Eli's Vision Emergency: Every Dollar Helps

Eli is 30% eyes, 30% ears, 40% butt, all while being 100% the love of my life. This GoFundMe is to pay the bill for the emergency surgery I elected for Eli to have in order to prevent him from going blind.

Over the last few days, Eli had fog in his eye. We got to the vet today and found out that the lens, which usually is connected behind the iris, had detached and moved through the pupil to the front of his eye. We also learned the other eye was a hair away from doing the same thing. The choices were: 1) a very expensive surgery to remove the lenses from both eyes; 2) remove the lens from the one eye and await the other to do the same, resulting in two surgeries; or 3) allow Eli to go fully blind suddenly through eye removal later on. Adding the $10,800 bill to my credit card wasn’t an easy decision to make, but there isn’t one ounce of cutting back I wouldn’t do for this dog. Any contributions are fully voluntary and deeply appreciated.

Eli’s background - On July 7 of this year, Eli turned six years old. A rescue who came to me in 2021 from an outdoor life on a farm in Oklahoma. The farm owner and caretaker passed away, leaving Eli and his siblings to fend for themselves in the fields. Rescued by Tiny N Tall of St. Charles, IL in 2020, he went to a foster home that had the best intentions. They knew something was a little bit off; he seemed lethargic and would sometimes limp, and after some Facebook keyboard-research, he was (mis)diagnosed with hepatozoonosis, a rare disease caused by consuming a Gulf Shore tick. The foster parent ordered a medicine online that they had read would help with this disease, and when I adopted him, I was told he would have it for the rest of his life, medicated with every meal.

A little after his adoption, we started out with our first vet visit at Precious Bond Animal Hospital, and the vet did a full exam to get to know him. The vet had never heard of the Gulf Shore tick disease before, and apparently, there is even a test exactly just for hepatozoonosis, and we went ahead with it. Turns out he didn’t have it, and the medicine I had been feeding him with every meal was actually meant for goats. We did, however, find out he had an underdeveloped back leg that made life a little more difficult for him. This is why our home has over 4 sets of Eli-sized stairs today.

Though he came home so very shy and so very timid, throughout our 4 years together, he has learned to love and open up. He’s been through a lot from homelessness, to dealing with Munchausen syndrome by proxy in foster care, and now there just is no chance I’m allowing him face blindness, too, if I can help it.