Pregnant Pibble Emergency Surgery

For some reason, ChipIn won't let me add a photo of the invoice from last night. I've uploaded it to the Puggles & Pitties website, so feel free to check it out over there:

http://pugglesnpitties.org/2010/11/04/invoice-from-113/

Here's a picture of Karma from tonight:



Cute, no?

Karma had to go back to the vet last night. She spent the day today getting loved on by Dr Van Maele and the other great people at Animal Medical Center.

Turns out that Miss Karma ALSO has a urinary tract infection. So she's now on another antibiotic plus a medicine that will make it easier for her to empty her bladder completely when she goes.

They also drew blood to run a CBC and check her white cell count. Please keep your paws crossed!

Today's vet bill was another $380, so I've increased the ChipIn amount. I'll post the invoice shortly...

ALSO - Walkin' the Bark is having a FUN-raiser for Karma! They sell bully sticks and other great chews online, and all proceeds from their sales THIS WEEK will be donated to Karma's vet bill! Please visit their website BEFORE Nov 6 and stock up! Bully sticks are doggie crack! If you've never given one to your dog, now is a great time to try it out - they will LOVE LOVE LOVE you for it!

Please spread the word! We need all the help for the beautiful Miss Karma as we can get!!

Many thanks,
Kelly

Hi Everyone!

Sorry to have fallen off the face of the earth over the weekend. I picked up Karma on Saturday and was spending as much time cuddling with her and trying to make her comfortable as possible. I couldn't bear to tear myself away to post on my websites!

Karma is doing OK. She spends most of her time sleeping, preferably in someone's lap, but the couch is a good second. After picking her up on Saturday I went to the grand opening of Whole Dog Training's new training facility and brought Karma along with me. She was very scared about going into the building...it took her over an hour to cross the threshold! But a lot of people and dogs came up to her to say hi while we were hanging outside. Everyone fell in love with her sweet self and for the most part she was pretty tolerant of the other dogs who approached. She didn't like the English Bulldog puppy too much, but truth be told, he was a bit of a spaz, so I'll forgive her that one.

I've got pictures of her on my website but they were too large to post here. Please feel free to check them out here:

http://pugglesnpitties.org/

Once we got home, she crashed for the night, and spent most of Sunday right there on the couch with me too. She's slowly meeting some of the other dogs in the house but is not overly thrilled with any of them. She was most interested in Linus, the 8-week old puppy from my last post. I'm really hoping she'll take to being a mama to him, because he needs a mama!

I also wanted to update everyone on her expenses. I've made jpg files of all of the paperwork from the vet plus a summary of the charges and the current account balance. If you click on the pictures below they should bring up a larger image that you can read.

Summary of Karma's charges:



As you can see, I'm hoping we can raise at least another $320 for her. Included in the "Old Balance" amount is a deposit of $300 and an invoice adjustment for $80.52. These are both money out of my own pocket, so if we can cover these two as well (for a total of $700 more) I'd be thrilled, but as long as we can raise the remaining balance of $319.35 I'll be extremely happy.

Here are 2 pages of the invoice from Animal Medical Center so you can see the actual charges:





Here is the agreement that I can pay the vet in installments. I had to write the checks and leave them with them, so below the agreement are the checks that I wrote out:





There you have it - a full accounting of Karma's expenses and payments. Obviously we need to raise a little more money, so I've set the ChipIn for $700 over the current balance of $735. If you can spare even $1, it will all add up to greatly relieve this very unexpected financial burden. Please also remember that these expenses don't include the work that will need to be done behaviorally to help with her extreme shyness and timidity, nor do they cover the premier foods she is given while in our care (Acana & The Honest Kitchen, plus cans of Tripette for added protein).

Karma is approximately 3 - 4 years old, so has a long happy life ahead of her. We're looking forward to helping her get to her Happily Ever After!

Hi everyone,

Got a call from the vet this morning. Karma is perking up and her drains are slowing down enough that they are going to take them out today. She's eating and more alert. They said she can leave the hospital tomorrow!

