Barkley's road to recovery
April 14, 2010
Barkley, owned by Megan and Lexi Popa, is an 8 month old Labrador retriever. On the night of March 3, 2010 Barkley was hit by a car. Fortunately, an Animal Guardian Network (AGN) board member was present at the scene of the accident and took Barkley and her owner Megan to the Emergency Center. As a result of being hit, Barkley’s rear legs were wounded with one foot de-gloved (skin pulled away) and both rear legs, although painful, paralyzed.
After making medical decisions regarding Barkley’s emergency care, AGN paid the $600 in costs and contacted Rob Graham, practice manager, CVT of Animal Health Services (AHS) and made arrangements for Barkley to be transported to AHS for a definitive diagnosis of the injuries the following day.
After a careful evaluation, Dr. William Prevatt and team took several digital radiographs and determined spinal trauma due to the crushing of the L2 vertebra. It was determined that Barkley needed to undergo spinal surgery.
Through the generosity of Animal Guardian Network, Dr. Cliff Faver, and funds from donations, Dr. Prevatt was able to proceed to surgery and stabilize the fracture in Barkley’s back and place an external fixator. (External fixation is a surgical treatment used to set bone fractures in which a cast would not allow proper alignment of the fracture.) Barkley will have the external fixator for approximately 6-8 weeks.
Slowly but surely Barkley’s owners and AGN vounteers have been putting Barkley through a series of range of motion rehabilitation exercises for her legs with positive results. Although she still has her external fixator, Barkley is able to walk on all four legs and she is improving daily. In this huge collaborative effort between Animal Health Services and Animal Guardian Network, Barkley has become a living miracle. (If you would like to see an amazing video of Barkley learning to walk again please visit www.ahsvet.com and read the case study of the month on the homepage.)
“We don’t even know where to start in thanking you for all you’ve done for Barkley! You have been amazing through this whole process. Thanks for not giving up on her and for helping us when we didn’t think we could do it. Barkley is doing better every day.”
--Megan, Lexi and Barkley
During this crisis, AGN has been intimately involved from the very beginning to present. They have not only provided supplies, volunteers and financial support for Barkley's aftercare but they have given ongoing emotional support for Megan and Lexy as well. Thank you for all you do Animal Guardian Network!
If you would like to donate towards Barkley’s care or get more information about Animal Guardian Network please visit www.animalguardiannetwork.org
