Thomas was posted about back in March after someone saw him laying on the pavement. A kind individual went and picked him up and one of our volunteers offered to transport and we offered to take him into the rescue and get him medical care.
Little did any of us know the battle we were up against with this boy. He was severely emaciated, had calicivirus, a metal object in his stomach, and a broken jaw from face trauma. Thomas spent 23 of the longest days at PennVet where he had so very many ups and downs. His life hanging by a thread daily. We refused to give up on this boy and our motto was “as long as he wants to fight, we’ll fight for him at any cost”.
His lowest weight was 2.1lbs. He was placed on a feeding tube because the doctors didn’t want him orally eating with the open incision in his mouth from the jaw repair. It was a daily rollercoaster for this boy. One day he was stable but the next he was back to low temp, low blood pressure and low heart rate. You can not feed an animal when their body temp and heart rate are below a certain point so that worked against us in addition to is oral incision. We saw that when he was able to eat real food on his own was when you really improved but the doctors feared infection if that was allowed.
The saying “Feed Thomas All the Food” became very popular with his following so we had the idea to launch a t-shirt campaign dubbed “Feed Thomas-All the Food”. We sold over 180 t-shirts that helped cover Thomas’ huge bill.
In the last week of his care, the doctors had a discussion with us regarding his long-term prognosis being so grim and the possibility of euthanasia. We stuck firm that nutrition was the key to Thomas’ survival and we wouldn’t stop until everything has been tested. The doctors started him on TPN which is a central IV line delivering nutrients directly into his blood system. This was very risky with the poor state he was already in but it was worth a shot. Less than 24 hours after the TPN was started, Thomas began dramatically improving! Within 2 days of the treatment, real food was reintroduced and he DEVOURED IT! He became stronger each day and was released from the hospital after 23 days and headed to his new home with his nurse from PennVet who cared for him nightly since he arrived at the hospital and decided early on that if he survived he was hers forever.
The entire world (not joking) rallied around this boy giving him donations, love and support. His bills totaled out at around $48,000 and we raised over $45,000 of it from the community!
The tears, sleepless nights and worry were so worth it to see how this boy turned out! We can’t thank his team of doctors at PennVet enough for saving our boy.
Thomas’ entire day by day story was recorded on his Facebook fundraiser. It’s quite the emotional journey but here’s link if you’re interested to read it /https://www.facebook.com/donate/265509151773128/
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