Emergency Fundraiser for Lexie

Lexie needs our help if she is going to survive this next challenge in her life.

Lexie was a stray who ended up in the county shelter. Because she tested positive for heartworms, no one was interested in adopting her. Consequently, she ended up on the county's Urgent List. She sat on this list for months meaning the likelihood she would be euthanized was quickly increasing. Our Pal's Place kept watching Lexie, but for some reason there was always another dog in greater need than her. Then Strep Zoo, a highly contagious bacteria, caused the county shelter to shut down for weeks. Our hearts broke knowing that Lexie was now in danger of contracting a deadly bacteria. We vowed that if Lexie survived we would get her out immediately upon the county shelter re-opening. And we did.

Once in the safety of our Pet Adoption Facility, Lexie's behavior revealed that she had not had a good life. Common movements would cause her to flinch and cower, and her bark became a fearful warning to protect her from what she deemed further harm. One night when she was outside with a volunteer, the simple kind gesture of being petted on the head resulted in Lexie protecting herself from what she perceived a harmful movement. Lexie was removed from the Pet Adoption Facility and put into a foster home. In this environment, Lexie has learned to trust and now willingly approaches for attention. She wags her tail in excitement when familiar people approach and dances around at dinner time. She still flinches and cowers at certain movements which confirms that someone treated her very badly and may be the reason for this next challenge that Lexie is facing.

Wednesday evening, Lexie appeared to have hurt her back right leg. Because Lexie plays hard with her friends Nugget and Everest, we guessed she had just tweaked her leg. Thursday morning, however, Lexie was painful and moving very awkwardly. A phone call was placed to our vet who said strict confinement, pain meds and close monitoring. Thursday evening, our vet diagnosed Lexie with a ruptured disk and sent us to a specialist. Ultimately, Lexie was rushed to Blue Pearl Emergency Room. Dr. Ruth explained that we are in a critical time period because Lexie has "deep pain" feeling in her back legs which is good because surgery is typically 85-90% effective. If she loses feeling in her back legs, surgery becomes 50% effective. This surgery is very expensive and more than what our Save-A-Heart fund will be able to afford. As we wait for the final cost of the surgery, we begin an Emergency Fundraiser to help Lexie.

Lexie has survived her past, the county shelter's euthanasia list and a deadly bacteria. Now Lexie needs our help if she is going to survive once again. Any donation to Lexie's surgery is more than appreciated! Emergency Fundraiser for Lexie

Thank you in advance for your support!

Update Saturday, 11/7, 11:36pm

The outpouring of financial support for Lexie has been amazing! Within 12 hours of establishing the Emergency Fundraiser for Lexie, enough money was raised to cover what we were told would be the minimum expense of her care including diagnostics, surgery and post-care: $8600. A heart-felt THANK YOU for helping Lexie!!

We are doubly blessed that this weekend the neurologist team at Blue Pearl is on-call so Lexie is able to receive needed care. Because Lexie’s survival is time critical, Dr. Ruth went ahead and called in the neurologist team headed by Dr. Johnson as soon as we gave hope we would be able to cover the expense. She explained to us the series of steps that need to be completed to help Lexie. The first step is bloodwork and x-rays to ensure Lexie “is a candidate for anesthesia”. All checked out fine. The next step is a CT scan to pinpoint the problem. Dr Johnson reports that the rupture is between the 3^rd and 4^th vertebrae which he says is a common injury. With Lexie, a lot of pressure resulted on the spinal cord and the surgery removes “the debris” as Dr Johnson explained. We had to make a decision with Dr Johnson as to whether to proceed with the surgery which is costly and the recovery time long. All of us who have gotten to know Lexie believe she is not ready to give up and if she is ready to fight for her life, so are we! With a lot of prayers and faith that the financial support would continue to come in, we agreed and Lexie went into surgery. Dr Johnson said she did well. Her assigned technician just updated us that her vitals remain stable. We are supposed to receive more updates from Dr Johnson and his team in the morning. It will be a few days before Lexie will be released to us.

