Max’s Medical Bills

Cynthia Walker is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Dawn Bagrowski.

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I’d like to share my dearest friend (my sissy) Dawn and her families story. It’s been rough on her family. Please take the time to read.

This is the story of our beloved Max, a 14 year old beagle/chihuahua (maybe some min pin?) that we had for over 11 years.

It all started when we noticed a small bulge on Max’s tail right at the base. It wasn't that big and didn't bother him at all at first. Right around Christmas we noticed it was significantly bigger, but still not bothering him. We made plans for the vet to come see him after the holidays. A couple weeks later he yelped at anyone touching it, so our mobile vet suggested we take him to our old vet's office for a complete workup. They determined that it was most likely a mass cell tumor (probably cancer, but unsure if it had spread) and she referred us to a specialty clinic Fetch (oncology and emergency).

Later that week (Jan 17), I brought him back in to the vetbecause he wasn't eating, had diarrhea, etc. Turned out he had pancreatitis. They kept him there all day. When I picked him up, the dr. said she almost called me at lunch because he wasn’t looking good. But he fought back and they sent us home with an IV bag to give him subQ fluids over the weekend. I brought him back Monday Jan 20, did blood tests. All better. Phew.

We had the consult visit on Wednesday Jan 22. The surgeon gave him meds to try and reduce the tumor. It was up too high on the tail to amputate the tail but she was concerned about being able to remove it all and still be able to close up his skin.We were giving him antibiotics and steroids twice a day.

That Saturday (Jan 25), his tail split open at the tumor site so we brought him back to Fetch (the emergency hospital). They did blood work and found that his body was destroying his red blood cells (unrelated to the split - just something that was happening behind the scenes that we wouldn't have known about if we didn't bring him in). His count the previous week was 32, that night it was 20! They admitted him and almost had to do a transfusion. but each day his count increased. He was able to come home Tuesday with a count of 28. They kept him on the schedule for surgery on Thursday pending his count staying stable.

On Jan 30 (surgery morning), his count was 30 (Yay!) and the tumor site had shrunk enough that she felt that amputating the tail was the best option to get all the cells. He came home that night and slept most of the night. Over the weekend we noticed his eye was watery, then a little goopy. At first we thought it was just from the anesthesia, but when it got worse we brought him back to Fetch on Feb 2. They said he had a severe ulcer (corneal laceration) on his left eye, so they kept him overnight, giving him eye drops every 2 hours and referred us to an ophthalmologist the next day.

Feb 3 – the Eye dr said surgery is definitely needed but it was WAY too infected to do surgery. We got a prescription for 2 eye drops EVERY HOUR and were told to return the next day. There was the risk of rupture so we took him back to Fetch for admittance so they could watch him and administer the meds.

Feb 4 - Took him back to the eye dr - not much change but at least it hadn't ruptured. He added a 3rd antibiotic eye drop (also every hour) and told us to come back Thursday to give it more time to heal. So he had to go back to Fetch until Thursday. We sent pictures to the eye dr on Wednesday night and he said to wait until Friday to bring him in. I decided to pick Max up from Fetch Thursday night, and we at home would just take turns with the drops so we can each get a couple hours of sleep at a time.While picking him up, the surgeon came in and said she got the pathology results from his tail – it was BENIGN!!! Now to just clear up that eye.

Feb 7 – we went back to the eye dr at 7AM. His eye was cleared up enough to do surgery. I brought him home mid-afternoon and he slept most of the day due to the anesthesia and pain meds. Eye drops only 4 times a day so MUCH more manageable.

Feb 9 – Max wasn’t eating much and what he did eat, he would vomit up undigested hours later. The next day, he went in to get his tail stitches out and the dr said to give it another day with the eating. Could still be from the anesthesia. That evening he vomited again so I brought him back to Fetch. The blood work determined that his kidneys were not functioning well. His levels the previous Wednesday were 2.8 (high but manageable). Now they were 6.2. They admitted him overnight to give him fluids and hope they could flush out the kidneys.

Feb 11 – the dr called in the afternoon after running more blood. No change at all in his numbers. We could give it another 24 hours of fluids but at that point he would need a urine catheter and a feeding tube, and chances for improvement were slim. We made the decision to not let him suffer any longer. We brought him home and loved on him all evening until our mobile vet was able to come over and give him his final rest. He passedpeacefully in his bed surrounded by all of us holding his paws, stroking him and telling him how brave he was and how proud we were, how much we loved him.

We poured our hearts, souls and unfortunately our wallet into his medical issues. He fought everything but in the end, it was just too much for his little body. If he hadn’t needed eye surgery, he might still be with us. But it was something that had to be done.

All told, with the 3 vets (not counting our mobile vet), medicines, surgeries, hospitalizations, etc… the total we spent was $12,580.97 (if anyone wants to see receipts, I’m happy to share or give a breakdown). We’ve managed to scrape up about $2,000 to pay toward it, but we still owe over $10,000.

Max before any hospitalization

The tumor
Post surgery
The last photo of sweet Max

If any of you could help it’d be greatly appreciated.