Emergency Care Fund 4 Rehal sibs + Kadoo (paraplegic pet)

The Rehal sibs are 2 Disabled trans siblings of colour caring for a newly Disabled (almost) 3 year old chihuahua named Kadoo. She's our unofficial emotional support buddy and kin. Pree and Harmeet are ambulatory wheelchair + cain users and are grateful to care for Kadoo as our cr1p kin ♿♡♡♡

Pet insurance covered $10,687.24 out of $14,855.36 total for the hospital/vet fees, and we are going to need community support to cover the difference, and disability related costs for Kadoo, Harmeet and Pree. 

We've put together a budget breakdown of how we intend to use these funds for financial transparency. Harmeet has a full time contract job and Pree is on medical leave for their own disabilities from their full time job (they are not currently receiving any pay due to administrative delays). As a family, we already have very high medical expenses (aka disability tax or cr1p tax), and we don't have a container for even more expenses.

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Here is a timeline and summary of Kadoo's diagnoses, time in hospital, surgery etc.

Day 1

On Wednesday July 3rd, we took Kadoo for a short afternoon walk. 2 hours later, we noticed she was dragging one of her back legs, we called our Vet, who directed us to go to Animal ER. We rushed to the closest one, but they told us there was nothing they could do and to find an animal hospital with a neurologist because this was a serious neurological issue and not simply a broken leg. 

We hopelessly called around looking for pet neurologists, and we luckily found one that had a neurologist coming in the next morning (in North York, our only other option was Newmarket)! 

The second hospital gave us a 50/50 prognosis and told us the neurologist will call us the following day. 

Day 2 

They did an X-ray and CT scans anticipating a diagnosis of IVDD (Intervertebral disc disease/paralysis) and told us she'd likely need urgent spinal surgery. But the CT was inconclusive and they needed to do an MRI in an attempt to find which disc was compressed/causing the IVDD. The MRI did not show any discs out of place, but her spine was extremely swollen and under extreme pressure. 

Her paralysis was slightly increased than the day before and we were told to come say goodbye, because she might not make it to tomorrow in case she has to be urgently euthanized from the effects of myomalacia.

Day 3 

The next day, they did a spinal tap to try to gather fluid to test for meningitis since IVDD wasn't causing the spine issues. They tried to draw fluid from the base of her spine but the spine was too melted, the sample drawn from behind her head was normal. 

The neurologist offered to do an experimental surgery and durotomy to open up the spine and try to help save her because she noted that Kadoo is an otherwise happy and healthy dog, and could still live a full life with a cart (dog wheelchair) and lifelong bladder expression. 

She asked if we'd be willing to commit to this kind of after care for the rest of her life, including diapers etc and we eagerly agreed. 

Day 4

Kadoo survived the spinal cord surgery and we were allowed to come for a brief visit! She had to stay in the ICU for 2 days, and the Dr said we'd have to wait and see if the surgery actually helped or not. 

Day 5

It seems like her paralysis is no longer creeping upwards, still waiting to hear back about next steps

Day 6 

She was weaned off of f3ntanyl and k3tamine and we were allowed to take her home for the remaining post-op care! YAY! Every day feels so precious, and we're so grateful to see her getting her personality back a tiny bit everyday.

We can't wait to see her rolling around when she gets her new wheels ♿