A Little Help for Chance

My wife and I are asking for help with our daughter Ashley's new puppy vet bills.  Chance was a playful, happy and loving puppy before his second vaccination.  On a Saturday, Chance received his second round of vaccinations and by Sunday he was lethargic and wouldn't eat or drink.  We called the vet on Monday morning and they said to try giving him boiled chicken and rice.  Chance ate the mixture right up only to vomit it up a few minutes later.   We took Chance immediately back to the vet.  They checked him out and sent us home with some food and medicine.  On Tuesday, Chance was still not doing well, so we took him back to the vet first thing in the morning.  The vet kept Chance so they could put him on an IV and monitor him for the day.  At 4 p.m. the head vet at the clinic called to say they performed a blood panel test that showed Chance was having complete organ failure, and that he only had one option to survive the day.  Their advice was to take Chance to the only certified pet ER ICU in Maryland immediately.  We had Chance at the ER by 5:30 p.m. and they started treating him for suspected leptospirosis. They stated that they could not treat Chance for any kind of reaction from a vaccine, but they could treat for leptospirosis, a disease running rampant in the North East. The ICU required a substantial deposit of $3,000.00. Ashley approved the deposit on her credit card because she loved Chance, and stated she would save him whatever it takes.  So that night the pet ER ICU kept Chance to treat him.  On Wednesday morning we talked to the ER, they stated that Chance's blood panel test was showing improvement but they were very concerned that he was no longer producing urine. The ER decided to increase his fluid intake and suggested putting him on a diuretic to jump start his kidneys.  Ashley approved the diuretic on their suggestion. Throughout the day the ER asked Ashley to strongly consider euthanasia at least three times because Chance was still not producing urine. The ER also tried to get my wife and I to persuade Ashley to have Chance euthanized on multiple occasions as well. The ER suggested that Ashley consider hemodialysis (pet dialysis at $10,000 to $20,000 with a low healthy survival rate) to try to save Chance.  If not, he would never make it through the night.  After we discussed all of our options, we decided to bring Chance home to be with us and when necessary, take him to his vet. At 7:40p.m. we called the Pet ER to let them know of our decision and asked what time we could pick him up. The doctor understood our choice and would get Chance ready for us to pick him up. Once the Pet ER started to prep him to leave, they immediately called back saying he was finally urinating again and wanted to watch him. We called the ER for an update at 10:00p.m. They said that he had produced 450ml of urine and they found this very encouraging. The ER was going to increase fluid intake and call us Thursday morning with an update.  However, at 10:22p.m. Wednesday, the ER called us back to inform us that they discovered the clamp on the catheter was never removed. The doctor at the ER filed an internal investigation to discover how this could have happened. The doctors are hopeful that this did not cause lasting organ damage to Chance, and apologized for not informing us earlier that they had made a mistake. They also apologized multiple times for putting Ashley, Chance, and our entire family through this ordeal (referring to the fact that they wanted to euthanize him because he was not producing urine and the pain & suffering Chance went through).  Ashley was so happy that she did not take their advice and put him down. Thursday morning the ER called to say that he was improving again, now that he could urinate. When I spoke to another on call doctor, they now were trying to lie and said the catheter was never clamped; ultimately he finally admitted he was not being fully honest with us about what happened. Over the next few days Chance's health continued to improve. We picked Chance up after six nights in the ER on Sunday, when the PetER cleared him to go home.  He was so happy to see us and we were ecstatic to have him home. Chance's current veterinarian wants him to get blood panel tests every other month, then every six months and yearly after that.  They want to closely monitor his blood panel test results as he is more susceptible to liver and kidney failure.

              Chance's vet bills related to his organ failure to date:

               $6,417.00 PetER ICU
               $2,387.50 Chance's veterinarian
               $8,804.50 total to date

    Ashley had to spread this cost of all the vet bills onto three credit cards and she is now having a tough time making ends meet.  Ashley has always helped people when she can, including donating to other gofundme campaigns.

    Thank you for taking the time to read about Chance.  We appreciate anything that you can do to help our daughter.