Help Us Help Pongo

Hello everyone.

My name is Chris, but I want the focus here to be our dog Pongo.

Fair warning, this is going to be very long. There is a summary at the end if you don't feel like reading...

Before:

Pongo is a sweet, playful, vibrant 2- year old Dalmatian. We've had him since he was 8 weeks old, and every day with him has been an absolute blast! But a lot of that recently came to a screeching halt...

Like most dogs, our boy has a seasonal allergy that makes him really itchy and leaves him with irritation hot spots in various places (namely under his armpits and near his groin). We do our best to manage his symptoms with various things (dietary changes, diaper rash cream, prescription meds), and almost two months ago our vet recommended we set him up to get an allergy shot (Cytopoint) to manage his chafing/ bleeding from irritation. Despite simply asking for a medicated topical cream, we begrudgingly agreed and Pongo got his first injection that day (Jan 13).

Immediately after we got home, I took him and our other dog Kairi out for a walk and noticed something peculiar: Pongo's pee stream was really weak. I thought that maybe he had not had much water or had peed while we were at the vet's office, but I mentioned it to my wife Lea. The next morning, when walking them again, I observed that the issue had not gotten any better and the poor boy would stand at a tree with his leg lifted skyward for minutes with only a slow drip- drip- drip coming out.

Quickly, my wife and I took him back to the vet and told them our concerns at the event as well as the timing. He assured us that it was not a known side effect of Cytopoint, and insisted that it was just a case of suspicious timing. After all, we do know that Dalmatians can be predisposed to urinary stones... So they placed a catheter in him to alleviate his bladder and gave us some meds to help break down whatever was in his urinary tract.

Thankfully, this seemed to work! Over the next few weeks, his pee stream returned to close to normal, and we were grateful for the progress. A month after the initial appointment, Pongo's follow- up visit for his next Cytopoint injection came due. We showed up with him, he got the shot, and we left.

As any decent parents would do, we were extra observant following the shot, and wouldn't you know that the very day we brought him back his pee stopped up again. This was not like the last time, though. This time, he was lucky if he could get a couple of drops TOTAL.

So we took him back to Banfield, and this time I was far more vocal about my concerns. Despite what the doctor had said, this was too much to be a coincidence. Hell, even the doc agreed as a fellow pet owner. Thankfully, they were able to place another catheter and relieve him, but things were about to get worse...

Monday:

The next day, he still could not pee, so my wife took him back to his vet and they attempted to get a catheter in, however this time they couldn't! It was getting late in the day, and we were given no choice--

Pongo had to go to the ER...

So my wife sat in her car for hours while the nurses and techs took Pongo back, who at this point had become very vocal about his discomfort. Every few feet while walking he would try to stop and pee, but in vain. We waited with baited breath until we finally heard back from the team in the ER: he would have to be admitted...

In my email, I received two financial plans:

One was for simply an overnight stay, which would cost (at a minimum) $1547.44

The other was a surgery plan estimate, which would cost (at a minimum) $3872.52

And they could NOT admit him until we decided and paid the whole cost for one of the two plans...

We were flabbergasted. It was past ten in the evening, and we had no other alternative. We either paid at least 1500$ or else our sweet boy was going to die...

Not having much money, I applied for Care Credit. I put an estimate in for the high end of the quoted surgery (almost 7000$) to see if I could be eligible for it, and they approved me............... For 1400$...........

But any port during a storm is something, right? And, we figured, we could call around some local hospitals the next morning to see if we could get a more reasonable estimate for surgery.

So he was there for the night, and we began calls immediately upon waking the next day.

Tuesday:

From every place we called, we received one of two answers:

1/ "We have no availability"

2/ "We can do it (avg 2000$), BUT we would have to transfer him back and you'd have to pay for his post surgery care"

So, in a nutshell, we would pay just as much if we kept him where he was and had them do the surgery...

So that's what we opted to do...

The ER told us that they didn't know when a surgeon would be in, so they gave us a quote for an overnight stay before and an overnight stay after; thus assuming the operation would happen the next day. And, for that stay (not the surgery) we would be out of pocket 2500$..........

Thankfully, we had some family who could lend us the money short- term, so that at least was taken care of....

Later that evening, we got a call saying that a surgeon would be in soon and could do the operation that night! The desk person even said that the money we put down (since his stay would be shortened) might even cover some or all of the surgery! Sweet!!! And if it didn't cover it all, we could square up whatever small amount when Pongo got discharged...

Thankfully, the surgery was a success! Our boy was just full of stones-- most were little crystals, but one (included in the pictures) was huge!! If it had not been removed, it would have ruptured his bladder and been a death sentence..

Wednesday:

The next day, while I was at work, my wife and daughter went to go pick up Pongo, as he was healing up nicely and ready to go home... While checking out, the reception desk hit my wife with a double whammy of a surprise: we were on the hook for ANOTHER 3000$-- due immediately. Our dog who had nearly died, spent DAYS in the ER, was now essentially held for ransom for yet another lofty sum... Unable to confer, and having no choice, she paid the bill and came home with our groggy little dude.

In summation:

I know this story is long, and I tried to keep it brief wherever I could, but to tell less than the whole story is to not tell the whole truth. We are so so so so glad to have Pongo back with us, and we do NOT regret paying the crazy amount of money to get him home safe, but we are faced with another problem-- his care left us in a large amount of debt, and this has caused us to have to borrow and to completely max out our credit. We hate asking for money that we didn't earn, and we're doing all we can to find grants or aid programs to help our plight, but as of now we are incredibly worried about the massive toll this has taken (and will still take) on our lives.

Please, anything you can do to help is GREATLY appreciated.

I am going to be uploading pictures of the estimates, bills, the scars/ swelling, and of Pongo-- all once I make sure they don't have any sensitive information on them. Full transparency for the cost is important to me, and I will make corrections if I find them.

So far, the running total for Pongo's medical expenses sits at $7372.39