Keep our dog with us, please help with June's critical care

Update 8pm, June 13th:

June is doing good, she seems to be showing more improvement every day. I still can't even believe it, and yesterday I had her on my lap, and I looked around at my kids and my family, and it was just such a pure, happy moment. I know we don't have forever with June, but I'm sure it's a miracle she made it through the last week. When we admitted her to the hospital on Saturday night, the doctor said there wasn't much hope, if any, considering how sick she was and how many things were wrong with her, and their goal was just to make her comfortable at that point. They were just as surprised and glad as we were when she started recovering. And now, we are so close to reaching a good point where we can be confident in her long term care plan. I took her in to our vet on Wednesday, just as the hospital told me to if she was well enough by then, to get her kidney values rechecked. The results came back this morning and her numbers came back slightly lower, which is good, although her kidneys are not all the way back to normal... we can hope it's possible. You never know with kidneys, but the numbers going in a good direction is always good. On Sunday her kidneys had a BUN of 52, and creatinine of 1.9... which is quite high and very worrisome (the diuretic heart medication which saved her life last Thursday night causes this acute kidney injury sometimes in high doses). On Wednesday, however, her BUN was down to 49 (still high, but lower than on Sunday), and creatinine was 1.3... back in the normal range, very good. I was able to get her to sn excellent cardiologist (APEX in Saratoga) the very next day on Thursday morning. June was not happy, but they were very gentle with her and I got to stay with her the whole time. The appointment was an hour and they did an echocardiogram, blood pressure, pinpointed the diagnosis and cause, and prescribed more accurate medicationions, doses, and frequency. They said June has a severely leaky heart valve due to old age. There was nothing we could have done to prevent it, even if we had caught it sooner, and nothing anyone can do to slow it down. It will progress, and it does so at different paces in each individual dog, so there is no telling how much time they have. You just have to do your best to make their remaining time as healthy and happy as possible. So, she is going to take a low dose of Furosemide (diruetic) and Pimobendan (helps the heart pump) every day, to prevent fluid from building up in her body and another hospital stay. The only thing left to do is retest her kidney values in a week to make sure her kidneys can handle these medications and doses. I'm pretty nervous, because we are so close... I just hope her body can handle these drugs and we can have more time with her, as well as a good quality of life for her. She is such a pure source of love and joy and and stress reduction for us all, especially the kids. Once we know her kidneys can handle the meds, then that will be our long term regimen, along with me monitoring her breathing each day, blood work every couple months, and visits to the cardiologist once or twice a year. For now.. June is still pretty tired and resting/sleeping a lot, she still gets tired easily and can't handle more activity than going outside to potty, but her spirits are good. We have been watching a lot of movies together:) Thank you so much again, I really can't thank everyone enough - I know you guys saved her life, along with everyone who contributed and cared, and the hospital staff. There was absolutely no way she would have survived if we had not admitted her to the hospital on Thursday night and Saturday night, plus being able to get her to the cardiologist as quickly as we did because they had a spot open up (when them and everyone else was booked out for weeks) and we had just enough money to take it. I'll update again next week, thank you, hugs!

Update 10:30pm June 10th:

June is doing good! (for now)...

