Give King a Fighting Chance: Donate for His Recovery

Desperately reaching out to family and friends, both far and near, as well as the dog community and any animal lovers to help us save our dog King. He’s almost 4 years old with an upcoming birthday on 10/09 (same as my grandma in heaven whom I miss and love dearly hence why he’s definitely my spirit dog), weighs 10 pounds (don’t let his size fool you as he may be small but definitely mighty), a playful and rambunctious little guy who loves to “parti” since he’s a parti or tri-color Yorkie, the best guard dog but also gives the sweetest cuddles. He’s not a well-known dog nor a super talented dog, but he loves meeting other dogs and their “pawrents” or random “hoomans” and always brightens their days. To our family, he’s special and means the world to us. To me specifically, he truly brings joy in my life despite life’s curveballs (there have been way too many these past few years) and who has pulled me out of anxiety and depression on most days and to give nursing school (and life in general) another try.

I’ve always heard the quote “things can change in a blink of an eye,” and this week we experienced just that. This profile pic was from a year ago to this day; it was a happy day at the dog park playing fetch and sniffing other dogs. The latest pic I have with him is from yesterday, a not-so-happy pic, as I laid with him on the hospital floor trying to entice him to eat and giving him gentle cuddles as his little body is trying to beat this. One minute we’re having the time of our lives at various dog events or simply playing around the house; the next minute, we’re at the ER vet hospital filled with fear and so many unknowns.

This week my little guy has been through the wringer. He’s had a long list of diagnostic tests and treatments in such a short amount of time, so many blood tests, X-rays, ultrasounds, medications, and the icing on this nightmare of a cake, abdominal surgery to determine what is causing his intermittent diarrhea and vomit and very abnormal lab values. We honestly didn’t realize how sick he was since we were working with the vet and things resolved. We initially thought it was possibly his food or new treats or maybe even an accidental foreign object, but he started to shiver which progressively got worse as in longer duration and more frequent that prompted me to take him to the ER hospital last Friday night, 8/16/24. A week later, he’s still there. They initially stated that he has an ileus meaning a decreased gastrointestinal (GI) motility, but they needed to further investigate to effectively find the most appropriate treatment. His xray giving a zoomed-out image showed an “abnormal structure” in his colon but needed a zoomed-in image via an ultrasound. They confirmed that there are no parasites, infection, or a foreign object, but unfortunately, they needed to do exploratory surgery to get a closer look and get a biopsy sample (due to the location or position, they couldn’t do endoscopically which would have been less invasive and less risk). Thankfully, he got out of that okay, but he’s not out of the woods yet. They have to see if the abnormal lesions they saw are due to an an immune response, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, or something else. They couldn’t even remove the affected parts of the colon because of how irritated and inflamed it is so the risk of dehiscence (the wound opens and King’s body can get septic which is fatal although the risk is still there when they had to open up for a biopsy sample as it is with any surgery). I am really trying my best to keep it together and not think the worse.

King has captured the medical team’s hearts who have been working extra hard around-the-clock, day in and day out, to give him the best care possible by providing supportive care and monitoring him 24/7. He is doing a little better based on what he’s going through and symptoms he’s experiencing, but they still need to figure out the underlying cause so hopefully they can get him the treatment he needs in order to get better for good. I hope and pray it’s none of the above or that it’s at least something that is treatable, but the results can take up to 2 weeks. They currently have him on IV fluids (for hydration), nasogastric (NG) tube (for feeding and bowel rest), antinausea and antidiarrheal, pain meds, and plasma. His numbers are still not good with his latest lab results showing that he has hypocalcemia and hypoalbumenia which means low calcium and low protein (he generally is a great eater except for the past month or so) and that he has mild pancreatitis. I haven’t been able to sleep; so many things are going through my head… How did we let him get so sick? Were we feeding him the wrong food? Did we give him too many treats? How could we have prevented this? What could we have done better? What did we miss? And the most resounding one… What if we can’t afford to continue to save him???

Right now, it’s just a waiting game, a painstakingly period of unknowns. I hate that our small but mighty guy is going through all of this and that he has no idea what is happening or why we can’t take him home. I’ve been there with him everyday for the past week (except for the day of surgery which they wouldn’t allow) until they kick me out when visiting hours are over. It breaks my heart when I have to leave him. I bring him his favorite blanket and toys as well as foods to try to entice him to eat. I hold him or just let him lay between my legs which is his fave spot. I’m there to let him know how much we love him and that we are doing everything we can to save him. I don’t want money to be an issue as to why we cannot save him. In the meantime, we have already spent $27,908.00 out of pocket. YES, you’ve read that right. It’s ridiculous, it’s outrageous, it’s despicable. So many adjectives and a lot of cuss words have been running through my mind. The staff has been great, but at the end of the day, the hospital is still a business, such a cruel business, as everything is required up front. Otherwise, they’ll send us home and basically hope for the best which can be a death sentence. Very scary, very sad, very frustrating. I thought we had good insurance coverage that we pay $60 monthly for 90% reimbursement, but the annual maximum is $7500 which is exceeded by threefold… and counting. We have exhausted our options, but it barely covered a week of care. Some may even say “it’s just a dog,” but money is replaceable in time and my dog is not especially when he’s this young and still has so much to live for.

This is where EVERY dollar and EVERY share truly counts and will be greatly appreciated from the bottom of our hearts. We are waiting for an update as we speak in regards to his treatment plans, and I’ve been contemplating if I’ll actually be one of those ones to open up a GoFundMe page for myself, but based on this week’s pattern, I have no choice. It is going to cost more whichever route they take, and needless to say, we’re all tapped out financially. Please kindly spare me the judgment or lecture. I know the world has much bigger problems and other dogs (and of course people especially children) that are more deserving of donations. But to me, he is my second child, my fur baby, the one who follows me everywhere, and truly loves me unconditionally even on my not-so-good days. So here I am… desperately pleading for your help. I have itemized invoices and receipts and can also provide the hospital info if you prefer to do a direct payment to them under King’s account as I know there are also a lot of scams and naturally skepticism out there (I was one of them). We really appreciate you for taking the time to read this. I honestly don’t know what good it will do or if it is a guarantee to save King’s life, but I know in my heart that it will give him a fighting chance so we want to try our best and give it our all as any pet owners and dog lovers would since they are a part of our family too.