Success Story: Cedar

This beautiful pup is Cedar. Cedar was welcomed back into her family’s home over Thanksgiving, and seemed to be settling in quite nicely. However, they began to notice some light bleeding off and on from her, and decided it was time to get her spayed. Because they had their own medical bills to pay down, they had to wait a couple of months before they had enough money ready for the procedure.

However, when Cedar’s family brought her in for her procedure, they received news from the vet that the doctor believed Cedar had endometriosis leading to pyometra, which meant Cedar had to have an emergency surgery or she could quickly die from it. The routine spay, which they had money to cover, quickly turned into so much more.

For those who don’t know, pyometra is essentially an infection in the uterus that is considered a serious and life threatening, and must be treated quickly and aggressively. Pyometra can occur in any sexually intact young to middle-aged dog; however, it is most common in older dogs. (FYI: it can also occur in cats, rabbits, hamsters, ferrets, rats and guinea pigs.) After many years of heat cycles (or estrus cycles) without pregnancy, the uterine wall undergoes the changes that promote this disease. Symptoms of pyometra can include abdominal distention (from an enlarged uterus), vaginal discharge (such as blood or puss), lack of appetite, vomiting, frequent urination, and many others. Allowing a dog to go through its heat cycles without being bred has been shown to increase the incidence of pyometra. Many vets recommend spaying your dog (or removing its ovaries) as the best form of prevention.

Fur Kids Foundation was then contacted to help with the additional costs of the procedure.

After the procedure, the family got her home thinking Cedar was going to be on the mend, only to find that her incision had ripped open and there was a very large amount of blood everywhere. They then had to rush Cedar to a different vet clinic after hours. The doctor got an IV in her and fixed her incision sight, and decided to keep Cedar overnight to make sure she remained stable. This meant more bills, and Fur Kids Foundation was there with the family to help cover the costs.

“When we went to the second vet’s office, Cedar had to be carried to the truck and into the office on a make shift stretcher we made out of a folding table and blankets. The fact that she couldn't even walk was terrifying for us. To be able to pick her up from the vet the second time, and have her be the happy dog she normally is, was a huge sigh of relief to us to say the least,” Cedar’s family said. “Thank you, Fur Kids for helping with our unexpected veterinary bills. I can't say thank you enough for helping us save our Cedar.”

We are happy to report that Cedar is now recovering at home. We’ve been told that she's surrounded by her favorite toys in the photo with her sister Annah not far away. 

If you would like to help Fur Kids Foundation continue to help families with animals, please consider making a tax-deductible donation. The money stays in Campbell County, Wyoming and helps families during a time when they may not be able to afford adequate veterinary care.

Check out more Success Stories.

Cedar Update March 2016

We love getting updates from pets we've helped. Recently we received this update from Cedar's mom: 

"As you can tell she's very happy to be here, smile and all. She'd been laying down, sat up, started smiling while looking around for a good two minutes, sighed, laid back down and took a nap.

Her and Annah had been playing all morning while I worked, so the power nap was probably needed to recoup before the next round -- haha! 

Such a happy girl."