Hello,
My name is Marleny and I am fundraising to cover the vet bills we have left after over a month of trying to save our sweet Pipa's life.
Pipa was a very active and friendly dog but a few months back we noticed she had a neck pain which was the beginning of a few weeks of going to different vets to get answers. At this point we have lost our girl, discovered a rare disease that we want to bring awareness to and over $10,000 in credit card bills that we now are asking for help paying for.
The process started on 08/07/2021 when we rushed Pipa the the emergency vet because she seemed to have neck pain and the her upper back and head seemed to be too tense. At the vet she was suspected of having Lyme disease so she was tested for it and given antibiotics and nerve pain medication. She was brought home and we hoped that the medicine would help but as days went by we realized that she was actually getting worst so we called her regular vet to make an appointment. We visited her regular vet on 08/09 /2021 and they also diagnosed her with a muscle spasm and sent her home with medicine that reduces inflammation. We got her a follow up appointment with her secondary regular vet because she continued to get worst.
At this appointment on 08/30/2021 she was given more nerve pain meds but 3 days later she was brought to the same vet again because her condition continued to decline so on 09/02/2021 she was diagnosed with vertigo and given motion sickness meds plus fluids. The very next day (09/03/2021) we called the doctor because she was looking worst again and they sent her more vertigo meds and more fluids.
Labor day weekend came around and she couldn't even walk. She couldn't eat and anything she did eat she would vomit, she also began to shake in pain so we rushed her to Cornell's Emergency vet on 09/06/2021. Cornell diagnosed her with cervical spine disease and they thought she had a lesion between C6-T2 they gave her pain meds and recommended to rush her to a neurologist, so we took her there immediately after. She stayed there for 2 days to get and MRI and cerebral spine fluid tap. she was discharged with a Cervical Myelopathy - Immune Myelitis diagnosis. They prescribed her steroids and preventative dermatitis meds. This 2day stay alone cost us $7,728.99 Pipa couldn't move, she was shaking in pain again and she couldn't even eat properly. Their discharge paperwork explained that her whole spine was inflamed and that this was a progressive disease that could take up to 2 years to get under control. They recommended to make an appointment for 2 weeks after for a check up. We brought our baby home hopeful that this diagnosis would be the right one and she would get better. 3 days later she had still not had any bowel movement so we called our regular vet. We were afraid to call back the neurologist because at that point our credit cards, and 2 care credit cards were full and we thought that since it was a regular bowel movement issue she would be ok to go to her regular vet. She went to her regular vet on 09/11/2021 and after clearing her bowels they gave her extra strength pain meds and our vet recommended to think about her quality of life if after 48 hours she was still paralyzed by the pain. I decided to do a deep dive into this disease to get an understanding of the prognosis and what to expect for the future. That is when I realized that pipa was actually at the end of the disease. at this point we were giving her very strong meds every 8 hours but by the 3rd hour the effect would wear off and she would start to shake and cry. From the moment the neurologist mentioned the rare disease I decided to do a deep dive into this disease to get an understanding of the prognosis and what to expect for the future. That is when I realized that pipa was actually at the end of her life and that even if she did survive her quality of life would never be the same.
Seeing that she couldn't go more than 3 hours without feeling pain and that our only hope could take 2 years we decided that it was not fair to have her suffer any longer. Pipa was Euthanized on 09/13/2021 after we decided as a family that she had suffered enough and that she deserved better than to be in this amount of pain with barely any hope for the future.
We loved Pipa very much and her death was shocking to the whole family, only now, about a month later, have we come to the realization that we now have high credit card bills to pay which is part of the reason why we decided to set up this go fund me. The second an most important part is to bring awareness to this rare disease that took our sweet girl in about a month. If your pet is experiencing pain in their neck or spine please bring it up to your vet immediately. A few days after Pipa passed the neurologist called us to give us the result of her spinal fluid tap exam confirming the diagnosis they had given us, at that point we wished we had gotten that test done a month before.
We are asking family, friends and other animal lovers to help us in our time of need. We got in this debt out of our love for pipa and our hopeful spirit, we just couldn't let her go without a fight.
