Help Eli Walk Again!

Eli is a terrier mix rescue from the Moore County Animal Control.  I had just lost a dog and wasn’t looking for another one. A friend from Moore County Animal Control  told me about a litter that had just come in.  When I got to Animal Control the staff that worked there let all the puppies out and said “It’s good luck to pick the one that comes to you.”  I was in my own world and when I finally looked down, there was this little golden puppy sitting at my feet looking up at me.  I knew I couldn’t turn him away and decided to get him. I named him Eli after Eli Manning, when the Giants won the Super Bowl that year.  Looking back, Eli beat the odds from day one. Animal Control euthanizes un-adopted animals after 72 hours, and Eli was in a litter of nine puppies. It was fate that he came up to me that day.

 I live and work on a horse farm and Eli quickly became part of the family.  He loves to run around and go on adventures; he loves to swim at the pond down at the end of the driveway where I work; but he always comes home at night to sleep. 

About a month ago, Eli was playing with one of the other dogs in the neighborhood and things were getting rough, as they normally do.  Eli stopped to look back and the other dog ran directly into the right side of his neck.  I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but it became apparent that something was seriously wrong.  A few minutes later while coming inside Eli collapsed and became paralyzed from the neck down.  My boyfriend and I rushed him to the Sandhills Emergency Clinic where he was treated for acute spinal cord injury.  Despite our hopes, Eli did not improve overnight and upon consultation with the Head of Neurology at NC State, Natasha Olby, we decided to take him to NC State for an MRI. 

The MRI showed that ELI had Atlantoaxial subluxation with spinal compression and extensive spinal cord bruising.  Their recommendation was to rush him to emergency surgery where they would remove the vertebra off the spinal cord and stabilize it with an implant supported by two metallic wires surrounded by bone cement to enable the spinal cord to heal.  When Eli was admitted, we were given a 60% chance of him making it through surgery and a 70% chance that he would ever walk again. 

To take him to surgery was an incredibly difficult decision.  Two weeks before my horse Jack passed away after complications and I was resistant to go through the same thing again.  After some thought and discussion from the doctors and after seeing the medical expenses involved in such a rare procedure, I was torn between doing what is best for Eli and what made sense financially. The estimate for the surgery and care came out to be roughly $8500 dollars.  We had to make a decision quickly because every minute we waited Eli’s chances of survival decreased.

 When asked by Doctor Katherine Bray, I made the decision not to perform the surgery for Eli.  My dad looked at me and said, “take the money out of the equation, would you do it”?  to which I shook my head yes.  He then looked at Dr. Bray and said, “We aren’t going down without knowing we did everything we could. Do the surgery.”

Saturday night we waited anxiously to hear if Eli had survived his surgery. Six hours later, it was announced that Eli had made it through surgery alive and was breathing on his own. He was in ICU when we were allowed to see him, and it was heartbreaking to watch him struggle to lift his head to greet us. He was very scared and in a lot of pain. There were many points along the way where I considered euthanasia for Eli when I watched him struggle, but every time I thought the decision needed to be made he would surprise me and show improvement. He has fought every step of the way.

After a week at NC State, Eli began to wag his tail, lift his head, and even sit up on his own. He was able to take a few steps on his own with the aid of a special cart. At this point, the neurologists felt it was safe for him to return home and admitted into a local out-patient rehabilitation program at Vanguard Veterinary Hospital . This was a step I hadn’t even allowed myself to think about, but he was so impressive in his initial recovery.

At this point, the prognosis for Eli is uncertain, as no dog has survived this far into recovery. However, he continues to surprise us each day with more movement, muscle control and a positive attitude. He now is able to swim with assistance in the rehab pool, and moves all four legs. Although Eli continues to improve, we still have a long road to the end goal of him walking on his own. Medical expenses continue to build, with rehabilitation costing around $600 a week with no definite end in sight. This does not include the private therapy sessions given on the weekends and the price of caretakers while I am working during long days. Your donation would continue to give Eli a fighting chance. Every day his spirit encourages everyone around him and his will to live is inspirational to anyone who meets him. From the beginning Eli has been faced with impossible odds and with your help, he can continue to beat those odds. A donation of any amount would mean more to us than you could possibly ever know, and enables us to give Eli the care he needs.