Help Mercy, dog with kidney failure
Donation protected
Hi, meet Mercy! She is a 9-year old female American Staffordshire Terrier that I adopted at the East Valley Animal Shelter in Los Angeles when she was only 8 weeks old. You may have seen her before, as she is the dog in the music video, Hey Soul Sister by the band, Train.
Please watch this brief video I made and share it with others: https://youtu.be/gdxwX3_olYk
Mercy needs your help! She’s in Chronic Kidney Failure. A little over a year ago, Mercy began throwing up, which seemed like every day. I brought her to her vet, Banfield Animal Hospital in Chatsworth, CA for all kinds of tests, medications, ultrasounds, x-rays, and finally after lots and lots of money and lots and lots of tests, they finally figured out her kidneys were failing.
We then decided to take her to a specialist to get a second opinion and further advice. So we went to ACCESS Specialty Animal Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA and they gave us a treatment plan of giving Mercy fluid therapy at home. They said that some dogs react well to this and can live a good life on this treatment.
So I was trained to give Mercy 500ml of Lactated Ringer Solution every other day. She wasn’t really getting much better and we’d do more tests and her kidney levels weren’t improving. One night, she seemed so out of it that we brought her to the specialist and she was admitted and spent the night and next day there having tests done and IV fluids put into her as she was severely dehydrated. This alone cost just under $3000. I was then advised to do the therapy every day with Mercy. This seemed to improve her condition a lot. She's not in any pain and she's not suffering. With her meds, special kidney diet and fluid therapy, she can live a close to normal life. She has good days and bad days and sometimes refuses to eat. When I can’t bribe her with some home cooked food, I put her food into our blender and puree it and feed her like a baby. She never resists and eats it all without any problem.
The good news is that Mercy can live well and for years to come with this condition as long as she follows the treatment plan we were given of home fluid therapy, medications, continued blood work and tests and a special kidney based diet.
The bad news is that it has already cost thousands of dollars, plus roughly $300 a week to keep her on this regimen. I’ve already accumulated so much debt helping her and I keep getting deeper and deeper into debt keeping her alive.
I've done some research about kidney transplants with dogs and there’s a facility in Los Angeles that does it and the surgery costs about $11,000 plus continued visits after that. I’d like to pursue this option as well too, as Mercy is only 9 years old and the average life expectancy for he breed is 12-14 years. As her human, I want to do everything I can to help provide her with the best life possible, and financially, I just can’t do it and that’s why I’m asking others, people like you to please help us!
Mercy is a super cute, loving and all-around amazing dog. She’s one of the kindest and gentlest dogs you’ll ever meet. When she was two years old, a friend asked if I could foster, two miniature pincher’s for her to help find them a home. I said sure and after a couple of weeks, I found them a home, MINE. They got along so well with Mercy and we’re a happy little family.
Life is a trip, as this isn’t the first time I’ve been another Earthling’s caregiver with kidney problems. For six years, I was my mom’s primary caregiver. She was unable to live alone anymore so I moved her into my home, put my career on hold, and she became my full time job. She was on home Peritoneal dialysis and I would plug or into a machine every night and unplug her every day until she passed away on December 20, 2013.
While caring for my mom, I filmed everything and decided to make a documentary about our personal journey to honor her for all the battles she went through, to help me process my grief and to helpfully help others out there that are in or will soon one day be in a role reversal scenario of caring for their aging parent. (Please check out www.RoleReversalMovie.com).
I want to thank you so much for reading this and/or watching the brief video I made about our situation. Thank you in advance for your donations, positive thoughts and prayers. I've run out of options and with your help, Mercy has a chance.
Humbly and with enormous gratitude,
Chris Nicholas
(Mercy’s Human)
Special Thanks to Dr. Linderman, Dr. Dule, Alex and everyone at Banfield Animal Hospital in Chatsworth, CA. and to Dr. Hadar and everyone at ACCESS Specialty Animal Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA for their compassion and care of Mercy!
Please watch this brief video I made and share it with others: https://youtu.be/gdxwX3_olYk
Mercy needs your help! She’s in Chronic Kidney Failure. A little over a year ago, Mercy began throwing up, which seemed like every day. I brought her to her vet, Banfield Animal Hospital in Chatsworth, CA for all kinds of tests, medications, ultrasounds, x-rays, and finally after lots and lots of money and lots and lots of tests, they finally figured out her kidneys were failing.
We then decided to take her to a specialist to get a second opinion and further advice. So we went to ACCESS Specialty Animal Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA and they gave us a treatment plan of giving Mercy fluid therapy at home. They said that some dogs react well to this and can live a good life on this treatment.
So I was trained to give Mercy 500ml of Lactated Ringer Solution every other day. She wasn’t really getting much better and we’d do more tests and her kidney levels weren’t improving. One night, she seemed so out of it that we brought her to the specialist and she was admitted and spent the night and next day there having tests done and IV fluids put into her as she was severely dehydrated. This alone cost just under $3000. I was then advised to do the therapy every day with Mercy. This seemed to improve her condition a lot. She's not in any pain and she's not suffering. With her meds, special kidney diet and fluid therapy, she can live a close to normal life. She has good days and bad days and sometimes refuses to eat. When I can’t bribe her with some home cooked food, I put her food into our blender and puree it and feed her like a baby. She never resists and eats it all without any problem.
The good news is that Mercy can live well and for years to come with this condition as long as she follows the treatment plan we were given of home fluid therapy, medications, continued blood work and tests and a special kidney based diet.
The bad news is that it has already cost thousands of dollars, plus roughly $300 a week to keep her on this regimen. I’ve already accumulated so much debt helping her and I keep getting deeper and deeper into debt keeping her alive.
I've done some research about kidney transplants with dogs and there’s a facility in Los Angeles that does it and the surgery costs about $11,000 plus continued visits after that. I’d like to pursue this option as well too, as Mercy is only 9 years old and the average life expectancy for he breed is 12-14 years. As her human, I want to do everything I can to help provide her with the best life possible, and financially, I just can’t do it and that’s why I’m asking others, people like you to please help us!
Mercy is a super cute, loving and all-around amazing dog. She’s one of the kindest and gentlest dogs you’ll ever meet. When she was two years old, a friend asked if I could foster, two miniature pincher’s for her to help find them a home. I said sure and after a couple of weeks, I found them a home, MINE. They got along so well with Mercy and we’re a happy little family.
Life is a trip, as this isn’t the first time I’ve been another Earthling’s caregiver with kidney problems. For six years, I was my mom’s primary caregiver. She was unable to live alone anymore so I moved her into my home, put my career on hold, and she became my full time job. She was on home Peritoneal dialysis and I would plug or into a machine every night and unplug her every day until she passed away on December 20, 2013.
While caring for my mom, I filmed everything and decided to make a documentary about our personal journey to honor her for all the battles she went through, to help me process my grief and to helpfully help others out there that are in or will soon one day be in a role reversal scenario of caring for their aging parent. (Please check out www.RoleReversalMovie.com).
I want to thank you so much for reading this and/or watching the brief video I made about our situation. Thank you in advance for your donations, positive thoughts and prayers. I've run out of options and with your help, Mercy has a chance.
Humbly and with enormous gratitude,
Chris Nicholas
(Mercy’s Human)
Special Thanks to Dr. Linderman, Dr. Dule, Alex and everyone at Banfield Animal Hospital in Chatsworth, CA. and to Dr. Hadar and everyone at ACCESS Specialty Animal Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA for their compassion and care of Mercy!
Organizer
Chris Nicholas
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA
