Stella’s Medical Bills

Hi, my name is Marcia and I'm fundraising for our beautiful lilac Boston Terrier Stella to help pay for her medical expenses. Before you read her story, please share this fundraiser, which will help us meet our financial goal. Last month we had a medical issue with another pet, Gracie and the medical bills were high as well, totaling 5,000. Having been hit with 2 very large vet bills back to back has been overwhelming and left us short on funds. To make matters worse my husband had back surgery on January 23 and I am retired and on a fixed income. On March 6th, Stella was attacked by a coyote in our backyard while pottying. She was let out after her bath, and I was bathing Winchester while she was pottying. We presume a coyote scaled our privacy fence while she was out there, which we did not believe they could do. Although we live in a residential community, there has been a recent cluster of coyote attacks in our area involving pets that were killed. When I finished Winchesters bath I went to let Stella back in and she did not come when called. I found her laying unresponsive and in shock. I immediately brought her into the house to assess her condition. She was barely breathing, was blue and had extensive injuries to her legs and was losing blood. She was covered in dirt as if she had been dragged. She also had injuries to her head, ears, and neck. It was obvious that our precious girl was critically injured, and we were not sure if she would survive the 40-minute drive to the nearest emergency vet. I put pressure dressings on her legs and we headed to the emergency vet. When we arrived at the vet, they triaged her and immediately brought her back for treatment. She was barely hanging onto life. After 3 boluses of IV fluids, they were finally able to get a blood pressure of 50. Stella remained in the CCU for four days. Although both legs were mauled, the left leg is more seriously injured, which is causing the muscle in her leg to die. While hospitalized, each day Stella had a surgical debridement of the dead muscle tissue and also had debridement and suturing of damaged tissue in her ear. There was a large hematoma on her neck, and it is resolving on its own. Stella was on IV fluids, IV antibiotics, and IV fentanyl to control the pain then was transitioned to oral meds. They are still not certain if she has any nerve damage but chances are she may. Stella is a tough little girl and is fighting to recover. She may only weigh 15 pounds, but she has 1000 pounds of courage. Once the surgeons felt it was safe and there was no more muscle tissue death, I asked if she could be sent home because keeping her there costs more than $1,125 per day, in addition to what we have already incurred, and they wanted to keep her for an additional 2 weeks or more. I simply cannot afford that. Since I am a retired RN, the doctors agreed to let her come home but Stella will continue to require dressing changes every other day and surgical debridement of any dead tissue by the surgeons while under IV sedation. The cost of her treatment is very high but much less than it costs to keep her in the vet hospital, and should run between $750-$1000 per week. If you could help sweet Stella with even a small donation so she can get the care that will allow her body to heal, we would be forever thankful. For those who cannot afford to donate, we would be thankful if you offered a prayer for the healing of this beautiful and sweet Boston Terrier. Here are some photos of Stella taken at the hospital after her dressing changes were done today. Thank you so much for taking the time to read about Stella's circumstances. And please share this fundraiser with your news feed and social media accounts.