
Bucks for Winnie!
Donation protected
On Tuesday morning, I did not wake up to Winnie nudging my nose and begging for belly rubs, like usual. Instead I found him under a chair in the living room with a slight sway to his head and a pained expression on his face. And that is where this ordeal began.

It was very difficult to find a vet that could take him, covid has forced many vet clinics to run on reduced hours with a skeleton crew but we eventually found one who could take him and they began the battery of tests needed to figure out what was wrong with our fuzzy guy.
Winnie was in extreme pain and they eventually narrowed it down to acute pancreatitis. His pancreas was inflamed, he had a fever, he was very dehydrated and this was causing his body to shut down. An ultrasound was done to determine if there were any tumours or obstructions or anything else much bigger and scarier, but they determined that there was nothing like that going on, YAY!!
However, he responded very very poorly to treatment. His pain medication made him drool and sway, the antibiotics made him throw up and have diarrhea. He was stuck in a place that was busy and loud and foreign.
Winnie was admitted to the vet on Tuesday afternoon and was only able to come home late Sunday night. The entirety of his stay at the vet he needed to be hooked up to an IV in his cage and the port in his arm became very sore because it needed to be in this long. He could not walk with the IV in and needed to be confined with very little movement for 5 full days. He also was on a hunger strike. Because he was not feeling good he refused to eat.
Refusing to eat became the real crux of his health problems. They could not send him home with me because he could not be fed pills. But a big factor in him not eating was because he was stuck at the vet. Could there be a problem more frustrating?! He was so miserable there that they broke their covid protocol and with many measures taken on mine and their behalf, let me come visit him on Friday, Saturday and Sunday all in hopes of ending this hunger strike.

For all the medications that he needed, because he was on an IV 24/7, because he was so sick and needed so much attention it cost approximately $500 a full day to be kept there. I know that seems crazy but he just needed that level of care to be able to pull through and I'm so grateful that they provided that.
I adopted Winnie when he was 9. When you adopt an older pet you have to resign yourself to the fact that your time with them may be limited. But Winnie is only 12 now and he's got many great years left!! He is back home now and I have a battery of meds he needs to be on for a few weeks. He is very very tired and I am working very hard to get more food in him and get his appetite up.

Due to loss of work during covid, my savings were already at a very low point. My pride is hurt asking for help, but Winnie hurts more and we need help.
I want to extend an exceptional thank you to Kyle and Mikaela Charbonneau, who on Sunday privately and unexpectedly sent me an extremely generous amount of money, one that I thought I wouldn't even reach if I ran a gofundme. I don't have the words to express how thankful I am, and that amount has been subtracted to how much I'm asking for.
Every bit counts and every bit given goes straight to his vet bills! Thank you for reading about our ordeal. And I hope all your little fuzzy guys the utmost health and happiness.

It was very difficult to find a vet that could take him, covid has forced many vet clinics to run on reduced hours with a skeleton crew but we eventually found one who could take him and they began the battery of tests needed to figure out what was wrong with our fuzzy guy.
Winnie was in extreme pain and they eventually narrowed it down to acute pancreatitis. His pancreas was inflamed, he had a fever, he was very dehydrated and this was causing his body to shut down. An ultrasound was done to determine if there were any tumours or obstructions or anything else much bigger and scarier, but they determined that there was nothing like that going on, YAY!!
However, he responded very very poorly to treatment. His pain medication made him drool and sway, the antibiotics made him throw up and have diarrhea. He was stuck in a place that was busy and loud and foreign.
Winnie was admitted to the vet on Tuesday afternoon and was only able to come home late Sunday night. The entirety of his stay at the vet he needed to be hooked up to an IV in his cage and the port in his arm became very sore because it needed to be in this long. He could not walk with the IV in and needed to be confined with very little movement for 5 full days. He also was on a hunger strike. Because he was not feeling good he refused to eat.
Refusing to eat became the real crux of his health problems. They could not send him home with me because he could not be fed pills. But a big factor in him not eating was because he was stuck at the vet. Could there be a problem more frustrating?! He was so miserable there that they broke their covid protocol and with many measures taken on mine and their behalf, let me come visit him on Friday, Saturday and Sunday all in hopes of ending this hunger strike.

For all the medications that he needed, because he was on an IV 24/7, because he was so sick and needed so much attention it cost approximately $500 a full day to be kept there. I know that seems crazy but he just needed that level of care to be able to pull through and I'm so grateful that they provided that.
I adopted Winnie when he was 9. When you adopt an older pet you have to resign yourself to the fact that your time with them may be limited. But Winnie is only 12 now and he's got many great years left!! He is back home now and I have a battery of meds he needs to be on for a few weeks. He is very very tired and I am working very hard to get more food in him and get his appetite up.

Due to loss of work during covid, my savings were already at a very low point. My pride is hurt asking for help, but Winnie hurts more and we need help.
I want to extend an exceptional thank you to Kyle and Mikaela Charbonneau, who on Sunday privately and unexpectedly sent me an extremely generous amount of money, one that I thought I wouldn't even reach if I ran a gofundme. I don't have the words to express how thankful I am, and that amount has been subtracted to how much I'm asking for.
Every bit counts and every bit given goes straight to his vet bills! Thank you for reading about our ordeal. And I hope all your little fuzzy guys the utmost health and happiness.
Organizer
Rachel Burnham
Organizer
Toronto, ON