HELP!!
On Tues. night at 11pm, Matt went out to give the dogs their final walk & potty break of the day. When he opened Tiger’s door, he immediately noticed something was wrong - it looked as if there were 2 basketballs on either side of Tiger’s stomach. He was starting to wobble when he walked, his breathing was getting heavy & he was in obvious discomfort. Kim rushed Tiger to OP ER, where they took him in immediately for treatment. Tiger was diagnosed with gastric dilatation—volvulus (GDV) or more commonly known as bloat. For those of you who do not know what bloat is, it is when a dog’s stomach fills with gas, fluids or food & subsequently twists/flips. While it is not truly known what causes bloat, it is more commonly seen in larger, deep chested dogs. Bloat is deadly if not treated immediately. As the stomach expands, it puts pressure on large arteries & veins, cutting off the blood supply, toxins build & tissues are deprived of oxygen & blood, resulting in shock.
The vet was immediately able to release some air by inserting a needle into Tiger’s stomach. While under anesthesia, the vet was able to untwist Tiger’s stomach…however Tiger had gone into shock & was having cardiac arrythmia. Tiger was placed in the ICU. On Wed. Tiger’s heart was still not stable despite medications & other efforts. Multiple vets consulted & determined that while the risk was high, they should move forward with surgery to tack Tiger’s stomach in place & see if there are any other internal issues contributing to his heart arrythmia. Late Thurs. afternoon Tiger went into surgery. Tiger was then placed back in ICU to be monitored overnight & to continue to work on stabilizing his heart rate. This morning the vet called. Tiger’s arrythmia improved by about 50% & they will attempt to slowly take him off lidocaine drip to see if they can keep the rate stable. Tiger will need to stay for at least one more night.
To be honest, we are a mess. Tiger is a not just a sanctuary dog…he is our dog. He has been embraced by all of us, our volunteers, our supporters, his medical care providers and more. We have all fallen in love with Tiger, the big guy with the goofy walk, whose tongue sticks out & who has the drive to live the best life he can despite his physical limitations.
We are financially drowning and honestly need help. This latest medical emergency is a huge financial hit for our little sanctuary. We have a lot of expenses coming up – Cypress’ spay, Ace’s neuter & board & train, Taz’s medical treatment, Mica has a sick visit on Mon. We took in a new cat, Wiley, who is quite sick and finishing Alfredo’s cottage are just some examples…let alone our day-to-day operating costs (food, heat, electricity & more).
Attached are two estimates – one is the initial ER visit & the other is for surgery. As of now we are looking at a huge, unexpected vet bill of over $6k for Tiger & it’s climbing. It’ll probably be $10K when all is said and done.
If you are able to donate towards Tiger’s medical bill, send some items from our Wishlists, purchase some merch, send well wishes and/or spread the word about AAO, we would be forever grateful. Later today we will be putting out details of a 50/50 fundraiser as well as photos of merch with ordering info. Everything helps & makes a difference. We unfortunately cannot help any new animals until we get our finances in order.
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