Help Persephone Get Pain Relieving Surgery

Our dog, Persephone Doggess of the Underworld, is a 4-year-old Malamute mix who came into our life last May after waiting in a rescue for 10 months. Her previous owners left her locked in a hot car in the middle of July along with her litter of pups. The rescue she was with told us she had had a bit of a limp in her rear left leg that only showed up after doing rough or extended physical activity. They had taken her to their vet to see what was wrong and their vet said that it was an older bad break that never healed properly and that there wasn't much to do about fixing it. We brought her home and noticed within a couple of weeks that her limp was progressively getting worse. She would limp immediately after getting up as well as the first few steps she took, before going back to walking mostly normally. We also noticed she was having some physical limitations like being unable to sit for extended periods and almost immediately laying down.

We took her to our vet who took some x-rays and confirmed that it was an old break that didn't heal properly that was causing her limp. Our vet told us that her femur was broken and healed back twisted, which was causing her patella to luxate. Meaning her kneecap was slipping out of its place and that’s what was causing her pain. The surgeon at our vet clinic wasn't comfortable doing the amputation just yet, as our pup was still using the leg some. They prescribed her pain meds to manage the pain and they seemed to be helping once we found the right combination of medications. But, the pain meds made her drowsy and she slept most of the day. She was not doing much but still would play occasionally and would have frequent zoomies around the apartment. They made her so sleepy that she would just pee randomly in her sleep, so she was prescribed medication for the incontinence which helped a lot in the beginning but there was still some breakthrough peeing. It was about 6 months of switching out puppy pads and trying to take her out frequently enough that she wouldn't have anything in her to pee out. The incontinence got worse again and she was switched to a different medication a couple of months ago that has seemed to fully solve that problem for now.

The limps progression has not slowed and has rapidly gotten worse in the year she has been in our lives. She stopped having zoomies, her 20-30 minute walks turned into quick 5-10 minute potty breaks and she stopped playing with us. We have been doing what we could to help keep her comfortable and as happy as she could be while living with the chronic pain from her bad leg. This May, she started laying down on our short potty walks and would dig in pretty hard and refuse to go any further even towards home. We took her in to see her vet who gave her some new pain meds in addition to her current ones and they also referred us to the surgeon in the vet clinic again for her opinion on if amputation is okay to do now. We saw that surgeon who very quickly saw how much our pup was struggling with standing and moving and agreed that an amputation is now a good option. They gave us an estimate of $3495.25, which covers the surgery along with post-op meds. We wanted to give ourselves a couple of months to try and get the funds together due to our vet needing payment upfront. We just got x-rays of her 3 good legs and they all look perfect and will be able to support her being a 3 legged tripawd dog. We have her surgery scheduled for October 3rd, 2023. We are sad, anxious, and a bit relieved to not see our dog in pain anymore.

Despite her pain and issues, she has become a part of our family and is a huge sweetheart. She LOVES getting pets from people and strangers and will start pulling us to go meet people. She loves to bury her head into us and will lean her whole weight into us when she’s standing to get off her bad leg (nearly toppling us on several occasions haha). A few months ago she started letting us give her belly rubs and will roll onto her back for them, which was very new behavior. She loves eating cat poop and other forbidden outdoor goodies. As soon as we notice she’s found something really “good” she will try running away with it and pretend she has nothing in her mouth only for us to pull out a chunk of gross “dirt” or roadkill. She loves stealing our pastries and tuna fish sandwiches. She loves to destroy cardboard and tears it to shreds along with packages (she's our personal package opener!) She wants to chase and play tag with the cats so bad and one of the cats has played tag with her on several occasions! She rarely ever barks or growls and mostly does so in her sleep, which happens frequently, and her quiet little ‘woof woof’s are so cute they would make you melt. At least before her leg got really bad, she loved playing tag with us and playing hide and seek too. She comes to check on us in the morning if we take too long to get up after alarms. She will do this very adorable trot back to her bed with her head high being super proud of whatever item she has stolen that she shouldn't have (especially with our shoes). Then proceeds to lick the leather and naw on the shoestrings! The first time she saw snow while with us she immediately got super excited and started full-on RUNNING up the bit of hill that our parking lot is on and literally dragging my husband behind her on the icy and snowy ground. Malamutes am I right? She is just a huge loveable dog and we are so happy that she is in her life and a part of our family.

This surgery will allow our Persephone to live a long and happy life virtually pain-free. She will be able to do the things that her leg is currently preventing her from doing and she will be able to live without needing to be heavily medicated just to take some of the pain away. It will be a huge improvement on her quality of life and we know she will live happier because of it.

We are asking for donations to try to make it past this without accumulating any more debt than we currently have after a year of my husband being the only one with an income and me being recently disabled and unable to find work. The goal for this fund is for the surgery alone. Every dollar donated past that goal will go towards her follow-ups, rehab, and tripawd necessities.

Every little bit helps and we know how rough things are for everyone right now and understand if you are unable to donate. Please share this fund where you can and a huge thank you from Persephone and her family!