Help save Oaklee’s life

As many people know, Oaklee is my heart dog. My life revolves around her and I will do anything possible to get answers to help save her life. She’s only 5 years old and deserves to live a long, happy life. I pray I get to see the senior years of my Oak one day.

In mid October of 2022, Oaklee presented to her general practice vet. She was extremely ill, continuous vomiting, not eating, lethargic and very painful in her abdomen. I immediately knew it was an emergency. I called the head vet at the practice I work at, she graciously took Oaklee in right away (long after her shift was over). We took x-rays, did lab work and started her on fluids and medications. Her x-rays were concerning of possible foreign body. We went home in hopes she would be feeling better by the next day. The next morning we repeated x-rays as she was still very sick, they showed possible bloat, so we took her in for emergency surgery. Unfortunately, in surgery there were no answers. We took biopsies of her stomach which came back clear.

We were fortunate to have her feeling well for thanksgiving and Christmas but we haven’t been as lucky in the new year. As of 2 weeks ago, things have unfortunately regressed. She has not been able to have a bowel movement in over 14 days, she’s not eating, and has been having a lot of discomfort in her abdomen. We have released some of the gas in her intestines multiple times to help make her more comfortable through this process. We have run various test and imaging. She’s currently on over 10 medications to help with severe motility disorder, anti nausea, vitamin injections and appetite stimulants, nothing has seemed to help.

The three doctors that have been overseeing her treatment have all put forth their opinions on diagnosis. Sadly, we still don’t have a definitive answer or much time left, as what has been presented are all fast progressing, grave prognosis. To get further answers, Oaklee requires more invasive testing that we can not do in our general practice office. We are currently taking her to the NC State vet school emergency department as I’m writing this. We feel like this is our best chance at getting to the bottom of this issue and getting us out of this nightmare. But with all of their knowledge and resources there comes a large cost. We received an estimate of $5000 for over night hospitalization and further diagnostic testing. The estimate does not include potential larger procedures that may be necessary to save Oaklees life. This is all on top of the $1,500+ that we have already spent trying to fix this.

We truly appreciate any support whether that be a donation or from sharing this page. We also very much appreciate all of the thoughts, prayers, text/phone calls and care from all of the veterinarians and staff.

If any of you have met Oaklee you know how much light she has brought into this world in her 5 years and we really want to see how much more happiness she can spread with a full life that she deserves.