Donate to Help Cover Lizzo's Emergency Vet Costs

The majority of you know Jenn and I, and asking for help isn’t something we typically do. However, last week we found ourselves in every pet owner's worst nightmare. Our healthy 3-year-old dog was suddenly within inches of her life and we needed to try everything to save her.

Last Thursday night, May 22nd, a little before midnight, I went to put our two dogs, Lizzo and Pumpkin, to bed for the night. Pumpkin laid right down like she always does (because she is a very good girl), but Lizzo was nowhere to be seen. 99.9% of the time, Lizzo is laying on the sofa being a little, gray, couch hippo.

I went into our backyard looking for her, but she didn’t come to calls or whistles. I then found her laying on the ground, unresponsive, limp, with vomit around her face, breathing lightly. I ran inside to grab Jenn and a flashlight. We came back outside; she still wasn’t moving and remained unresponsive. I immediately scooped her up and headed to the 24hr emergency vet.

Once I got there, they looked at her in my truck and immediately knew she needed to be rushed into the back on a gurney. She was a critical case, and time was of the essence. I waited in a room while they quickly assessed the situation to see what needed to be done. After a short while, the doctor came to inform me that he thought she was in anaphylaxis. She was severely dehydrated, and her liver enzymes were very high. She was started on IV fluids and had an immediate response of “coming to.” It was a slight bit of good news, but she was still in very critical condition. They believe that she was either bit or stung by a bug or ate something that gave her this reaction. They couldn’t find any marks on her body, and we searched the yard the next morning to see if we could see any evidence, but whatever it was remains a mystery.

We spoke to the vet the next morning, and her liver enzymes were continuing to rise, which, while not good, was expected. Over the next couple of days, they would continue to elevate. She remained on constant fluids, a variety of meds, and even plasma transfusions to combat everything. We got to visit her on Friday afternoon, and while she was definitely better than when I dropped her off, she was in rough shape with sudden heart issues appearing now as well.

Over the next three days, she began to slowly improve. She still would not eat solid food and had to have a feeding tube inserted so that she could get some nutrition. They hoped that this would help to kickstart her appetite, but her G.I. tract was in very bad shape. While her entire body was affected, her gut and liver are what took the brunt of it.

Finally, on Monday evening, we got a call from the vet saying that Lizzo had eaten a small meal! It was super exciting news and gave us the hope that we really needed that she’d be coming home soon. Through Monday night and into Tuesday, she continued to eat small meals, and we were told that we’d be able to bring her home Tuesday afternoon!

After almost 5 days in critical care with one-on-one vet care 24 hours a day, we were finally able to bring Lizzo home Tuesday afternoon. She was so excited to see us when she came through the door at the vet's office. She was almost back to her normal wiggly self, and we were ecstatic! She still had, and has, some healing to do, but we were given a number of medications to continue care at home.

The initial quote for services from the vet was going to be between $2,000 and $4,000 with the understanding that if she stayed longer, that cost would go up. Over the next few days, the estimate continued to rise, and when all was said and done, the total ended up being almost $16,000. This is definitely not an amount of money we have sitting around to spare, yet we also couldn’t let Lizzo go without a fight. Especially when she was fighting so hard to beat this!

We understand that most people’s finances are very tight these days and are fully aware that this is a really big ask. Know that anything you could give would be extremely appreciated and would greatly alleviate the stresses of this financial burden.

We appreciate all the messages of love and support that have been sent our way. Jenn, Penny, Clementine, and myself are just glad we get to keep loving on this perfect little grey dog!

Lizzo snuggles are available upon request.

And we can never thank the entire staff at Blue Pearl - Westside enough! They were the best with Lizzo and have been amazing with our other pets as well. Thank you, thank you, thank you.