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MURPHYSBORO (WSIL) — A dog that was critically injured in a car crash with a semi, is recovering after more than $3,000 in donations poured into St. Francis Care for his surgery. 

Rocky is a two-year-old Boxer and Pitbull mix, and is on bed rest from a three-hour spinal surgery that took place on  May 3. 

Kay Creese, veterinarian and executive director for St. Francis Care, says his surgery went smoothly.

"He’s not currently on any pain medication. He’s currently doing quite well," she explains. 

Seemingly happy and friendly now, but when Rocky arrived to St. Francis on May 1, he was in a lot of the pain. That’s because he was in a major car accident near Paxton, Illinois. 

"There were four people in the car with him. A semi hit the car and he was thrown free of the car," Creese says. "We don’t know a whole lot of details other than he was thrown from the car and kind of left behind." 

Rocky ended up in the care of animal control in that area, who quickly realized he needed long-term medical care. 

"They (animal control) put on an appeal if  somebody could help him and we couldn’t turn him down," Creese says.  

The issue is that vertebrae in his back had separated and were no longer supporting his spinal cord. 

Within 48 hours of arriving to St. Francis, at least $2,100 was raised for his surgery. A surgeon was able to align his spine and take pressure off his spinal cord. 

Creese says a cart was also donated for his therapy, "It will allow him to build some muscle and some strength but also not put a lot of stress on the back at this time." 

Therapy should start in about two weeks and will continue until he’s fully recovered. Then, he’ll be ready for adoption.