Help Milo Make It!!!

Please help me save my brother Milo!

He is very sick and any amount you can donate will help in his hopeful recovery. Any monies not needed for his medical care will be donated to Whiskers Tails and Ferals, a local rescue in Napa that does amazing work rescuing animals, as well as the local Humane Society.


For the last twelve days he just hasn't been himself. He won't play and wrestle with me, he just lays around in bed he doesn't want to eat or drink much.
 

We keep having to go visit the vet A LOT. 


One day mom and Milo were gone all day and even though she made sure someone came and gave me a walk I was worried. When they came home he had a bit more energy and finally ate a little bit, but he still wanted me to leave him alone.  It makes me so sad.


My mom says he is really anemic and it took the vets a lot of tests, repeated blood work, X-rays, ultrasounds and a bone marrow biopsy to help figure it out. They still don't know exactly what's going on and he may still need to have an endoscopy and colonoscopy in the future.


He is a bit more active today because he had a blood transfusion that one day they were gone all day and it helped make him a bit less anemic. 



Unfortunately the tests are all showing that his bone marrow isn't kicking out new red blood cells and now the vet has started him on three very strong immunosuppressant medications to try and fix this. He is already on so many meds that this makes mom really nervous for his little body.


All the meds have so many side effects that it may be awhile before he is back to his normal self. The vets say he will likely need to stay on these medications for 6-12 months with weekly or bi-weekly vet visits to check the anemia level of his blood, as well as kidney and liver levels and to adjust medications as needed.  He will probably also need at least one if not more blood transfusions in the course of his treatment, which all is going to get pretty pricey.  The transfusions if needed will be to keep him stable while the meds continue to do their job of waking up his bone marrow.  Unfortunatley they come with a whole host of complications and side effects the more often they are needed. All of the treatments can make him really sick and possibly cause him to leave us before they cure him but hopefully after all of this he will be cured and we can go back to being best buds again. He is only 7 and I plan on having him around until I'm a really old dog too. 


Mom seems really worried a lot. She just wants to keep everyone healthy and wants to take the best care of us and be able to go to work and take care of the sick people there too.  However, the care credit is already maxed out at $4,000 from some of Milo's past chronic illness and trying to diagnosis this problem over the last 12 days.  Luckily we have vet insurance which while helpful only reimburses a bit and takes forever to do so.

The needed medicines are going to cost ~$500 each month and she is very worried about how she is going to be able to pay for these and manage to pay the care credit card payment of ~$700 a month which is what is needed to get it paid off before the grace period ends in 6 months and the entire amount accrues 29% interest from then on. 

Along with all the vet costs mom has had to miss a lot of uncompensated days of work over the last 12 days while she got Milo stabilized and there may be times in the future where he is so sick from the medications or more anemic again and she will need to stay home to make sure he stays okay. 

I'm doing my best to be a good girl but I'm feeling jealous of all the special attention Milo is getting. I am bored and just want to get back to burning off energy by wrestling with my best bud, have good long walks everyday and really fun weekend outings for hikes, the beach and to just get out and about more. It's making me cranky and I'm getting a little pudgy from laying around, not getting enough exercise and I can tell mom feels guilty that Milo is getting special wetfood because she has been giving me little bites too : ).   


Mom really doesn't like to ask for help. She is always the helper. When she leaves in the mornings and goes to that place she calls work I know she takes really good  care of her patients, she always try's to help people wherever and whenever she can and then comes home even when tired and still takes the best care of us! 


My mom says along time ago she had no animals and this made her sad and then one day she fell in love at first sight. 


Milo was her first animal all on her own as an adult.  She didn't get to grow  up with dogs,  no matter how much she begged for one as a child.  She made do with a lot of cats and a pet rat. Luckily Milo was a very good puppy and they figured it out together, he became her best friend, and they went everywhere together. He started out so healthy but when he was less then a year old he got really sick with pancreatitis and then kept getting sick after that. They finally diagnosed him with colitis and it took a couple years to get him really good and stable on meds and the right diet. She did her best then just like now and Milo was healthier and got to do his favorite things. Playing with toys, going to the ocean and digging at the river!! 





Then she got Milo a friend when she rescued our cat Max from Whiskers Tails and Ferals. They liked each other right away. 


However, it seems like mom can't catch a lucky break with her furry babies even though she takes such good care of us and poor Max had an accident and now runs around on three legs but it doesn't slow him down one bit! However, after that he got depressed and lonely not being able to go play with the neighborhood cats so back to the rescue place she went and rescued them a sister. Mallory instantly fit into the family and Max wasn't depressed anymore. 



By the time I came a long it was one big happy/stable/healthy family and it was time for Milo to have his own kind for a best friend. 

I was a rescue off the streets who luckily got to go to a good foster home with an amazing foster mom and lots of dogs.  When my new mom came to get me and take me home I wasn't scared at all and then I met Milo and I fell in love. 


I did everything he did. Mom got lucky and I didn't need much training. I just followed him every where he went. : ) He taught me where to eat.


How to use the doggy door and where to go potty.  Although sometimes I would forget when he wasn't around to remind me and piddle inside, but geeze I was super young, and of course I don't do that anymore.


He taught me how to walk on a leash even though we still both ignore mom often and pull when we get excited about seeing squirrels. 


He showed me how much fun it was to have a brother of my very own to wrestle and play tug of war with! 



He made my vet visits less scary when I was little by coming with me and now I go with him for his visits to make it less scary for him. 


Please help us in any way you can so that we can get Milo healthy and go back to having fun again! Mom really wanted to take us to the ocean tomorrow while Milo's energy is up and before the medication side effects kick in but the vet advised against it.  She said the medications are already working to lower his immune system and hopefully kick his bone marrow into action and he could get a bad infection. We really want to go back to the beach, camping and swimming at the river one day!




I know I will be sad if we can't fix this but my mom will be truly heartbroken. I know she loves me and the cats so much but Milo was her first and very special little dude!! 






Milo's favorite person on this planet besides his mommy is his moms twin sister. I sure love her too! She will be so so sad if he isn't okay. 



Even the cats who always seem to not care what we are doing unless its time for food or play seem sad lately.  They can tell something is wrong. Our family just won't be complete if we can't do everything in our power to fix this! 


Thank you for listening to my story.  Again, any amount can help no matter how small and all donations will go towards Milo's medical care. If god willing he gets better really fast or god forbid the treatments don't work :( any donations left will be given to the various local animal shelters and rescues mentioned above and of course I can't forget my original foster mom who got me off the streets and made it possible to meet Milo and my mom in the first place.  She has single handledly rescued so many dogs in the last couple years and I will always be grateful to her and her helpers!

Thank you so much.
Macie, Milo, Max, Mallory and Mom.