Join Team Ruby! Help us support her recovery!

Join Team Ruby!

Ruby is a 2 year old Shih Tzu that was presented to us after not wanting to eat and painful in the mouth area. We performed a sedated exam where X-rays revealed that she had a broken jaw. The difficult decision to surrender her was made, but that was not the end of her story. We were not giving up on little Ruby!

Unfortunately, this is beyond our scope as a general practice, so we had to take Ruby to a specialist where they wired her teeth and placed a plastic splint with the hopes that it would be enough to stabilize Ruby's jaw until healed in 4-6 weeks. They also found a hairline fracture in her TMJ at this time. Ruby has what is called an unstable fracture which is more difficult to heal. We picked her up from the specialist late Friday afternoon after her surgery. She took a couple of bites of watered down soft food that night yay!

By Saturday morning it was apparent that Ruby's pain was not controlled and any attempt to give her oral meds was not successful. We gave her injectable medications hoping to relieve her discomfort but they did not seem to be strong enough. We decided to take her to emergency overnight to get fluids since she was not eating much, and attempt a stronger treatment for better pain control. We were also facing having to make a decision to place a feeding tube in the very near future if she continued to not be able to eat enough.

On Monday, Ruby was still in a significant amount of pain and her jaw appeared misaligned upon exam. So, we reached back out to the specialist who asked us to bring her back in for a recheck the following morning. There it was found that sadly, the wire did not hold.

Off to emergency we went, where Ruby spent the night. The next day she underwent another surgery in an attempt to screw a metal plate under the gum directly into her jaw to try and stabilize it once and for all. This surgery would be tricky as little Ruby's bones were tiny and it was not definitive that it would work. We waited anxiously until we heard the great news that her surgery was a success!!! Go Ruby!!

We picked her up after 48 hours at emergency and so far she is dong well! Her pain is controlled and she is eating soft foods once again!! Ruby still has a long road to recovery and we will never know her story, but we do know that she is loved very much and we would do anything to give her a fighting chance!

Her medical bills up to this point have exceeded $13,500 which we have charged on our personal credit cards. We ask that you please consider helping by joining Team Ruby and donating today!

We appreciate each and every one of you! Thank you for taking the time to read her story and cheer her on!! Go Ruby Go!!