Rosco: the dog, the myth, the legend.

Rosco is a 9 year old Husky and frequent flyer to our office - observe, the tie. Don't tell my boss, but when I'm late for work it's usually because I'm laying on the floor with him and don't want to leave. Just kidding... he knows.

About three weeks ago, Rosco starting acting strangely. He quickly became weak, began drinking excessively, and was unable to hold down any food at all. At one point, he went outside to partake in his favorite snack - fresh snow, of course - and threw up so quickly that it hadn't even had a chance to melt. That's right, the boy horked a snowball.

Maybe it was due to malnutrition, or perhaps the vomiting got the best of him, but he became so weak that he couldn't make it across the street to the dog park without first laying in the snow.


(He recently overcame his fear of the deck, finding it a pleasant place after all.)

Fearing the worst, we took him to the vet, who advised putting him on a bland diet to hold him over while we waited for test results. Despite his utter hatred for rice, this worked! For the first time in days, our Rosco was able to hold down food, and began regaining his energy.

Many, many tests later, we finally had a culprit. Rosco has a condition called hyperparathyroidism. A gross oversimplification would be, one of the glands responsible for regulating the calcium in his bloodstream is overactive, which is causing a buildup of calcium in his organs, which is also affecting his energy levels. For more context, this link explains the condition far better than I can.

Fortunately, his prognosis is excellent, provided he gets the surgery he needs. Unfortunately the sheer volume of required tests and specialized food have depleted our savings, leaving us without the funds to go ahead with his surgery.  Your help would let us get the treatment Rosco needs, and hopefully help us get started replenishing his food stores and the special diet he'll need going forward. 

Telling you what Rosco means to me would take an entire essay, and this is already going long. But Rosco is the sweetest dog, who loves every (and I mean every) person he meets.

Dogs, though? Dogs are another story (He's a borky guy).  But hey, we can't all be perfect!

Thank you so much for taking the time to consider Rosco's plight!