I'll pick her up in the afternoon and let everyone know how she's doing as soon as I get her settled in and have anything to report.

Thank you all for your help and your concern! I'll have a final bill tomorrow...hopefully we can get it covered via the Chip In!

Kelly

I got to meet Karma tonight!
She was asleep in my lap the whole time I was there but I snapped a few pics of her anyway. You can see the entire album here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2079670&id=1012280119&l=3d1

She’s very sweet, gave me a few kisses. She’s also very small, fit nicely in a lap and is easily carried. I’d guess she’s less than 40 lbs.
I brought her some chicken breast that I cooked last night but she wasn’t much in the mood for eating.
Poor girl. I’m eager to see her true personality as she starts feeling better. Please keep your paws crossed for her!

Wow, we have got one sick little girl on our hands.

So, as fate would have it, this dog's name, as given by her previous owners, is KARMA. Ironic, no?

I just got off the phone with Dr Kristin Van Maele of Animal Medical Center in El Cajon. She's the doctor who performed the surgery on Karma yesterday.

First, to clarify, Karma does NOT have torsion, the twisting of the stomach. She had dystocia, which simply means "difficult childbirth."

However, Dr Van Maele said this is one of the Top 3 worst c-sections she's ever seen. Karma also has peritonitis, which is a generalized infection in the abdomen cavity. She also had a severe infection in her uterine wall. Some of the puppies in her uterus had mummified, which is why they were not able to be born. One of these had become lodged in the birth canal.

Dr Van Maele performed the c-section (the babies had died in utero because the owners has waited 2 days to bring her in for help) and the ovaro-hysterectomy (spay). There are now drains in her abdomen so that the infection can drain and she's on IV antibiotics.

The biggest concern is that they were not able to remove the entire infected uterus. Apparently in order for the rest of Karma's lady bits to function properly, they need to leave part of the birth canal in the dog, including a "stump" of the uterus. They removed more than they usually do, but were still not able to remove every part that was infected. There is a chance that because this infection remains inside her, she will become septic and die.

Additionally, Dr Van Maele advised that most dogs who have abdominal drains have a severe drop in their protein levels, to the point where they require 1 - 2 plasma transfusions.

Dr Van Maele had not known at the time of the surgery that we had taken over care of the dog. She said had she known she probably would have recommended euthansia at the time Karma was already under.

She has a long road ahead of her and still may not recover. The Chip-In will in all likelihood need to be increased to cover an extended hospital stay as well as the transfusions. They are faxing a new estimate over and we will update this page as soon as we receive it.

Please keep Karma in your thoughts and prayers, and thank you for all of your help and good thoughts.

OH - if anyone is interested in making a donation directly to the hospital, they are:

Animal Medical Center
http://amcofeastcounty.net/default.aspx
(619) 444-4246
600 Broadway Ave
El Cajon, CA 92021

Please reference Kelly Gibson / Karma.

Thank you!!

I received a phone call from my vet this morning. A lady had brought her very pregnant pit bull in because "something was wrong." What was wrong was torsion, where the stomach flips over itself. The pibble needed emergency surgery to repair the torsion as well as an emergency c-section as she would be unable to handle the stress of childbirth. The owners can't afford the discounted $1200 cost of these procedures and didn't qualify for Care Credit, so they agreed to relinquish the girl to rescue.

Enter me...I'm the sucker that answered my phone, and I just couldn't let this girl die because of a medical complication. I agreed to pay the vet $300 today and come by after work to visit the dog. Once she's feeling better and I can get an more accurate assessment of her temperament, I will know if I can commit to taking her into the Puggles & Pitties program or not, but in the meantime I agreed to sponsor her medical costs so that she would receive treatment.

Here's the picture that the tech sent me via cell:

If you can even spare $1 to help this girl, it would be a HUGE help! Every $1 adds up to make a difference!!

Many thanks,
Kelly Gibson
Puggles & Pitties
http://pugglesnpitties.org