Help with Milo's Emergency Vet Bills

Hello, our names are Andrew and Yumi, and this it about our sweet french bulldog, Milo. He was our only boy, full of personality, quirks, smiles and lots of love. He meant everything to us.

We did not expect our new year to start this way. We thought he was on a good path to recovery. Then everything took a turn and it happened so so suddenly. Our beloved boy Milo passed away early Monday morning (Jan 25, 2021). He had just turned 7 ten days prior.

We always had pet insurance for him since puppyhood but we just canceled it in November. The rates had been increasing in very high percentages the last few years despite us not using it much. So we decided to start a vet bill fund and put the monthly premium amount there instead. This sudden, unexpected, devastating turn of Milo’s health came much too soon...one month after we cancelled his insurance, before we had time to build the nest egg.

This is Milo’s story :

Milo started having seizures 3 years ago. We vividly remember the very first time it happened—he screamed when he came out of it. Seeing him uncontrollably shaking and foaming at the mouth scared us tremendously and we rushed him to the emergency vet. Just as they were discharging him, he had another seizure at the hospital. That was the first and only other time he had 2 seizures in one day. 

As Milo was healthy otherwise, with him being so young (3 years), our vet diagnosed it as an idiopathic epilepsy, where cause was unknown and seizures sporadic. He was put on anti-seizure meds right away, which he would take for the rest of his life. To make sure the dosage was correct/sufficient and not in the toxic range, periodic blood tests were done. Our vet would monitor and adjust his meds accordingly.  Still, he had break-through seizures, which started about once every 3 months to once/twice a month recently.

A few days before Christmas on the 23rd, he had 2 seizures, 3 hours apart in one day. Though our flags went up, we stayed calm, logging the incident in his seizure log that we have kept from day 1. Milo was back to his happy self so we thought it to be a “normal” seizure. It was the next few days that made us realize something was wrong, calling our vet multiple times to try to see us. It started with Milo regurgitating the entire contents of his stomache while napping or walking. No stomache muscle moving, no heaving, no warning. This happened multiple days a day for 2 days plus. He had a tipsy gait, and we noticed a weakening of his hind legs. Suspecting early signs of IVDD, we put him on crate rest. But other symptoms followed. It was diarrhea, followed by bloody diarrhea, then jello-y bloody poop. Milo’s body was twisted to the right, his head was tilted, his focus off. Finally our vet was able to squeeze us in—it truly was an emergency!

The prognosis was dim. IVDD was quickly ruled out. Knowing Milo and his history of seizures, he suspected 95% brain tumor or lesion and 5% inner ear infection. If brain tumor were the case, his condition would quickly worsen where we would need to seriously think of euthanizing him. The only way to know for sure was to get an MRI. 

Though terrified at the thought of anesthetizing him, it was our only option to see what was going on in his brain to treat him. It was that, or give up. A call was made to the neurologist. He was booked 3 weeks out, but we would get to see him as an emergency patient given his condition when he returned in a few days. (It was NYE/NY holiday).

After an MRI, there was no tumor but instead, a severe inner ear infection in both ears plus an “old” stroke that was the probable cause of his seizures.
The neurologist put him on antibiotics, changed his seizure meds and said he should recover to live another 6-7 years. We were on our happy way to recovery...or so we thought. 

On Sunday, January 24, 2021, Milo started his day with a nice long walk, ate his breakfast and happily napping when things took a sudden turn. He had a seizure at 11:28am during his nap. He had not seized since December 23rd. As much as we dreaded seeing him like that, we thought it was one of his breakthrough seizures. Then, within an hour, he had another violent seizure. Then another immediately after. We called our neurologist. We called the emergency vet. Milo was having seizures, recover only to have another seizure the entire time. Even in the car ride on the way to the emergency vet, his body was stiff and in seizure. 

His seizure stopped by injecting anti seizure meds and muscle relaxant for his tightening, twitching body. He was stabilized enough where he would try to get up. His oxygen level was low and he was temporarily blind. Milo was put in an oxygen chamber with IV fluids and cathetar. They wanted to monitor him at least for 24-hours and confirm his stability before releasing him to come back home.

At 12:22am, we received a phone call from the E-vet saying Milo had another cluster seizure. Meds were injected to stop the seizure. Just an hour later, we got another call. He had another couple seizures, but the injection wasn’t working and he had another seizure where he went into cardiac arrest.
CPR was conducted and a tiny heartbeat came back. He was barely breathing on his own and he was in critical condition. 
When we saw him, he laid lifeless with fractured ribs from the CPR, tubes in his mouth and both arms. He was barely alive. His little body simply could not take any more beatings from the seizure.

Milo put up a good fight. He fought until the very end.

Our heart is broken. We miss him so very much. What makes this so difficult is that we were given hope that Milo would recover to live many more years. We never imagined this would happen and two weeks ago. 

Never have we hesitated to provide medical care for Milo. It is our first time to be without pet insurance. Pet insurance didn’t cover office visits, preventatives or vaccines which were mostly what we went to the vet for. Even so, we thought we had ample time to build this nest egg. Milo truly was healthy otherwise which is why we were blind-sided by his sudden death.

His regular vet bill was $294, Neurologist and MRI $3273 and his emergency vet bill $3096 totaling a little under $7000. We did not hesitate to take on debt to give our boy the best chance to pull through. The toughest part of it, is that Milo is gone despite these bills.

He was such a sweet, good boy with an amazing personality, quirks and antics. Loved by everyone he met, such a ham, always happy, eternally hungry and the best cuddler! He brought my husband and me and everyone he mean so much joy and laughter everyday. Trying to save him after everything he gave us was the least we could do. If you can contribute anything in the memory of our sweetest boy Milo, we would appreciate it very much. And please share our story to get the word out. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to read about our precious boy. We wish everyone is staying healthy and doing well. And if have a fur child, to please give them extra hugs and kisses from us. Love from Milo, his frenchie family, his dad and his mom.

*We thought long and hard about posting these photos, as it pains us to see it. They are the last 2 photos of him alive. One in the oxygen chamber when I told him “Everything would be ok. He was a fighter and that mommy loves him so so much”. The other, isminutes before he took his last breath.