PLEASE SHARE!!! This is a long one, I'm so sorry in advance. Those who know me, know the level of desperation it takes to even admit that I need help, let alone to be able to ask for help from others. Please be patient as we try to include every important piece of information regarding Kaiya's difficult situation and navigate this new 'life' we've unfortunately found ourselves in charge of. Scroll down for the 'shorter' summary, and to the bottom for updates in real-time.

The morning of September 22nd, life as we knew it was flipped upside down when our seemingly healthy 4-year-old Tamaskan furbaby, Kaiya, started showing sudden life-threatening symptoms of severe hepatic (liver) dysfunction. By 11:00am that day, we were told she would need to be rushed into emergency surgery at an internal specialist for a suspected burst hydrometra an hour away in Hillsborough County, where we found through expensive exploratory surgery that this was completely unrelated to the uterus, and that her abdomen was at capacity with bodily fluid. Her liver was shriveled, and she was in active liver failure due to an unknown cause. We were forced to deplete our cash savings and max out all of our available credit within a matter of minutes, but thankfully the surgeons were able to save her life. They drained as much fluid as they could, got her stable with experimental medications, and she made it through the night - an absolute miracle. We were able to pick her up the following morning, but unfortunately, we picked her up with more questions than answers.

Since then, we've had several visits to our primary vet that have consisted of a crazy amount of different testing and organ biopsies ($$$), as well as follow-up phone calls with the specialists to try and figure out what caused her to suffer from this unknown condition. Over the following 2 weeks, through testing we've been able to rule out some of the more obvious concerns such as: cancer (negative), tumors on the liver (no evidence currently), cardiac failure/dysfunction, Cushing's disease, common liver diseases, etc. but even so, and with copious amounts of liver medications/protectants, Kaiya has had to have her abdomen drained twice on an emergency basis since her surgery due to an ongoing accumulation of fluid. Basically, her organs are 'sweating' into her abdomen from a lack of vascular pressure (liver dysfunction) at a faster rate than her body can reabsorb it. Draining the abdomen of fluid on its own is extremely dangerous because it increases the risk of 'third spacing' and sending her body into shock, as well as depleting her body of total proteins which are essential for important organ functions. Doing this multiple times within a few weeks of each extraction as a maintenance approach for an unknown issue is essentially a recipe for disaster. Since her last drainage on October 5th, her total protein levels have dipped and her bloodwork results for the first time have shown a noticeable decline in important numbers, leading to our primary vet officially referring us on a time-senstive basis over to the internal medicine specialists at FETCH, Brandon in Hillsborough County for continued care and assessment. The hope is that we will be able to track down an official diagnosis with an efficient treatment by working with experienced veterinarians at FETCH.

THE SUMMARY: We brought a seemingly healthy Kaiya into the vet on the 22nd of September only to find out that she had been suffering from an unknown, undetected, and most likely extremely rare genetic disease for 6+ months that caused her organs (liver specifically) to go into failure. All of her other bloodwork levels (besides slightly elevated liver enzymes) have come back normal, stumping a total of 5 veterinarians looking over her case. She has a couple of symptoms of a few things, but without the supporting bloodwork data to confirm any of them. Half of her tests come back as a totally healthy dog, and the other half come back as a dog who should be on her deathbed or close to it. Kaiya is neither, but falls delicately in the middle of that spectrum, and sadly for the first time as of 10/5/23 other numbers in her tests have begun to show a decline in overall health. This increases the urgency of the time crunch to figure out the cause of Kaiya's suffering. Right now, we aren't sure what is causing the problem, but clear evidence suggests that time is of the essence and we need to pinpoint the cause of this fluid build-up in order to save her life moving forward. Her body simply cannot take being drained as a maintenance approach without directly treating the cause of the problem simultaneously.

THE PLAN: Since 9/29/2023 we have invested in just about every blood test and biopsy that a primary veterinarian can provide us, and haven't been successful in narrowing down the cause of Kaiya's liver failure. We have been officially referred back to FETCH (the first available appointment was 11/6 three weeks from now, but we are currently searching for a sooner appointment even if we have to drive farther) to have someone more specialized review and interpret her case. As of 10/7/23, her liver protectants (Ursodiol and Denamarin) have at least given us a sense of hope considering they have brought her toxic liver levels down a couple hundred points, so everyone involved is confident that we are targeting the right thing - a small win that we hold on to very tightly. We are now awaiting a call back from the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in New York regarding the results of an independent food analysis test just in case, but that is really reaching for any and everything that we can rule out. Our primary vet has recommended prescribed diuretics in the meantime while we try and get into an internal medicine specialist in the hopes that this will help her reabsorb the fluid being produced at a quicker rate than it is being produced. Her current condition is stable but vulnerable, but if we don't locate a cause and a direct treatment for her issues her prognosis is shorter and more grim than we'd like to admit :(

THE COST: Saving Kaiya's life on the 22nd put us in debt of around $7,500. In the weeks following her emergency procedure, we have spent over $1,200 for testing and have just been informed by FETCH that she may need a more invasive liver biopsy to confirm or deny a short list of potential factors for her condition. This liver biopsy alone is at least $3,500, and the confirmation tests that follow will run around at least $1,500. Her current monthly medication cost is around $250. We are hoping that the extensive biopsy isn't totally necessary after our consult with the specialists, in which case we would alternatively have around $3,000 of genetic testing gene-by-gene and diagnostics as well as follow-up confirmations. Sadly her case and condition are up in the air for the time being pending these results. Donations will be put towards her upcoming diagnostics that we are struggling to fund and a month or two of medication supplementation (if we have enough donations).

Kaiya remains happy for now, and for the most part, seems physically better than when she was in her emergency state on the 22nd. Her abdomen is still distended and she is slower on her walks/not able to trek on as long as usual, but is still excited about the finer things in life (food, car rides, Pup Cups etc.) and is enjoying her humans + adventures at her new pace. Because of this, we are heavily relying on assistance from selfless friends, family, and strangers to be able to overcome this unexpected obstacle and provide the best quality of life to our dogter and our world, miss Kaiya Marley. Please consider donating even a dollar to fund her ongoing testing, as it all adds up and means the world to her parents who are sick with worry over her ongoing issues. THANK YOU!!!

10/9/23 UPDATE: Kaiya started her first round of experimental diuretics this morning. We are scheduled 11/6 for an appointment at FETCH but are officially on the cancellation list now, so any day they will be calling us with an opening and we are standing by available to take her in as soon as we get the call. In the meantime, she has a recheck scheduled for this Friday 10/13 to see how her body is responding to the new meds. The goal is to have significant improvement in the amount of fluid in her abdomen by Friday and that we won’t need to do another tap to drain her while we wait for the specialists. Today is the first day in 4 weeks that she picked up her ball and tried to play with it a little, so we are very hopeful!

10/10/23 UPDATE: WE GOT AN APPOINTMENT!!! The specialists at FETCH called with an opening this week and we couldn’t be more grateful for such a quick adjustment. She goes in tomorrow, 10/11, at 1:00pm for her initial consult, review, and treatment plan.