Caspian's Tetanus Treatment

I am fundraising to cover the costs of my dog Caspian's emergency medical bills and medication. Tetanus is a rare disease for dogs to get and required a full week in the emergency veterinary hospital critical care with 24/7 monitoring and treatment, which is most of the cost I'm fundraising for. I'll describe what happened in more detail and the individual expenses acquired.

On August 3, 2023 in New Orleans, Louisiana, Caspian was doing one of his favorite things: sprinting around the fenced in backyard in the grass and on the driveway. I saw him start to walk with a limp and checked his feet. His front left dew claw was almost ripped off. I thought he must be in pain and took him to an emergency vet in New Orleans called MedVet. They removed his claw and gave him a bandage, Elizabethan collar, and pain medication. The vet said that it's a common procedure to remove a dog's collar, it would be okay to remove the bandage in 1-2 days, and didn't even mention tetanus as a risk because the chance of dogs getting tetanus is so tiny. The cost for this emergency vet visit at MedVet was $403.88

The lost nail took a long time to grow back, and the nail bed was exposed. The exposed nail bed was like an open would that tetanus bacteria, and other bacteria, could get into. Tetanus is in dirt on the ground, so Caspian could have gotten it from walks or anywhere, the vets are not sure. But since Caspian did not have any other open wounds, the vets are sure the exposed nail bed was the way Caspian was infected with tetanus.

On September 6, 2023 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I observed Caspian's eyes pointing in different directions, as in the photo, and he had a hard time opening his mouth to eat and drink, so I took him to an emergency vet in Algodones called Roadrunner Veterinary Emergency & Specialty Hospital. They took him to critical care immediately and gave him a 50/50 chance of survival in the next 48-72 hours. There is no easy way to specifically cure tetanus in dogs, so he was given antibiotics to kill the infection, and muscle relaxers so that the neurotoxins from tetanus would not contract the muscles in his heart and lungs, which would kill him. He responded to the treatments and got a little better every day. Caspian was able to return home on September 13, 2023. He was still showing a lot of tetanus symptoms and needed to continue his antibiotics and muscle relaxer medications and required 24/7 monitoring for at least another week, but the hospital staff was pretty confident he would survive. The photo shows me hugging Caspian on the day he came home. You can see the tetanus symptoms of drooling, eyes pointing in different directions, and tense muscles are still present. Caspian had a follow up appointment on September 18, 2023. The vet said he was making progress and most dogs will recover from tetanus in days, weeks, or months, and sometimes have lifelong symptoms but survive. The cost for the tetanus treatments was $10,456.17

For transparency, I will break down the costs further:

8/3/2023 New Orleans, Louisiana

MedVet

Remove left forelimb dew-claw and bandage $201.64

Methadone $58.91

Maropitant $73.12

Gabapentin $21.02

Elizabethan collar $49.19

9/6/2023-9/13/2023 Algodones, New Mexico

Roadunner Veterinary Emergency & Specialty Hospital

Tetanus treatments and hospital stay $10,207.33

Methocarbamol $31.84

Clonazepam $99.65

Clonazepam $77.35

Follow-up 9/18/2023 $40

The total cost of Caspian's emergency medical bills so far this year is $10,860.05

Please donate if you can, and share if you can't. I don't have the money to pay for the costs currently, and I would appreciate any help greatly! Thanks from Geo and Caspian.