After lots of discussions, I am happy to report that we found a great surgeon to do Cricket's complicated surgery to remove the stricture that was preventing food from going down. She had her surgery on Thursday and has done remarkably well. She is eating in an upright position every six hours and being given a slurry of food. She has not had any regurgitation since the procedure. Dr. Lori Ludwig from Veterinary Speciality Care in Mt. Pleasant did the surgery. Once Cricket was stable and could be transferred, she was brought back to CVRC in Charleston, under the care of Dr. Kristin Welch. Dr. Welch is our Critical Care Specialists of choice. She is also the Doctor that saved Porter when he was literally dying from his Mega-Esophagus condition. Porter is now doing well enough to not have to use his Bailey chair and is thriving eating kibble. We are hopeful that Cricket will have the same remarkable progress that Porter had.
We have finally spoken with the Attorney for Beaufort County. He explained to me that they cannot prove criminal intent when the person dropped Cricket off. She was negligent and stupid in not telling Beaufort County about her condition, but they cannot prove she intended to harm her. I am sure by now she has gotten the message loud and clear how irresponsible her actions were. I also wanted to point out that us being upset with Beaufort County had nothing to do with their care of Cricket. It had to do with them not following up and letting us know what they were doing about the person that had caused this to happen to Cricket. If they had not contacted us, Cricket would not be here today. Her Aspiration Pneumonia put her Life in danger, and she needed immediate ICU care. If we had not stepped up, they were going to have to put her down, so she did not suffer any longer.
What should have been a $3000. surgery has now come in four times that amount because of all the critical care Cricket required to survive. We have not even come close to what we need to cover the medical costs for this wonderful puppy. PLEASE, donate toward her care.
The pictures are of her eating in a tall plastic garbage pail. She has to stay in it for about 30 minutes with someone loving on her the entire time. When she gets a little bigger, we will have a Bailey Chair made for her. You can see from her expression that she is hungry and excited about getting eating.
