Give Poppy a Chance to Play and Eat Again

My name is Marie S. and I am here to tell you the story of Poppy, my beautiful little puppy girl. I found her in a shelter when I didn’t think I wanted any more dogs. She was only 8 months old and she was so tiny. As she grew over the next year, she showed a personality of all my past dogs rolled into one. She’s smart, sassy, attention-loving, protective, comforting when you need it, and can hold a grudge like nobody’s business. She’s also such a beautiful little girl too. One of her favorite ways to play was to sit and just squeak her toys. However, when she was in her puppy stage, she got a hold of a pen and chewed it, and the very thin pen ink holder poked her throat and left a lesion. After that healed, Poppy was great again.

Fast forward 2 years later. As she was eating, she began looking like she might be choking on a piece of kibble. This was about 2 months ago. We took her to the ER vet and after examining her and taking full X-rays, whatever she seemed to be choking on was gone and nothing was in her throat or esophagus. She got clearance to go home and she was fine for a few days. Then she started to show signs of having difficulty swallowing. We figured that maybe she irritated the old scar tissue or possibly developed a new problem that was related to the incident. Her care was going well for a bit, but then about 2 weeks ago, she started to show increased signs of getting worse again. She has now started to refuse food. She doesn’t bark much anymore, and playing is not very frequent. It seems to hurt her throat to do so, yet she really wants to try.

What it comes down to is that we need to diagnose her issue. Unfortunately, we don’t have any way of seeing into her throat without special equipment that only the most expensive vets own, mainly a VCA or the Vet Teaching Institute at the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana. We have chosen the teaching institute. The quotes that we have received for the procedure can be anywhere from $3100 to $4000. There is a huge chance that if she has irritated the old scar tissue and has what they call a stricture or callus from that, then they can do a ballooning procedure to push down the callus and open her throat back up, which will give her great relief. That comes with one other problem. If it is that, then there is also the possibility that they will do the procedure when they have her under for diagnosis, but then she would have to go back 2 weeks later for a second one, which could be an additional $2000. If that is not the problem, then we get the procedure done and maybe do additional imaging and tests to find out what the real issue is. Basically, we need to get the procedure to even know what we are dealing with. There is hope that they can help her. I have to give her a fighting chance. Our consult is scheduled for June 3.

I humbly ask for anybody who is willing to contribute to her procedure. I know that many people have huge hearts. I can come up with some of my own funds to pay for the procedure, but any bit of assistance will be met with the most gratitude that I have in my heart. Please help me out to give my little girl a chance to enjoy her life again. She is only 3 years old. Getting her through the next couple of weeks is going to be difficult enough.