Help! Nola has a blockage!
Donation protected
We have an *emergency* situation - Nola has a blockage and needs emergent exploratory surgery...TODAY.
Pit Bulls are *notorious* chewers and, if not directly supervised, have a tendency to eat - literally - their toys. Some dogs enjoy just ripping apart their toys and leaving the mess for their humans...others, unfortunately, take it upon themselves to "clean up" the mess. Stuffed toys, squeaker toys, all types of toys.
We have monitoring this situation closely for the past week along with Dr. Hartwick of Tabor Road Veterinary Hospital. Nola initially presented for vomiting a large chunk of a toy that she hadn't played with for weeks. The foster mom had found the torn apart toy a couple weeks ago and threw away all the pieces she could find. Unfortunately, it appears that Nola ingested some of the toy.
Although still eating, drinking, and defecating, the vomiting was concerning, so of course we took her immediately to our wonderful veterinarian. Dr. Hartwick took radiographs a couple days ago and found a small section in her intestines that was concerning, but given that Nola was still pottying, we did not jump straight to surgery. She was prescribed barium balls (which show up on radiographs so we can follow their movement). Today, on followup radiographs, the barium balls are still visible and the same foreign object noticed several days ago on the radiograph remained.
Dr. Val feels pretty confident that it's a squeaker from a squeaker toy. It's malliable enough for food and feces to pass by it, BUT, it can't stay in her GI tract forever and the pointed part poses a risk of perforating her bowels, which could be fatal.
Blockage - i.e. Exploratory Surgery - is the only option on the table now. It's not an option easily jumped to, but reserved for the last resort.
This situation is so emergent, that Dr. Val is staying after hours today, on a Saturday, to perform this surgery.
Unfortunately, this surgery comes at a cost. With radiographs, medications, and all the surgery combined, we're looking at $2000. We know we ask a lot of your generosity, but you know we wouldn't ask if we didn't seriously need your help. Please consider donating to Nola's care - as soon as we have updates, we will let you know!
Pit Bulls are *notorious* chewers and, if not directly supervised, have a tendency to eat - literally - their toys. Some dogs enjoy just ripping apart their toys and leaving the mess for their humans...others, unfortunately, take it upon themselves to "clean up" the mess. Stuffed toys, squeaker toys, all types of toys.
We have monitoring this situation closely for the past week along with Dr. Hartwick of Tabor Road Veterinary Hospital. Nola initially presented for vomiting a large chunk of a toy that she hadn't played with for weeks. The foster mom had found the torn apart toy a couple weeks ago and threw away all the pieces she could find. Unfortunately, it appears that Nola ingested some of the toy.
Although still eating, drinking, and defecating, the vomiting was concerning, so of course we took her immediately to our wonderful veterinarian. Dr. Hartwick took radiographs a couple days ago and found a small section in her intestines that was concerning, but given that Nola was still pottying, we did not jump straight to surgery. She was prescribed barium balls (which show up on radiographs so we can follow their movement). Today, on followup radiographs, the barium balls are still visible and the same foreign object noticed several days ago on the radiograph remained.
Dr. Val feels pretty confident that it's a squeaker from a squeaker toy. It's malliable enough for food and feces to pass by it, BUT, it can't stay in her GI tract forever and the pointed part poses a risk of perforating her bowels, which could be fatal.
Blockage - i.e. Exploratory Surgery - is the only option on the table now. It's not an option easily jumped to, but reserved for the last resort.
This situation is so emergent, that Dr. Val is staying after hours today, on a Saturday, to perform this surgery.
Unfortunately, this surgery comes at a cost. With radiographs, medications, and all the surgery combined, we're looking at $2000. We know we ask a lot of your generosity, but you know we wouldn't ask if we didn't seriously need your help. Please consider donating to Nola's care - as soon as we have updates, we will let you know!
Organizer
Stephanie Kaufman
Organizer
College Station, TX