A dog owner said that he would sell his house to pay up to £20,000 in vet bills to save his dog.
Jaxon Feeley said that on January 20, his two-year-old Weimaraner named Rambo went into hypovolemic shock. This is when the heart can’t pump enough blood to the body because it has lost a lot of blood or other fluids.
Mr Feeley, from Wigan, said:
She began vomiting throughout the night over 30 times and by Saturday morning we were in the emergency vets.
Rambo also had gastroenteritis, or stomach flu, on top of her condition, and her health quickly got worse.
She was in intensive care for 10 days, and her owner, Mr. Feeley, said he would “sell his house” to save her.
Mr. Feeley, who works as a prison guard, set up a GoFundMe page to try to get enough money to pay for Rambo’s expensive care.
On the page he said:
Rambo’s insurance has covered her up to £6500. Her bill is now up to £11,500 after 1 week in care.
It is unknown how long Rambo will need to stay at the vets and intensive care costs is approximately £1000 per day.
If the worst happens and Rambo requires major surgery, the cost of this as well as the aftercare is something I need to be able to give my little baby girl.
During the first week of veterinary care, Rambo was throwing up, and the fluid was going back down into her stomach and then into her lungs.
She then got an infection in her lungs and got very sick with pneumonia, to the point where one of her lungs collapsed.
Mr Feeley said:
In the vet’s words, Rambo could not have been any more unlucky with what has happened. The initial cause is still unknown but the position Rambo is in now has resulted in her being in intensive care under 24/7 observation.
The vets are now continuously attempting to drain Rambo’s lung and monitoring the infection within her lungs whilst assessing the level of bacteria in the fluid which is being drained out. Due to all of the medication she is now on Rambo is still vomiting and hasn’t eaten any food herself for a week.
The worry is that there is now a possibility an abscess has formed on Rambo’s lung which would require major surgery to remove. Vets cannot assess whether this is the case or not for a few days whilst Rambo hopefully begins to respond to treatment.
However, if it is, which is my biggest fear, the risk to Rambo’s life is significant. I could never forgive myself if I couldn’t give her the best fighting chance to pull through this horrendous situation.
This week, Mr. Feeley, who sleeps in his car near the vet’s office so he can be close to his beloved pet, said that Rambo’s care was getting close to costing £20,000.
More than 600 people have given money to Mr. Feeley, and the total amount of money given is over £10,000.
Mr. Feeley posted an update that said Rambo had “pulled off a miracle” and they were back home together.
He said:
Over the last 3 days, Rambo has pulled off a miracle, hour by hour she has increased her oxygen efficiency, started eating and drinking, her lungs are slowly recovering and we started to see that beautiful little personality resurface.
She got herself into a little routine of seeing me for 10 minutes every 4 hours that she even knew what corner of the waiting room to find me in.
He added:
After doing every test under the sun and assessing her incredible progress over the last few days, the team of staff at the vets have been gobsmacked by the power of love, presence and true fight for life.
When they told me she could go home I was nothing short of s******* myself and in all honesty I still am. Can I keep her ok? What if I miss something? My little angel is by no means all better, it will be a long road to recovery for her and she still requires 24/7 observation at this point along with a significant amount of medication. However, we did what we said we would, we came home.
There was no way in hell I was ever going to give up on this gorgeous girl, she is just a little baby, with a want to live and be happy with her big brother Rocky and the Feeleys.
There are no words to express how grateful I am for everyone’s love, support & donations over the last 2 weeks. It genuinely means more than you will ever know.