I can't believe she even improved at all, let alone this much. I didn't think she would even make it through Saturday night at the hospital, or ever come home again. I honestly never felt so much pain in my life thinking of her never coming home again, I couldn't eat or sleep for two days, and when I tried it only made me throw up. And when I brought her home on Sunday and had to feed her through a tube, I was still preparing for the worst, as she hadn't gotten "worse," but it didn't seem possible she would recover either. But now, her apetite is back, she's eating and drinking on her own, she's chipper and responsive, regulating her own temperature able to burrow under blankets again (see the picture above, that's her right now while I'm typing), she even begged me for my burrito, and she's able and eager to walk outside and pee (rather than unable to move and peeing the bed like on Sunday, which I was happy with because any pee is better than no pee, but it was terrifying that she couldn't walk or barely move)... and now... well, now it's kind of annoying how everyone who sees her thinks she's "all better." But the truth is she is still on a lot of medications to make her body work, she's still very weak and gets wobbly and quickly loses steam when even just going outside to pee, she still needs constant sleep and quiet, still needs constant monitoring, she gets very anxious if I even leave the room or get up to do anything at all, she still has serious internal problems, and she has yet to poop since Saturday night (although granted she hadn't eaten anything for days, and only started eating again on Sunday afternoon, so hopefully it's coming). I'm new to praying, but I've never prayed so hard for anything as I have for poop. I keep reminding my parents and my kids, June might have cancer, or something very wrong with her intestines. She definitely has a heart murmur and congestive heart failure, and the medications she's on right now for that are a "best guess for the time being" - she needs to see a cardiologist asap who can accurately diagnose the cause and prescribe the correct meds and doses and regimen to keep her alive, and right now, she doesn't necessarily have that but she can't go to the cardiologist until she gets past this hump first. The other thing is that heart medications can cause kidney failure, and, as of Sunday, her kidneys were showing subtle but concerning signs of kidney damage. To give her kidneys the best chance, she needs to be given water (but not too much because that would put her into heart failure again), and she needs a very quiet and supportive environment- not to be treated like she's back to normal. We have very little wiggle room here. Needless to say, I'm being extremely protective of her and watching her like a hawk. Kidney damage, intestinal problems, or heart problems could honestly take her out in days or weeks from now. We need to get her through the next 24 hours and get her to her appointment tomorrow evening to re-check her blood and kidney values. Then, if she's doing ok still, we need to get her to a cardiologist in the next week asap. Even then, we could be on borrowed time if her kidneys fail a month from now, which happens as dogs sometimes "seem better" and then a month later they decline suddenly again. I'm just trying to be hopeful and thankful for every day, thankful mostly that she is home and seems comfortable and not in pain and suffering anymore. Thank you so, so much for making this possible, I can't even tell you how much everyone's contributions helped - actually, I can: we were able to cover almost the entire the hospital bill (thanks to everyone's donations combined) on Saturday with only $10 short, and thankfully my dad was able to send me the last $10 (in addition to contributing all he could before that too). So, that's is how close it came, and how literally everyones donations made the difference between her living and dying, I'm sure if it. Because people helping me gave me the confidence to admit her to the hospital on Saturday night, which she desperately needed, knowing I could pull together the sum somehow to pay for it the next day. We all put in every cent we had, and it's been really moving for me to see so many kind hearted people help me and June and my kids when obviously nobody had to, as I know it was my responsibility and I should have been able to pay for it myself, and I'm honestly ashamed I didn't do better. I'm really moved by how much people care, about others, about animals, and about me and my family. It's really helped me during this terribly hard time, and it inspires me to get to a better place in my life to pay it forward one day. Thank you so much. Any donations that came in after Sunday afternoon will go towards her cardiologist appointment because I'm still scrambling to get that covered- thankfully I also have some work lined up from generous neighbors too. I will update again after her kidney test tomorrow... thank you thank you thank you.

Update 8:30am June 9th:

We brought June home from the hospital yesterday at 4pm... sorry I didn't post an update sooner but I was a mess. For now, as of this morning it seems she is feeling a bit better. The great news is she has gone pee regularly, she has finally gotten out of bed and walked to the front door and back (I was hoping she would poop, but no), and this morning she has eaten food on her own and drank on her own. She did poop one "soft poop" at 10pm when she was at the hospital 2 nights ago, so that's good. And her intestinal "ileus" turned around - looks like things are moving again. The bad news is she still has congestive heart failure and her kidneys might be failing, and the doctor saw an inflamed part of her intestines that was very concerning and could indicate cancer. The congestive heart failure is manageable with a pretty positive outlook although never 100%, but if her kidneys start getting worse there is nothing we can do. I'm just glad she got to come home at all, because I didn't think that would even happen yesterday. My kids were crying and my older son asked why this is happening on his birthday (today is his 11th birthday). Thankfully my ex husband took them last night for a couple nights, and he is hosting our son's birthday party at a water park today. My dad came over to help me, and he (grandpa) is one of June's most favorite people, so that cheered her up I think. We will see how it goes... I still have to take her back to get her kidney values rechecked in 2 days (if she can get through 2 more days), and then to a cardiologist if she can get past this crisis and feels mostly better. She's on a lot of medications and I'm monitoring her all hours. It's still touch and go but for now she's doing better, not worse. The nurse said with kidney failure, they can get better and then decline suddenly a month later or at some point in the future, I don't think she wanted us to get our hopes up, but it is also possible her kidneys wont fail - we just don't know. Thank you so, so much for all the donations, it really made the difference and allowed me to admit her to the hospital for 26 hours where they gave her a nose-stomach feeding tube, pain meds, sedatives, and allowed them to re-hydrate her and figure out a feeding and medication regime which I am continuing at home. I'm posting some screenshots of the invoice and photos of the discharge papers, as well as pictures from yesterday... thanks again from the bottom of my heart. I think she is getting the best chance here. At this point, I'm just so thankful I didn't have to surrender her to a shelter to get her proper care that I couldn't afford... thank you. And now, her condition is such that with your generous help we can also afford the cardiologist and blood work to recheck her kidneys if she gets there, or if she goes downhill again it would be rapid and untreatable, so although I don't want that to happen, I'm thankful that we can afford things either way and she will be with her family either way, and I no longer have to be afraid of surrendering her. I will update again in the next day or so..

