Support little Koda bear

Please help Dakota, Aka, “Koda, KB, Kodie, Koda Bear” come home to Louie and Issy. Koda has been in the ICU for three days and we want to give her the best chance at surviving her cluster seizures caused by her epilepsy. Anything you could spare to help cover Koda’s vet bills would mean the world to Issy and Louie and to our family.

On Thursday night, my sister Issy and her partner Louie woke up to a bang at the end of their bed. Their 5 year old beaglier, Koda had fallen off the bed and was completely stiff. This is the first phase of one of Koda’s seizures, quickly followed by the ictal phase where she begins convulsing, peddling, shaking, urinating and starts uncontrollable movements. This is called a grand mal seizure and extremely hard on Koda’s body. Issy has told me that she has learnt to close her eyes and hold Koda tightly so she doesn’t have to see the light leave her dog’s eyes and watch as Koda’s body is completely taken over. This goes on for several minutes and when Koda finally comes out of it, she yelps and cries and is confused for minutes before another starts. This is called a Grand Mal Seizure and this is what happens to Koda every single time she has a seizure. Koda is a small dog and she has had 20 of them in the last three days.

Up to this day, Koda has been 155 days seizure free, her epilepsy managed with medication morning and night. Koda was diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy in January, only 8 months ago.

Koda has been on a drip and in the ICU since 2am Thursday night and has been in and out of seizures despite being loaded up on every epilepsy medication. Issy and Louie and extremely distressed and each time Koda has a seizure leads to uncertainly on whether she’ll pull through or get stuck in what is known as status epilepticus - a condition where the brain cannot stop having seizures. The options here are induced coma or to put Koda down.

Issy and Louie want to do what’s best for their dog but keeping Koda in ICU is costing $1350 every 12 hours. She has been loaded on a different anticonvulsant drug and hasn’t had a grand mal seizure in about 14 hours which is fantastic news so they are hoping to have her home in the next day or so.

They are stressed over the bill which stands over $6,000 and majority of this wont be covered by their insurance as they have exhausted all of their consultation and emergency boarding allowances when Koda was first diagnosed with Epilepsy in January . Frustratingly their policy renews in two weeks. Koda is the most special thing in Louie and Issy’s life and they do absolutely everything with her. I’ve been at their house the last few days and it feels empty without her. If you know Koda, or at the very least if you’re an animal lover, on behalf of Issy and Louie we ask you to donate anything you can to help cover the cost of her treatment and get her home where hopefully she can live a full life with her loving owners. Koda is the most special thing in Louie and Issy’s life and they do absolutely everything with her. People say this all the time but every little bit helps.