Serenity's Medical Costs
I am about to tell you a story about survival. This is Serenity. She came to us with 5 other kittens from 2 other litters that were found in a ditch along the highway. Serenity was in very bad shape. She was unable to lift her head to eat and had to be force fed with a syringe. She was also too weak to stand. For the first 24 hours, Serenity just lay on a heating pad, too exhausted and broken. She had almost lost hope.
Thankfully, she was found in time and brought out to the Swan Valley Animal Protection League shelter where caring hands held her head up while she fed her and told her things were going to get better.
After further inspection, not only was Serenity severely malnourished and dehydrated, but also had major swelling on her back end from an injury. She had two deep gashes in her backside and she appeared deformed. She was taken to the Swan Valley Vet Clinic and examined by Dr. Matt Strate. He immediately started to hydrate her with an IV. Whether Serenity survived the next 24 hours was yet to be seen. We all knew it was likely a long shot but we all had hope.
Little did we know that Serenity was a fighter. We learned in the next few days how a small 3 lb (note the weight - normal weight would be more like 8 lbs), 5 month old feline had the heart of a tiger. This girl wanted to survive. Within 2 days Serenity was able to eat on her own. She was able to struggle to her litter box to take care of business. Things were looking up!
Dr. Strate still had many concerns, one being the two deep gashes. He needed to inspect them further and clean them properly but to do so, he had to sedate her. When she was sedated, he decided to take x-rays to see if there were any other issues we needed to be aware of.
And then we got the news. Both of Serenity's hips were broken as well as her pelvic bone. We decided to push forward and see if they could be fixed and at what cost. We had already gotten so far with Serenity that we weren't ready to call it quits yet if she wasn't. After discussions with 3 different veterinary surgeons, all with the good news of her hips being fixable, we decided to continue on.
On Thursday, July 13th Serenity was taken to Brandon Hills Vet Clinic where Dr Thrush worked on putting our little girl back together. It was originally planned that she would have one hip surgery and then after a period of approximately 8 weeks for healing, would have her 2nd surgery to repair the second broken hip. After a thorough examination, it was decided to repair both her hips at the same time as neither were good enough to support the other if only one was done at a time.
So now Serenity has a long recovery process ahead of her. Even though she will have pain medication, she will still need to go through physical therapy. She will have to have her sutures removed in 2 weeks as well. Every day will only get better for Serenity and we will be there with her every step of the way.
Serenity is the picture of survival.
As you can imagine, the medical costs for Serenity are quite high. From her initial week in the Swan Valley Vet Clinic to her trip to Brandon where she had her surgery to her next few months of recovery and check ups, her bills have reached $2700 to date. We are reaching out to the public to find it within your heart to donate as much as you feel comfortable with to help pay for these medical expenses. Serenity fought to survive. We fought beside her to do whatever necessary to keep her alive. We are now asking you to help with these expenses so we can continue to rescue animals like Serenity in need. They deserve it.
Any donations we get above and beyond our requested amount will go toward medical costs for our other rescue animals in need at the Swan Valley Animal Protection League.
Without you, we can't do what we do. From the bottom of our hearts we thank you.
SVAPL
Shelter Manager
Lisa Scales
**IF YOU WOULD LIKE A TAX RECEIPT, PLEASE SEND A MESSAGE TO OUR EMAIL ON OUR WEBPAGE (svapl.ca) OR TO OUR FACEBOOK WITH YOUR MAILING ADDRESS AND AMOUNT YOU DONATED!**
