Jace’s Journey

Jace’s journey started about 4 years ago when Lisa and Melissa Beery brought her home from a rescue that took in puppy milled dogs.  When they went to meet her the staff asked them to consider not taking her because she was so bad socially and physically that they were planning on euthanizing her.  They took her anyway……  Jace had about 8 litters of pups in less than 6 years, and was probably almost 7 years old when the Beery’s took her to her forever home.  They brought her into a pet loving home where she had brothers and sisters to love and live with.   It took Jace almost 2 years before she trusted them enough to go for a walk, play outside or even get close to them.  She still can’t go up and down steps due to weakness in her back legs from spending 6 years in a kennel.  She is now the happiest little dog ever and can’t let her moms out of her sight.  About 8 months ago Jace was diagnosed with proteinuria which can be managed long term with meds.  She has been fine until late June when she started collapsing repeatedly.  She entered the ER vet at least 5 times in 2 weeks and spent 10 to 14 days there.  The biggest problem was every time they got there she had already recovered, so symptomatically they only had their word on what was happening.  Every test known to man was run.  Everything was negative so they went to a neurologist to see if it was seizures.  MRI came up clean but started her on seizure medication just in case.  All of the symptoms never went away but did lessen until 2 weeks ago.  She started collapsing again.  She has had 3 echocardiograms, hooked up to a EKG for hours on end, multiple ultrasounds, biopsies of organs, bloodwork sent off to other states.  They again thought it was seizures so they pumped her full of phenobarbital and sent her home.  That same day her heart rate dropped to 14 and blood pressure to 30.  They should have lost her.  As they raced Jace to the Emergency vet they gave her mouth to mouth and 15 minutes later she perked back up with no explanation.  They stabilized her again and were monitoring her on site.   3 days later her blood pressure skyrocketed to 300.  Instead of releasing her, they dug deeper to try to figure out what was going on.  Now 2 weeks into this episode and 3 months from onset they think they have figured it out.  Hemolytic anemia.  She still has other issues that they may never know the answers to, but at no point were they comfortable with ending her life without a reason and not knowing what was happening to her.  She is now on steroids for anemia, which should cure in 90 days, and still on meds for kidney disease which could keep her kidneys strong enough for years to come.    

                I am writing this story to help the Beery’s with their journey.  They have spent $14,000 to get to this diagnosis and still have more follow-ups.  There is a chance Jace isn’t strong enough any longer to fight this anemia, and her little body has been through an awful lot of trauma and an awful amount of meds.  8 pills in the morning and 8 pills in the evening.  They are fighting to give her the best life after the terrible start she had and the idea of giving up because of money has never crossed their mind.  I would like to raise enough money to split the bill she has currently.  If anyone is willing to donate it would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks for reading Jace’s story!