Hi, my name is Kristen and I'm starting this GoFundMe in hopes of raising money to help my family, Jessie, cover the expenses of her beloved dog Sterling. Sterling is undergoing a mysterious diagnosis and is requiring ongoing medical care. Sterling is only 6 years old and has so much more life to live. Jessie has spent over $30k in total on efforts to find a diagnosis and return Sterling to good health. Jessie had endured significant loss in her life including a dog taken too soon due to errors made by medical staff and also the unexpected loss of her best friend just a few years ago. Please help us avoid another life taken too soon.

If you have time to read Sterling's story and donate, or send good thoughts or pray for this family member we would greatly appreciate it! We will continue to post updates.

From Jessie:

Sterling Raye is my 6-year-old soul dog. He came into my life at a time when I was grieving the unexpected loss of my previous dog, and I named him for being my silver lining. He has been strong, brave, and resilient and he’s stayed curious, enthusiastic (especially at meal time), and energetic.

I have loved him since the day he was born and when I committed to being his dog mom, I committed to the good days and the hard days. There’s been a lot of hard days lately, but giving up on him isn’t an option, especially since he’s decided on his own to fight along with me.

Sterling was diagnosed with idiopathic chylothorax/pleural effusion in June of this year. It’s a rare condition with an unknown cause that leads to chyle, a fluid from the lymphatic system, to leak into the pleural cavity (the space between the lungs and the chest wall). This fluid accumulation leads to pressure being exerted around the lungs and causes difficulty breathing. Without intervention, fluid would keep accumulating and eventually lead to death.

Luckily, I took Sterling in to see his primary veterinarian before that happened.

At our first appointment, they ran bloodwork and completed chest x-rays, and imaging showed massive amounts of fluid in the pleural cavity around his lungs. They performed a thoracentesis, where they used a large needle to pull fluid from the sac around his lungs, allowing him to breathe normally again. They removed almost 400mL. They said this might not be a permanent fix and the fluid might come back.

The primary vet prescribed him antibiotics and steroids and ran labs and cultures.

Sterling made it one week before he started having extreme trouble breathing again. I stayed up all night with him and we were at the vet clinic when it opened. They said there was nothing more they could do and referred us to an emergency and specialty clinic in Austin.

Sterling had tests done to rule out heart failure, and had another thoracentesis to remove the fluid from around his lungs. This time it was almost 300mL.

Sterling stayed stable for a month. I restricted his activity, made all his meals from whole foods that were low in fat (studies showed that decreasing fat intake could decrease the production of the chyle fluid and the vets said it wouldn’t hurt to try). I bought him a portable oxygen concentrator to have on hand in an emergency. I found an injectable medication that helps decrease fat absorption and started giving him injections two times a day per doctor's prescription. I tried all the recommendations given to me before moving forward with the decision to have surgery performed on Sterling when he started having difficulty breathing again a month later.

To get the surgery completed, Sterling had to have a CT with lymphangiogram performed first. They also had to perform a thoracentesis to visualize the lymphatic vessels around his lungs, and they pulled almost 700 mL that day. The CT showed that he had two thoracic ducts instead of the typical one, and also showed that he had a lung lobe that was no longer working as it should.

The surgery consisted of going in through his chest and ligating (tying off) both his thoracic ducts, going in through his abdomen for a cisterna chyli ablation (this is to help the body divert fluid to the abdomen instead of the chest) and removing the lobe of his lung that wasn’t functioning properly anymore. He also had the sac around his heart removed to ensure fluid could never build up around it in the future and prevent his heart from beating.

Sterling was hospitalized for 3 days following surgery and got to come home once his chest tubes were removed. Three weeks later, he started presenting with difficulty breathing again. We went back to the specialty clinic and they said he had fluid building back up around his lungs. He had another thoracentesis that day. We met with his surgeon a couple days later and he agreed to do surgery again.

We went through the motions and got another CT with lymphangiogram and another thoracentesis. Exactly one month after his first procedure, Sterling underwent surgery again. It was suppose to just be another ligation, further up his thoracic duct on his right side, and placement of an indwelling port in case the surgery didn’t work again. However, the surgeon found that a different lobe of his lung had adhered to his chest wall and had to be removed. Sterling initially did really well after surgery, and they were able to pull normal post surgery fluid from his port without any issues. During his second night though, the fluid production began to go up and became increasingly more chyle-fluid based again. They also said that they weren’t able to pull more than 30 mL from his port and said it might be clogged.

We picked up Sterling from the specialty clinic and drove straight to Texas A&M. We went through their emergency department and Sterling was triaged that night. They didn’t have any ER vets on night staff that were familiar with his port, so we took him back to the hotel with us and came back first thing in the morning. He got significantly worse overnight with fluid build up and doctors from the soft tissue team got involved in his case. They were able to pull fluid from his port and removed 300mL. He was prescribed a steroid again and they gave us the first appointment available with the soft tissue and surgery team - a little over two weeks later.

We scheduled a follow up appointment with Sterling’s specialty clinic and I requested to be taught how to draw fluid from his port at home, especially since the fluid build up had been presenting faster following the second surgery. As an RN, I’m familiar with sterile procedure and I committed to learning how to help Sterling in the comfort of his own home. Not only that, but I had an amazing support system, primarily my mother, who accompanied me to every appointment and learned to assist me with his medical procedures.

As of right now, it looks like we’ll be drawing fluid from his port every 2-3 days until we get to our Texas A&M appointment again. The fluid draw from his port is long and tedious, taking us about 1-2 hours each time. The first time we did it on our own, we got around 60mL removed, but we had amazing help and advice from my aunt (an oncology nurse familiar with ports) who gave us troubleshooting ideas and the second time we were able to remove 200mL. The third and fourth time we were able to pull almost 350 mL in an even shorter timeframe! We don’t think the fluid is building up, we’re just getting better at figuring out flow, which allows us to do it over a shorter period of time and is less tiring on Sterling and my fingers.

Sterling has continued to show us his fighting spirit and still brings his bright eyes and enthusiasm to the table every single day - And as long as he is willing and able to fight, I will too, because giving up on the ones we love just isn’t an option.