Help Tex on his road to recovery

Tex is our 6yr old Black Labrador Huntaway cross. We took him on at almost 3yrs of age and has brought nothing but joy and happiness to our lives.

Unfortunately he suffered a severe dog attack on Tuesday 1/11/2016, he was rushed to our local vets in a critical case. He suffered bite wounds all over his body particularly to his neck and front legs causing massive swelling to these areas and putting strain on his heart and kidneys as they dealt with the trauma, stress and also begun fighting infections. He wasn't holding his body temperature, his heart wasn't in rhythm and they struggled to get a bp reading.

The following day he was showing small signs of improvement by responding with his eyes to his name and the voices of his medical team.

On Thursday 3/11/2016 his condition was not good he wasn't so responsive and was really flat (he was on good painkillers), we had to make the decision to let him go or send him up to Massey University

(the bill was already past $1,500 and we didn't know what sort of costing we would be in for at Massey). We weren't ready to give up on him and he wasn't ready to give up yet either with latest blood test result showing slight improvement with his Kidneys so off to Massey we went so he could be in the hands of specialists.

Thursday night we got a phone call to say his xrays were clear showing his organs were all looking really good (no sign of them starting to shut down), and no fractures etc and that he was stable, but there was still concern with his heart with it not being in rhythm but his body is under a lot of stress. He's strong and not giving up.

Friday he spent some time off the painkillers making him fully responsive and he was pushing himself up as if he went to stand up, although he wasn't allowed to stand up this was a great sign. However he became painful again due to all the swelling and muscle damage he went back on the painkillers. When we visited him he wagged his tail when he heard our voices, this hadn't happened since before the attack. Not only did we get a wagging tale but he was holding his head up at times and laying on his chest (a normal laying position for him) instead of constantly being on his side. But it didn't stop there he even ate a little bit of food, but due to all the pain the painkillers sometimes make him not so alert so he also has a nasal feeding tube to help top him up which he gets fed through about every 4 hours. He also had a plasma transfusion to help with fighting the infections from his wounds.

Visiting him today 5/11/2016 he is still fighting strong and appears some of his swelling is starting to go down. He has been holding his own temperature for a good 24 hours now, has a good bp and urinating. His heart is still not in rhythm but hopefully as the swelling reduces and pain eases the level of his pain relief can be knocked back resulting in his heart going back to normal as he heals.

At the moment the important thing for him is to rest to allow his body to heal he requires intensive care treatment/around the clock watching. Once he is showing signs of being on a good road to recovery, fully eating, small amounts of time on his legs and just the team at Massey are just really happy with him he will be transferred back down to Levin to continue recovering before being aloud to return home.

As we aren't sure how long this will take we don't know what the final amount of bills will cost as we are already at $4,500. Tex isn't showing signs of giving up and were not giving up on him so we ask if you can please donate towards his medical bills, even if its only a couple of dollars every little bit helps and we will be truly grateful.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story as we help our fur baby on his long road to recovery.