View branded PDF report or read below.
At Help Mister walk again, we believe in transparency when asking for money. Starting today, we’ll provide a breakdown of where your donations have gone, are going to go, and what the outlook for the future is. We will provide this report on the first week of every month. Here’s the breakdown for December 2022.
Hospital Bill
The hospital’s original estimate was $9,282–$11,705 for the MRI, surgery, hospital stay, meds, everything. But, the final invoice was $8,639. This is less than the low end of the estimate and reflects just how smoothly everything went. That’s something to celebrate!
Supplies & Safety
We’ve purchased a new crate, exercise pen, puppy pads, extra towels, an additional dog bed, a book about caring for dogs with IVDD (Intervertebral Disc Disease), specialty food, and pill pockets. So far, this has cost about $295. A little more spending may be needed in this category. For example, we are considering getting a Ring camera to point at his crate while we are out of the house to make sure he’s ok.
Travel
We bought a plane ticket on Christmas morning for Dylan to fly home which cost $300. This was actually an incredible deal. Most of them were $800–$1000. Due to the last minute travel adjustments, a night at a hotel was needed in order for Evelyn to get home. The hotel night was $104. That puts travel expenses at $404. This category is capped out unless something drastic happens.
Marketing & Promotion
We printed stickers to help spread the word. The stickers have a QR code that leads to the Go Fund Me page. The stickers with custom printing and rush shipping came out to be $177 for 100 of them. This was the cheapest option we could find with a reasonable delivery date that wouldn’t sacrifice quality. In the last couple of days, we’ve put them up at local dog parks and have already gotten a $25 donation out of it which covers 21% of the total cost of the stickers. We believe the stickers will pay for themselves and then some. The promotion spending will likely increase, but only if the ROI is there. We have a few ideas and will share them soon, but we’d also love to hear what ideas you all have! George (Dylan’s step dad) mentioned partnering with the Nashville dachshund races that Mister competed in last year. We think that is a great idea!
Physical Therapy & Ongoing Appointments
We haven’t had to spend any money here yet, but will soon. For example, Mister has a visit on Jan 12 to get his staples removed and be reassessed. Additionally, we’ve started conversation with Mister’s primary vet about rehab sessions. These sessions range from $83 to $120 per session depending on Mister’s needs. Treatment options include land exercises, laser therapy, NMES treatment, PEMF bed sessions, therapeutic massage, and acupuncture (if needed/recommended). We don’t know how many sessions or which treatment options Mister needs, if at all, but we’ll figure that out soon. Assuming max cost with all treatment options and bulk pricing, 5 sessions would be $570 and 10 sessions would be $1075. The better he is doing, the cheaper this will be.
Medication Refills
We expect medication refills to be about $100/month for the next three months. Again, the better he is doing, the cheaper this will be.
All of that brings us to a running total of $9,515. More expenses will come depending on the physical therapy, supplies, and promotion. At time of writing, we’ve raised $2,850 which is 22.8% of our $12,500 goal! It’s only the beginning and we know we can get there!
Why are we telling you this?
We have an opportunity to do good beyond Mister’s current situation. We didn’t realize how heavy and difficult back injury is for both the dog and the owner(s). IVDD and disc disease affects a lot of dogs, especially dachshunds. Meaning, there are many people in our same situation. We’d love to help those people too. So, after a certain point, we propose shifting our focus towards raising money for IVDD charity/research as a whole. There’s a lot of opportunity here, and we are forever grateful to you all for getting us to a place where this is possible. Please let us know if you have any questions or ideas.
Happy New Year from us!
Dylan, Evelyn, & Mister
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