Before the sun came up today, we picked up Billy to take him to AVC in PEI. Billy has been transferred to the care of the sanctuary as he has a fractured long bone in his leg and needed to be taken to AVC for surgery.

It was looking like surgery would be tomorrow. However, to determine if that’s the best route for him, the vets have advised additional x-rays of his pelvis as well as further assessments to screen for neurological issues or another underlying cause that may have caused his fracture. They are doing what they can to get a complete picture of his health, and we should know more soon.

We’ll update everyone as we know more. Please send good thoughts to Billy!

If you’re in a position to help with Billy’s medical bills, donations can be made on our website at lilysplace.ca, e-transfer to hello@lilysplace.ca, or at CanadaHelps.org

—–UPDATE—–

We’ve received an update from AVC regarding Billy. He was sedated for the X-rays, handled it well, and is now awake and eating after a very long day. They re-did his leg x-rays because he wasn’t presenting like how they thought he would with this type of fracture. We’re glad they took the X-rays again rather than going right into surgery because the fracture line wasn’t present this afternoon. Surgery has been put on hold while they continue investigating. Billy also had additional x-rays of his neck and pelvis. Those tests didn’t reveal anything obvious, but the radiographs have been sent to a specialist for review. Tomorrow morning, Billy has a neurological test scheduled. We should hear more about how the test went and what the specialist says about the X-rays sometime tomorrow.

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UPDATE #2:

Jan 10th

I wish I had better news to share, but Billy is struggling. The imaging of his neck and spine shows irreversible spinal damage. His spine isn’t properly lined up, which is causing compression and, therefore, significant pain. He has a lot of inflammation that is also making it hard for him to use his back end. Sadly, there’s no surgical option to help him. Long-term pain management was discussed as a course of action if the team can get him comfortable and sufficiently mobile. It’s unclear whether the damage was caused by trauma or a degenerative disease/condition, and we’re seriously concerned about his quality of life going forward. The vets have added additional medications to his treatment plan to ensure he’s comfortable and to give him a chance to improve over a 24-hour period post-travel, but we’re fearing the worst for Billy .

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Update #3

Jan 11th

We got better news than we expected: Billy improved overnight and the team at AVC will be continuing with treatment for at least several more days to see if he continues to improve