Vets Install Pacemaker in Search-and-Rescue Dog
After years of helping authorities look for murder victims and survivors of natural disasters, a search-and-rescue dog named Molly has been rescued herself.
Surgeons at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine on Thursday installed a pacemaker in the 5-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever's heart. She needed the surgery after being diagnosed with a complete electrical heart blockage.
Owners Allen and Alicia Brown of Saginaw were overwhelmed with offers to help pay the more than $2,500 in surgery, vet and travel costs after The Joplin Globe reported on Molly's need for the pacemaker.
Medical technology company Medtronic Inc. donated the device, and a Kansas businessman offered to anonymously pay up to $2,000 of the cost.
"It surprises me greatly," Allen Brown said. "There's just been such an outpouring of public support for her."
Molly was scheduled to return home Friday and be confined to her crate for two weeks. She will have limited activity for the next two months, but should be able to return to full-time rescue work after that, Allen Brown said.
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