If you have made it this far we as a family really appreciate your time.
I will be adding Pictures of the Invoices in the next Update.
Thank you
The process started on 08/07/2021 when we rushed Pipa the the emergency vet because she seemed to have neck pain and the her upper back and head seemed to be too tense. At the vet she was suspected of having Lyme disease so she was tested for it and given antibiotics and nerve pain medication. She was brought home and we hoped that the medicine would help but as days went by we realized that she was actually getting worst so we called her regular vet to make an appointment. We visited her regular vet on 08/09 /2021 and they also diagnosed her with a muscle spasm and sent her home with medicine that reduces inflammation. We got her a follow up appointment with her secondary regular vet because she continued to get worst.
At this appointment on 08/30/2021 she was given more nerve pain meds but 3 days later she was brought to the same vet again because her condition continued to decline so on 09/02/2021 she was diagnosed with vertigo and given motion sickness meds plus fluids. The very next day (09/03/2021) we called the doctor because she was looking worst again and they sent her more vertigo meds and more fluids.
Labor day weekend came around and she couldn't even walk. She couldn't eat and anything she did eat she would vomit, she also began to shake in pain so we rushed her to Cornell's Emergency vet on 09/06/2021. Cornell diagnosed her with cervical spine disease and they thought she had a lesion between C6-T2 they gave her pain meds and recommended to rush her to a neurologist, so we took her there immediately after. She stayed there for 2 days to get and MRI and cerebral spine fluid tap. she was discharged with a Cervical Myelopathy - Immune Myelitis diagnosis. They prescribed her steroids and preventative dermatitis meds. This 2day stay alone cost us $7,728.99 Pipa couldn't move, she was shaking in pain again and she couldn't even eat properly. Their discharge paperwork explained that her whole spine was inflamed and that this was a progressive disease that could take up to 2 years to get under control. They recommended to make an appointment for 2 weeks after for a check up. We brought our baby home hopeful that this diagnosis would be the right one and she would get better. 3 days later she had still not had any bowel movement so we called our regular vet. We were afraid to call back the neurologist because at that point our credit cards, and 2 care credit cards were full and we thought that since it was a regular bowel movement issue she would be ok to go to her regular vet. She went to her regular vet on 09/11/2021 and after clearing her bowels they gave her extra strength pain meds and our vet recommended to think about her quality of life if after 48 hours she was still paralyzed by the pain. I decided to do a deep dive into this disease to get an understanding of the prognosis and what to expect for the future. That is when I realized that pipa was actually at the end of the disease. at this point we were giving her very strong meds every 8 hours but by the 3rd hour the effect would wear off and she would start to shake and cry. From the moment the neurologist mentioned the rare disease I decided to do a deep dive into this disease to get an understanding of the prognosis and what to expect for the future. That is when I realized that pipa was actually at the end of her life and that even if she did survive her quality of life would never be the same.
Seeing that she couldn't go more than 3 hours without feeling pain and that our only hope could take 2 years we decided that it was not fair to have her suffer any longer. Pipa was Euthanized on 09/13/2021 after we decided as a family that she had suffered enough and that she deserved better than to be in this amount of pain with barely any hope for the future.
We loved Pipa very much and her death was shocking to the whole family, only now, about a month later, have we come to the realization that we now have high credit card bills to pay which is part of the reason why we decided to set up this go fund me. The second an most important part is to bring awareness to this rare disease that took our sweet girl in about a month. If your pet is experiencing pain in their neck or spine please bring it up to your vet immediately. A few days after Pipa passed the neurologist called us to give us the result of her spinal fluid tap exam confirming the diagnosis they had given us, at that point we wished we had gotten that test done a month before.
We are asking family, friends and other animal lovers to help us in our time of need. We got in this debt out of our love for pipa and our hopeful spirit, we just couldn't let her go without a fight.
If you have made it this far we as a family really appreciate your time.
I will be adding Pictures of the Invoices in the next Update.
Thank you
Organizer and beneficiary
Marleny Vanegas
Organizer
Norwalk, CT
Daniela Vanegas
Beneficiary