Live Love Animal Rescue: Emergency Medical Grant Report
How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?
To pay for an MRI to provide a more definitive diagnosis for Jersey’s hind-end weakness and mobility problems to refine a treatment plan.
The grant funds are of great help to our rescue dogs as we work to provide them the best medical care and help them achieve the best quality of life possible. We provided Jersey with tumor-removal surgery, medication, hydrotherapy and acupuncture to help her recover from her prior trauma. The cost of the $1,500 MRI was a significant hit to our rescue, as we have several other medical cases in the rescue. The grant allowed us to give Jersey the best shot at getting better.
How many pets did this grant help?
One: Jersey the great Dane.
Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.
Jersey was found as a stray in Los Angeles, starving, with a cantaloupe-sized mammary tumor. She was also barely able to walk and could barely stand with her hind legs. We pulled her into Live Love Animal Rescue right away. We were able to get her tumor removed, but her inability to walk has been more difficult to treat. The grant provided helped us get her an MRI, which showed us the extent of her injuries. The vet told us this was one of the most severe cases of damage he had ever seen. We also consulted with a neurology team at UC Davis to explore whether there was a surgical option. It was clear that Jersey had massive spinal damage, multiple herniated discs, and spinal compression, and the UC Davis team warned that the damage had been present for so long and was so severe that just lying down and breathing was increasing the damage.
We and her foster mom were, of course, devastated by this diagnosis. Jersey was pampered with lots of treats, on bed rest and watched over by her foster siblings (see pics). We wanted to have a wonderful Christmas with Jersey, but on the morning of Dec. 20, 2017, Jersey woke up with a bad case of bloat. Her foster mom raced Jersey to the vet, where bloat was confirmed. Jersey passed away being held by her foster mom and being loved by the vet and staff, where she was a favorite.
This is obviously not the outcome we wanted, but we are grateful that, after what must have been a really tough life, Jersey knew love, comfort and companionship. We are so grateful for the Petfinder Foundation Emergency Medical grant that allowed us to provide Jersey with the very best medical care that we could.