To all of Lexie's donors, please know that YOUR contribution to Lexie is in process of saving her life. And, because of YOU, Lexie is now experiencing what is it like to be loved and valued. With heart-felt gratitude on behalf of Lexie, bless you and thank you!

Update Sunday, 11/8, 1:15pm

Dr Johnson called and said, “Lexie is progressing nicely”!! Her vitals remain stable, and she is alert. She is obviously on high doses of pain medications. Dr Johnson is neither surprised nor concerned that Lexie is not eating. He did say she is anxious with the movement and activity around her. Because we believe Lexie was treated very badly prior to coming to us, some of the anxiousness is from all of the strangers around her. She doesn’t know what is going on and certainly doesn’t know who to trust. He said that she could possibly be released as soon as tomorrow. Another update will be posted later this evening.

To everyone who has donated to the Emergency Fundraiser for Lexie: Again, please know that Lexie’s survival is because of YOU and YOUR generosity! O.P.P.’s Save-A-Heart fund could not afford the extensive care that Lexie needs. Because of donations that continue to come in, we can breathe easier knowing that O.P.P. can now pay whatever medical care is needed for Lexie. Up until this point, her team has been told that we need to be extremely careful with her expenses to be able to afford her care. Together, YOU DONORS are allowing Lexie to receive all care needed! Words cannot express the gratitude O.P.P. has for each and every one of you coming together to save Lexie’s life! She is a very special girl and her healing will include knowing her life is of value and she is very loved.

Monday, November 9, 7:00pm

Dr Johnson called late morning and said Lexie was continuing to progress well. Her vitals were still stable, she was eating and most importantly able to walk! He said he would release her in the afternoon. Jeff and I/Gigi went to get her as soon as we freed up respectively from work. It was a long 30 minutes wait outside as no one is allowed in the hospital. And then the moment came when we finally saw Dr Johnson and Natalie (Lexie’s technician) walking through the front door with Lexie WALKING behind them! They allowed us to leave the car and approach Lexie to help encourage her to walk. Her tail began to wag and she lifted her head up to see us. Definitely brought tears to the eyes! Natalie lifted her into the car where she could rest comfortably while we went through the long list of care-giving instructions.

Once back to our house, Jeff prepared our downstairs bedroom for Lexie. He placed rugs over the hardwood floors to keep Lexie from slipping when walking. A comfortable bed and stack of fleece blankets were put down for her to choose where she would be most comfortable. Once settled, Lexie ate all of her dinner and meds. I slept downstairs with Lexie to monitor her throughout the night. About 1:30am she woke up uncomfortable and whining. We went out for a bathroom break and then I gave her more meds which quickly allowed her to relax. She slept comfortably for the remainder of the night.

Tuesday, November 10, 5:00pm

Lexie has been resting comfortably. She is still eating and willingly taking her meds. When she gets restless, Jeff takes her out for a quick bathroom break as her movement is supposed to be very limited.

Hard to believe that within 72 hours Lexie went from not being able to use her back legs to walking again. I sincerely believe this quick recovery is because YOU! Those who donated to Lexie's Emergency Fundraiser allowed her to receive not only the surgery required for her survival but also all needed post-care. When donations exceeded the cost of surgery, I quit having to nickel-and-dime decisions in order to afford her care. We were able to provide her with exactly what Dr Johnson prescribed and this is what I believe helped her recover quickly.

We have received emails from others stating that you are keeping Lexie in your thoughts and/or prayers. And, we have a remote healing team working with Lexie. Thank you Kavita, Cassandra, Gita, Cynthia, Deepashri and other team members. At Our Pal's Place, we accept and appreciate people using whatever their belief system is to help animals heal physically and emotionally. We call it PETs: Positive Energy & Thoughts.

I thank each and every one of you for helping Lexie! It is because of YOU that she is walking again and making a speedy recovery.

Dr Johnson said her recovery time will be 8-12 weeks. I will keep you updated on her continued progress.

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Emergency Fundraiser for Lexie