Update 2:50pm June 7th:

We took June back to Sage Clinic today at noon for her check up with the same doctor she saw last night for her stomach distention. Today, there was no more fluid in her stomach, so she didn't need the tube procedure to release fluids anymore, but she was still not doing well or getting better. She was having trouble walking, still not eating, in pain and a lot of discomfort, and dehydrated. She was also diagnosed today with "ileus" which is, I think, the intestines not really working. Basically, we discovered that this is not simply a case of congenital heart failure (which would have a good outlook and she's be much better by now after clearing the fluid from her lungs on day 1, rather than getting worse and worse and having new issues every 12 hours). They also saw a very concerning inflammation in her intestines which could indicate cancer. We used the money to admit her to the hospital and give her the most comfort and the best chance of pulling through, because she wouldn't have much chance to get better at home given her dehydration and that she stopped drinking water today. I was hopeful at first, but now the outlook looks worse... as we discovered that she had gone downhill a lot pretty quickly since last night, when she should have improved. At least at the hospital, she can get an IV and pain meds and be as comfortable as possible with a chance to get better if that's possible. I wish the outlook was better, but I'm thankful that we didn't have to surrender her and we were able to cover the cost of her full care with your help. We can have the peace of mind that we did everything we could for her medically, and she has the best chance where she is at the hospital. Hopefully she can pull through and improve by tomorrow night. The fact that that the doctors fully treated her expected her to improve 2 days ago, and again last night, shows that something else is going on and things are not adding up or following the typical path for a simple case of congestive heart failure. We hope she can pull through, but we know it's in God's hands now. I will update again tomorrow... thank you so much for your support.

Original post:

Our dog, June, is 11 years old and was just diagnosed with congestive heart failure a couple days ago. She was having trouble breathing and the emergency vet (Sage) discovered she had fluid in her lungs (her lungs are clear now). There is no cure for CHF, but dogs with CHF normally live a few more years with easy and inexpensive management. The problem is June still has acute symptoms that need to be treated - she has a distended stomach (fluids accumulated in her stomach) from her condition and from the diuretics she had to take to clear her lungs. She needs to be re-admitted to Sage hospital today at noon and have a tube run from her nose to her stomach to release the fluids in her stomach, and this is a slow process which means a 12-24 hour stay at the hospital.

It will cost $3,000-4,000. I only have $2000 left in my bank account, and so I'm trying to raise the remaining $2000 to cover her emergency care. Once her stomach is clear, they say the outlook is good and all I need to do is take her to a cardiologist to set her up with a regimen of meds for the CHF that she will take for the rest of her life, and will prevent this kind of emergency in the future.

The honest truth is if I can't raise the cost of this, I will need to surrender her to a shelter where she can get the emergency care she really needs right now. She is in pain and I will do what I have to do to get her care, but I want to keep her rather than surrender her, if posible. She's part of our family and my kids are very attached to her, we all are, we have had her since she was one week old (I was her foster mom and I bottle fed her after she was dropped off outside the East Bay SPCA alone in a shoe box, she was only a few days old abd still had her umbilical cord!). I don't want to surrender her to a shelter if there is any way to keep her with us - we love her so much.

Thank you for any amount you can give!! If I don't end up using all the funds, then they will be returned. I will post updates here as I get them...