Rally for Remi

I am starting this fundraiser for our four-legged child, Remington. He’s been a part of our family since he was 6 weeks old and has certainly made his mark. Remington is a soon to be 4 year old Texas Heeler (half Australian Shepherd and half Blue Heeler). He’s a wild one, full of love and energy. 

At the beginning of October Remington started acting out of character. The typically rambunctious and food loving dog was spending most of his time laying around, uninterested in his usual activities. We took him to a vet where he was treated for Lyme disease with an injection of Penicillin and sent home with oral amoxicillin. Not long after his face and legs began to swell, so we returned to that vet whom then said it was likely a spider bite and gave Remington an injection of a different antibiotic. Within days he was severely worse, so we made the decision to take him to Vet #2.  There they hooked him up to fluids to treat his 105.6 fever,  and start a new antibiotic right away. He was very sick. Sores were forming all over his body and he just seemed to keep getting worse. They thought he had experienced a severe allergic reaction to the initial antibiotic. We had labs sent off that returned negative for any tick borne illness and Lyme. Vet #1 wrongfully diagnosed him and therefore treated something that he didn’t have, causing all the swelling. After a couple of weeks of high doses of steroids, antibiotics, pain medicine, and Benadryl our sweet Remington still wasn’t getting better. Vet #2 said they were stumped and referred us to Virginia Tech, where we have been waiting for an appointment. In the meantime Vet #3 was recommended to us. They too said his wounds were the worst they had seen and started him on an additional antibiotic and scheduled him for a skin biopsy. The day before he was to have the procedure he declined rapidly. Monday rolled around and within a 24 hour period Remington stopped eating, drinking, could not see out of either eye, and had labored and eraratic breathing (which we found was due to pain/discomfort). I rushed him to be seen and unfortunately his high fever had returned. He was admitted and stayed a few days where they administered IV fluids, pain meds, and 3 different antibiotics. He also started antibiotic eyedrops that were proven to fight the bacteria they found around his eyes while there. They sent off more lab work and preformed a skin scrape trying to find the cause of all of this with no luck. A total of 5 Veternarians with over 150 years combined of experience have treated Remington and not a single one has seen anything like this. We were able to bring him home Wednesday night and as of yesterday evening (Thursday) he began declining again. He is not eating, hardly drinking, and his breathing is changing. Both eyes are closing again too. I stopped by the vet and picked up two new meds to add to his routine, one of them being an appetite stimulant and the other to treat any nausea he may be experiencing from all his medications. 

Thousands of dollars have been spent in the last few weeks trying to find answers and treat his symptoms. Remington will need to go back and have a biopsy as well as more IV meds. We are between a rock and a hard spot because Chris is the only one working now that there is a new baby in the house. I never thought I’d be setting one of these pages up, but I cannot stand the thought of putting Remington down without a diagnosis. Without knowing if what he has is curable or at least treatable. He brings joy to our life and I will exhaust all options to help him. If you or anyone you know is able to make a donation I would forever be grateful. I will be attaching some photos of some of his sores, so if you have a weak stomach they won’t be for you. I appreciate you taking the time to read our story.