This is Grizzly, he’s only 4 years old. He is the youngest of our 3 dogs that we love dearly. Over the last 48 hours his health has completely deteriorated and we are at a loss. He has gone from healthy, happy and strong to needing emergency surgery. We are absolutely devastated. It is 2am Sunday morning 5/18, we are sitting in a room at the Emergency Veterinary Hospital where we have been for the last 8hrs. He is oxygen dependent and in respiratory distress, currently lying in an oxygen cage. A foreign object near his lungs has caused gas to burst and fill his chest cavity, the foreign object is believed to be a foxtail. They are tapping into his chest cavity as I type this to relieve the gas which will most likely only be for temporary relief. They strongly believe he will need to go to Davis for emergency surgery to remove the foreign object and if he doesn’t, recovery is very unlikely which would mean we have to say goodbye to him. We have exhausted all of our funds here and desperately need help saving our boy, we are nowhere near ready to say goodbye and can’t comprehend this is even happening. The surgery is $10-$15,000. We are absolutely heartbroken with the options we’ve been given. Anything helps and is greatly appreciated.

Update 5/18 1:43pm - he has been admitted to Davis. Dr called explaining Grizz will be needing a chest tube, he doesn’t trust Grizz being able to breath properly on his own as he is declining in their care. Surgery to locate the foreign object (they believe to be a foxtail) is recommended. After chest tube insertion the next step will be a CT to try and locate said foreign object through imaging. They are also going to go in with a camera to see if they can locate more than one foxtail as they have had cases where there were more than one. They will most likely be cutting out a lung lobe, dogs have multiple and he will live a normal life without. They see these cases on somewhat of a regular basis especially this time of year with foxtails. Our VCA bill has totaled $2680, our Davis bill will be about $15,000. That is almost an $18,000 foxtail (if this is indeed a foxtail like they believe it is). If you have animals please take this into consideration. I have been well educated on foxtails and have dealt with the repercussions of them (lodged in the gums) and have always been vigilant with our boys when it comes to them, yet we somehow missed Grizz getting ahold of one. Foxtails are dangerous and can lead to extreme health risks/financial burden. Thank you for the positivity and the generous donations, we cannot express enough how much your kindness means to us and how helpful it is during this time.

Update 9:56pm 5/18 - Dr has inserted the chest tube so Grizzly is breathing much better. They’ve been able to get his fever down with antibiotics so now that his vitals are more stable they can get him transferred in the morning to internal medicine for imaging. Imaging will tell us the root cause of this so we are looking forward to those answers. We can expect a call from internal medicine between 9-11am tomorrow to go over plan of care moving forward. Ideally they don’t want to put him under more than once so they’d like to do imaging and surgery close together. Tomorrow will hopefully be the day for both but we’ll see how he does overnight.

Update 5/19 3:33pm - Surgery has started. They didn’t find many answers on imaging unfortunately, other than the fact that there is quite a bit of damage to some of his lung lobes and collapsing. Because they cannot determine which side is worse they are going to go in through his breast bone to explore his entire chest. They are still very confident this is foxtail damage as it is consistent with many other cases they have seen. They are going to do their best in locating any/all foxtails through out his chest cavity and will be removing the damaged lobes that will not be able to heal/inflate themselves. The surgeon went through this with his own dog. The odds are on his side, surgeon said his youth is on his side. He is such a strong healthy boy otherwise and with the care he is receiving we know he is going to pull through this. The surgeon will call between 5-6 after surgery to give us an update, surgery is going to take 2hrs.

SURGERY WENT WELL!! Dr said he did fantastic overnight following surgery and is trying to get love from anyone who walks by him. Our snuggly boy is back. We cannot thank you enough for your help and positivity through this difficult time. Grizz is on the road to recovery thanks to family graciously loaning the money to cover cost of surgery. Had we not been loaned the $ we would’ve had no option but to say goodbye to him which still doesn’t even feel real. Your generous donations will help us pay them back, we cannot thank you enough. This has truly taken a village. We are also in the middle of a move which is stressful enough as it is, so we will be trying to navigate keeping Grizzly as comfortable as possible during this transition. Continued prayers that he heals 100% and we never have to look back.