Give Lilybelle a Chance at a Happy Puppyhood

Lilybelle is a 7-month-old lab mix that I adopted from an animal rescue in Yuba City, CA. She was from a litter of puppies that had been for sale out of someone's car in a parking lot, and she was malnourished and covered in fleas. The rescue got her back to a baseline of health, killing the fleas and feeding her, and I acquired her at 9 weeks old.

Since then, however, her life has not been easy. She was diagnosed with and treated for giardia at 12 weeks, and at 14 weeks old, she came down with a very serious illness that dropped her neutrophil (white blood cell count) to 360 per microliter of blood (normal is over 2500). She developed a very bad infection, presumably in her spine, and the vet that treated her never found a cause. We exhausted all tests this vet had to offer – tick-borne illness test, urinalysis and blood tests, ultrasounds, and X-rays, and she spent two days on an IV in intensive care. She was on antibiotics for five weeks after, carprofen for a week, which was then swapped out for a daily steroid treatment. She has been on steroids for about six weeks now.

The illness was 8-9 weeks ago, and since then she has not acted like a puppy, let alone a hyper and excitable Labrador puppy. She hasn't had zoomies, and daily walks have been slow and short. She's had a lot of trouble climbing the stairs in our home, and the muscles in her back legs did not properly develop. She is very small (30 lbs) and doesn't appear to be growing anymore.

Just last week, she woke me up in the middle of the night with a shriek and could not get herself up to walk to me. Her hind leg was tucked up as far as it would go, and she was panicky. I calmed her down and tried to get her as comfortable as possible, and soon her ankle started to swell.

First thing in the morning, I called her vet, who was unavailable, and took her to a different vet, hoping for help and a second opinion on the initial illness. She had another round of X-rays which determined she either tore her Achilles or incurred a severe sprain. We know she is not very active, so she either slipped out on the tile or perhaps injured her leg in the dog door, but we'll never know. This is proof that she does not have properly developed legs if she is hurting herself without excessive exertion. Four days later, she has a massive hematoma, she is on steroid-friendly painkillers and we're heading back to see the vet later this afternoon.

This puppy has been on 7 different medications so far in her life and it has been so heartbreaking to watch. She has been to the vet's office more times than I can count and the vet bills keep piling up. Vet bills since July 1 have amounted to over $6000, not including her vaccinations, and we're still planning to have her spayed when she is healthy enough to withstand a surgery. Because of the hospitalizations, my husband and I have missed out on non-refundable experiences costing over $1500.

With this latest injury, it's difficult to tell how much more veterinary help she will need, and I want to be able to give her physical therapy for rehabilitation, which can cost up to $300 per session. It's getting to a pain point where I don't know how much more attention I can afford to give her. I will, of course, do what I need to do to keep her as healthy as possible, but we need help if we're going to give her a chance at a normal life.

My name is Jen and I live in Chico, CA with my husband, sweet little Lilybelle, and our 12-year-old border collie.