Hello, my name is Josseline. I am writing this with a broken yet very hopeful heart. I am the owner of this beautiful and loving dog, Coco. Coco is a mix German Shepherd, and he is currently fighting an unknown illness. Coco has always been such a friendly dog who loves playing with his squeaky banana, running, jumping, Dutch pup cups, and being around his humans.

Unfortunately, as of last Tuesday, September 9, he has not been the dog that we all have known for the past few years. We noticed that he was not wanting to eat nor drink anything, so he was given chicken broth up until Thursday. We then noticed some body jerking movements where his body would jerk forwards, as well as him just wanting to stay in his house and not come out to greet us like usual. Come Friday, he was still doing the same thing, but this time, he was unable to stand on his own for more than 10 seconds without stumbling to the ground with no control of his own body.

On Saturday morning, he was taken to the hospital where they gave him fluids, ran several tests and bloodwork. They let me know that he had a fever, that his brain is swollen, potassium levels and iron are very low, and his blood cells (both red and white) are very low as well. But they did let me know that his body is fighting whatever he has with the different size red cells, which is keeping me hopeful. They also ran tests for the top 3 tick diseases and parvo, and both came out negative.

Come Tuesday, I took him in for a recheck as I had seen little to no improvement. They took his temperature, and he still had a fever. They also put an injection that would calm his twitches if he was having seizures. The injection did not help, which let us know that it wasn't that either. The doctor recommended us to either bring him home and continue the medication, have him stay there, be monitored and be given medication, or put him down. I made the decision to bring him home with me and have full faith in God and in the medications.

As of Tuesday after the appointment, he has not been able to stand up even for a few seconds. He eats very little but does drink water. His hind legs have not stopped twitching since last Friday, which is causing him trouble to sleep well. He lays for hours in the same spot, so we have to help him turn over to help that side of his body rest. He has little to no strength to even pick up his head most of the time, which completely breaks our hearts. Today, September 18, he was able to move a few feet away from his bed but then needed assistance with getting back.

I would love to be able to give him another opportunity of life, to be the Coco we all knew of before this illness took over. For that, I would have to continue to take him to get bloodwork done, more tests, and more health essentials to find out what is wrong and make him okay again. If you find it in your heart to please donate, Coco and myself would be eternally grateful. He is currently on appetite stimulants, 2 antibiotics, nerve pain medication, muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatory, and anti-nausea medication.