Puppy Emergency Spinal Surgery
Donation protected
Our Story:
We live along the Skykomish River in Gold Bar, Washington, with our two dogs Zulu and Mary. We've had Mary for a year and a half—she is a rescue from an abusive situation. She has issues trusting other dogs because of her background as a bait dog until she met Zulu. Zulu is our 8 month old foster puppy whose kind heart and submissive state was the perfect match for Mary's temperament.
The river runs through our backyard, where large trees and logs frequently wash up. We collect the wood to use for fires and to help with heat in the winter.
It was a normal day, with our two dogs grazing in the back yard. They were about 15 feet from Luke when he noticed a log had washed up on the shore. When he went to pull it out of the water, he slipped on the wet marsh grass and heard a crazy squeal. He turned to see Zulu had run over and gotten trapped under the log when it fell. He immediately removed the log and rushed Zulu inside. We then called emergency services and brought her to Pilchuck Veterinary Hospital in Snohomish. They brought Zulu in and had her examined. When they reviewed her, they thought she was just badly bruised and sent us home with pain medication. They told us to watch over her to make sure her condition didn’t worsen overnight. She cried from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. non-stop. In the morning, she was unable to even sit up by herself or use the bathroom. It was very apparent that something worse was going on. We brought her back to the hospital for X-Rays. A new doctor re-evaluated her and rated her a 7 out of 10 for spinal injury severity, with 10 being paralyzed. We were in shock. He suggested we bring her to a neurologist immediately.
We drove to Seattle Veterinary Specialists in Kirkland and had Zulu rushed into the examination room. They told us we had a severe case of a spinal fracture between her ribs and lower back. Our options were immediate surgery or putting Zulu down. They gave us an estimate of about $12,000 that we could not pay. After calling as many places as possible to try and get any funding together, we were called back in by the doctors at SVS. They said because she was such a young dog and they don’t usually see an extreme case like this, they wanted to use this as a learning surgery procedure. A resident Neurologist, Dani Powers, took a special liking to Zulu and our case. They wanted to use her as an example to teach their intern neurologists how to perform this type of procedure. She had three years of experience and had sat in on these surgeries before. They said we may be able to get a reduction in price if a resident surgeon performed the procedure. Our options were to put her down or go through with the surgery so we decided to take out a Care Credit card to pay for the deposit and get her into surgery immediately. So far, we haven't heard from the Hospital Director about the reductions to our bill but when we hear more, we will be sure to update. Any money we receive over the amount needed will be given to those in similar situations and once we know the actual cost/reach our goal, we will turn off the donations. We are both recent graduates and paying back student loans on top of many other bills, so we're relying on crowd funding to help us pay the costs.
We were hoping we could get larger companies that have funding for our circumstance to contribute in any way possible. The hospital had a list that they were in touch with as well. It seemed extremely hopeful that we would be able to get some sort of donation but we were unable to get funded from any of the above. Our last option is to use crowd funding and ask our friends and family to give what they can and/or like and share this link with as many people as possible. Any small amount helps and we are so grateful for your support.
Thank you!
We live along the Skykomish River in Gold Bar, Washington, with our two dogs Zulu and Mary. We've had Mary for a year and a half—she is a rescue from an abusive situation. She has issues trusting other dogs because of her background as a bait dog until she met Zulu. Zulu is our 8 month old foster puppy whose kind heart and submissive state was the perfect match for Mary's temperament.
The river runs through our backyard, where large trees and logs frequently wash up. We collect the wood to use for fires and to help with heat in the winter.
It was a normal day, with our two dogs grazing in the back yard. They were about 15 feet from Luke when he noticed a log had washed up on the shore. When he went to pull it out of the water, he slipped on the wet marsh grass and heard a crazy squeal. He turned to see Zulu had run over and gotten trapped under the log when it fell. He immediately removed the log and rushed Zulu inside. We then called emergency services and brought her to Pilchuck Veterinary Hospital in Snohomish. They brought Zulu in and had her examined. When they reviewed her, they thought she was just badly bruised and sent us home with pain medication. They told us to watch over her to make sure her condition didn’t worsen overnight. She cried from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. non-stop. In the morning, she was unable to even sit up by herself or use the bathroom. It was very apparent that something worse was going on. We brought her back to the hospital for X-Rays. A new doctor re-evaluated her and rated her a 7 out of 10 for spinal injury severity, with 10 being paralyzed. We were in shock. He suggested we bring her to a neurologist immediately.
We drove to Seattle Veterinary Specialists in Kirkland and had Zulu rushed into the examination room. They told us we had a severe case of a spinal fracture between her ribs and lower back. Our options were immediate surgery or putting Zulu down. They gave us an estimate of about $12,000 that we could not pay. After calling as many places as possible to try and get any funding together, we were called back in by the doctors at SVS. They said because she was such a young dog and they don’t usually see an extreme case like this, they wanted to use this as a learning surgery procedure. A resident Neurologist, Dani Powers, took a special liking to Zulu and our case. They wanted to use her as an example to teach their intern neurologists how to perform this type of procedure. She had three years of experience and had sat in on these surgeries before. They said we may be able to get a reduction in price if a resident surgeon performed the procedure. Our options were to put her down or go through with the surgery so we decided to take out a Care Credit card to pay for the deposit and get her into surgery immediately. So far, we haven't heard from the Hospital Director about the reductions to our bill but when we hear more, we will be sure to update. Any money we receive over the amount needed will be given to those in similar situations and once we know the actual cost/reach our goal, we will turn off the donations. We are both recent graduates and paying back student loans on top of many other bills, so we're relying on crowd funding to help us pay the costs.
We were hoping we could get larger companies that have funding for our circumstance to contribute in any way possible. The hospital had a list that they were in touch with as well. It seemed extremely hopeful that we would be able to get some sort of donation but we were unable to get funded from any of the above. Our last option is to use crowd funding and ask our friends and family to give what they can and/or like and share this link with as many people as possible. Any small amount helps and we are so grateful for your support.
Thank you!
Organizer
Abby Towne
Organizer
Gold Bar, WA
