Please help save Charlie Jo's life

Charlie Jo is the beloved English Springer Spaniel of my friend Mary.

Mary adopted Charlie on December 13, 2021, the day before his 1st birthday! This bundle of energy loves all people, all animals, all toys and all treats. His little nub never stops wiggling. He's never met a stranger who didn't fall in love with him. Mary was fostering Charlie for ESRA and wasn't planning on keeping him. She had lost her beloved canine companion Jake to cancer just a few months earlier and wasn't sure her heart was ready. After just a few short days in foster care with her, Charlie had won her heart, and she couldn't wait to make him hers forever. She called me immediately to make it official, and on December 13, 2021, Charlie officially became hers.

Fast forward to August 2022. Charlie is now fighting for his life, battling an unknown, aggressive, fast-moving fungal infection determined to take his life.

I share his story today with you to ask for prayers, and if you can donate to his care, that is greatly appreciated as well. Any money collected will go directly to his vet, his specialist and toward the costs of his medications, tests and anything else necessary to help him fight this battle.

Here is his story:

August 6: Food-motivated Charlie turned down his beloved treat. He has an itty bitty cough, is holding his right leg up and does not want cuddles. Alert mom Mary knows something is up!

August 7: Turns down another treat, is now limping and is sleeping more.

August 8: He's developed a large hard lump on his right hip, and lots of little bumps are sprouting all over his body.

August 9: Charlie is more uncomfortable and licking/chewing his leg. Mary makes an appointment for the following day with her vet.

August 10: Riding shotgun in the car ( a real treat for Charlie!) Mary notices a small hole on the back of his neck. The bumps on his body are still multiplying, and now there is a huge cluster around the front of his neck. The vet discovers that Charlie has a fever and has lost some weight. They ran some blood tests, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary other than an elevated white blood count. They thought he had a simple infection, so they sent him home with some antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory. And a re-check for Friday, August 12.

August 12: Charlie woke up Friday with a terrible, productive cough. His lumps had multiplied yet again, and his neck was swollen to twice its normal size. His vet took an x-ray, and Charlie now has pneumonia. And the pattern looked like a fungus. They added another antibiotic and scheduled his re-check for Tuesday, August 16th.

August 16: Charlie was getting some pep back in his step, but this happy-go-lucky pup was clearly not feeling well. His personality had changed, and all his lumps were now hard. The vet suspected his lymph nodes were involved. He had lumps covering his whole body, and his gums were pale. The vet was concerned and indicated Charlie needed to see a specialist the next day.

August 17: Charlie spent 7 hours at the specialist office while they retook x-rays, and redrew blood for additional testing. In order to get a better look at these 'lumps' they shaved his left hip only to find a huge cluster of lumps that had ruptured and were bleeding, and the margins of the skin looked to be dying. The specialist is pretty confident Charlie has some sort of aggressive fungal infection.

Based on what is known right now, Charlie has two major organ systems under attack... his skin and his lungs. His survival rate is 50-75%. If the fungal infection shows up in another organ system, his survival drops significantly.

Charlie is being treated with aggressive (and expensive) antibiotics until his blood tests come back (3-7 days) to hopefully identify what fungus is attacking him. He will have to be monitored continually to ensure these drugs and their complications are not causing more issues, like liver failure. Any additional complications will put this life at risk. The specialist describes this as "a marathon, not a sprint." Charlie has a very long road ahead of him.

Any money collected will go directly to his vet, his specialist and toward the costs of his medications, tests and anything else necessary to help him fight this battle.