Last Wednesday the 25th, the unimaginable happened when we had to rush our sweet baby Billie to the emergency vet after a couple day's of rather mild GI issues quickly took a turn toward a life threatening decline. At the direction of our family veterinarian, we took Billie to the closest emergency vet, Dove Lewis, where she was admitted to the ER for tests. After 24 hours in the ER without much improvement, she was moved to their ICU for around the clock care and remained there for the next 5 days. After a few gut wrenching days of fluctuating ups and downs in her condition, the vet advised we proceed with additional testing and an ultrasound to detect possible pancreatitis or Addison's Disease, which would have changed her course of care at that point. Thankfully both procedures showed no signs of either disease and we could safely say she's having a very intense bout of Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis (HGE) and will recover with time and continued care.  We adopted our girl from the Three Rivers Humane Society in Madras, OR back in 2016 and she's only around 6 years old, so we knew we had to do everything we could to ensure she lives out a full and happy life with many more adventures to come. 

We are very happy to report that her condition started to improve overnight Sunday  and she was stable enough yesterday afternoon to come home with us and continue her recovery. As we write this Tuesday afternoon, she continues to recover slowly with plenty of rest, meds and love from her exhausted yet beyond grateful parents. 

It's not easy for either of us to ask for help as we tend to see ourselves as the helpers and care takers in our world, but the reality of this already-tough year and the uncertain fate of the still shuttered music industry and the general unknowns surrounding continued unemployment relief beyond this month leaves us with very limited options to come back from this nightmare of a week without reaching out to our community of friends and loved ones for help. 

Our ER/ICU bill from Dove Lewis is over $6,000 for her stay, which needless to say is an insurmountable sum for most families to take on at the end of an already long and financially stressful year. We are able to tackle a portion of this bill and the bills to come, but we have to swallow our pride and ask for your help for the remaining balance. We know times are tough in general and giving anything right now may not be possible, but if you're able, any amount will be huge in helping us take on this unexpected emergency expense. If financial support is not possible, we'd love if you could share this around to any friends we may not have reached on our own. 

We appreciate all the messages of love and support we've received and a huge thank you from the bottom of our hearts for any and all of your help. 

Much love, xoxo
Billie, Eric and Anna