We never thought we would be here but here we are. Those who don’t know us, hi! Our names are Rebekah and Jordan and our sweet baby Orion needs some help. Orion was originally adopted by Jordan in Spain 5 years ago. He was an abused stray and lived quite a tough life until Jordan saved him and showed him what love was.

Fast forward a bit, he lived his best life in Greece and then made it back to America with us where he got a little brother. Since being back in America he started experiencing some pretty serious health conditions. He was misdiagnosed about a year and a half ago with an autoimmune disease so we were treating him for that, not knowing those symptoms were just masking the deeper problem.

About a month ago we started noticing that he wasn’t as interested in his food, he slowly got to the point of not eating at all (anything, we tried it all). His paws began getting blistered and bleeding, he developed large sacks of fluid around all his joints, and we noticed something that looked like a sty under one of his eyelids.

Orion got brought into his normal vet for regular annual shots and we had them check the “sty” under his eye. We were informed they thought it was a mass and they were concerned about his weight loss and that we should go to a specialist.

Orion arrived at the ER on Thursday (February 2nd). While there they ran a blood panel and noticed some very concerning levels. Through further research they came up with the diagnosis of Leishmaniasis (an infection with leishmaniasis parasites spread by sand fleas). Leish is found in the Europe/Mediterranean (Spain and Greece) and is deadly to dogs without treatment. We are left to believe he has had this since he was a stray and it has just started to surface as he gets older.

Orion has pet insurance but he wasn’t insured until June of 2022. Unfortunately the insurance is deeming this preexisting illness since he has a misdiagnosis and will cover zero costs. After visiting Orion today, we have decided not to give up on him regardless of the costs. This is a decision we did not make lightly, however, we believe he does not want to give up yet so neither will we.

Orion has a long road to recovery, but after not eating for 7 days straight, losing mass amounts of weight, losing the ability to walk, paw pads falling off and remaining raw, and clogged/bloody noses… he has shown signs of progression today. He ate for the first time today and showed the most energy and personality we’ve seen in the last week. His blood work is also showing positive changes. We refuse to give up on him if he is showing he can come back from this.

If you’ve made it this far we are so appreciative of you even just reading his story.

Anything helps, even just $1 or a simple share. Thank you so much in advance to anyone willing and understanding that this is more than just a dog to us.