Gigi -   Gigi came to us last summer.  An absolute sweetheart of a hound.  She had no idea that those knobbly knock-knees were not normal.       

She plays and runs like any other dog.  When she's moving slowly, she falls over her own feet as her legs get tangled and her badly deformed ankles buckle over.  We knew she needed surgery.  These were not 'normal' basset legs... no idea why the shelter never mentioned how bad they were when they wanted us to take her.  After trying unsuccessfully to have her accepted for a sponsored surgery program, we sent her to a vet who specializes in orthorpedic surgeries.  

He originally wanted to do both legs at once... one anesthetic, one recovery period, and also cheaper for the rescue.... but once he started he realized that it would take far too long correcting just one of the legs, so he opted to do one at a time.  

Who would guess how many pins and how much work was done... no visible scarring and very little swelling.  How straight that leg is now.  Next surgery for the other leg is scheduled for February 22.  Even though our ortho vet is doing these ops at a greatly reduced cost, we will be spending close to $3000 by the time we are finished and she is recovered.

 

Betty - On Friday, February 1, a call came in from Martinez shelter.  Three month old pup.  Stray in someone's yard (if you can believe that).  "Of course it looks like a basset... it has long ears...  Vomiting and diarrhea... will be euthanized tomorrow if you can't take her".  What else can you say?  OK... no photo... we'll still get the dog.

Our foster home picked her up "No-Name" from the shelter and took her straight to the vet clinic.  Turned out to be 'possibly' a bagel (basset/beagle mix).  More beagle than basset to look at.  

Sweet pup.  Hospitalization, blood tests, fecal tests, fluids.... Boarding for the first four days... $870 vet bill.  Not better after a week... more tests, x-rays... another $340 vet bill.  Nothing diagnostically that can be fixed... waiting on a giardia test.  Hoping against hope that something comes up that can be medicated.  The next diagnostic test was an ultrasound, and we had to think hard about whether we could actually afford another $500.

How could we not... she was miserable, and her foster family had offered to pay for the test as they needed her to have one more chance at a solution.  At that time, they were going to pay for the ultrasound, and they knew that this might not be the end of the medical bills.  The ultrasound showed AN INTUSSESCEPTION.  So, with medical bills already reaching $1250 for us, plus $500 for the foster family, and facing an estimate of over $2000 for the surgery..... we agreed to do the surgery.  How could we let this little girl down.

Happy to report that 24 hours post surgery, Betty is home from the vetspital, and hopefully on her way to a full recovery.  The vet commented that this is probably the first day in a very long while that she has actually felt WELL!!

Please help to pay these medical bills!

On top of these two, we also have Freddie, a dear gentleman of a hound, who has recently been diagnosed with Oral Malignant Melanoma.  Luckily, this should be completely curable - he's already had one surgery and a biopsy.  When that came back positive, but told us we didn't have clean margins, we paid for x-rays to make sure it didn't seem to have already mestastisized, and as he appeared clear of any other suspicious masses, we are ready to schedule him for surgery for the removal of the tumor in his mouth.  Our vet bills for Freddie will be close to $2000 by the time we are through, maybe more depending on the post op treatment to make sure the cancer has gone.  His foster mom, Karen Metcalf, has already set up a separate Firstgiving page for him, and you are welcome to donate for him here, or visit her page to make your donation there!  Click HERE for Fabulous Freddie's FG page!!