30pm leaving the city limits in Boyne City on Pleasant Valley road heading towards East Jordan way, please have them contact me. I am not looking for problems. This has been a nightmare of an experience to go through.