Lenny's Emergency Vet Bills

On Sunday evening, October 20th, Lenny ingested a highly toxic amount of dark chocolate and raisins. Once we arrived home, he had already gotten sick several times and was becoming increasingly lethargic. After a consultation with a virtual vet through video, we were strongly encouraged to bring him to the vet in Nelson for an emergency appointment.

When we arrived at the vet they immediately informed us that Lenny may pass away and told us that his best chance of survival would be in Kelowna at a 24hr pet hospital. We learnt that chocolate could cause seizures and heart arrythmia, while the raisins could cause the kidneys to fail which had a low survival rate. The vet administered morphine to induce more vomiting in an attempt to get as much chocolate and raisins out of his system and the tech administered as much fluid as she could subcutaneously to prepare him for a 4hr drive. We were shown how to administer valium in case he had a seizure on the drive and also sent with charcoal to absorb the toxins still left in his stomach. We left Nelson around 10:30pm with virtually nothing and terrified that Lenny wouldn't make it through the drive.

We made it to the pet hospital in Kelowna around 2:30am after a challenging drive with lots of wildlife. The pet hospital was ready for us when we arrived and quickly began their critical care course of treatment that included hourly vital checks, ECG, bloodwork, IV fluids, and more. We left Lenny at the vet sometime after 4am unsure if he would make it through the night. The next morning the vet let us know that he was stable and his bloodwork came back normal but was considered tachycardia with his heart beating extremely fast. We went back to visit Lenny that evening and spent over an hour cuddling him as he slept.

They continued their treatment and did bloodwork every 24hr to continue checking kidney functioning. On the second day Lenny's heart rate returned back to normal and his bloodwork results remained within normal levels, however, he had developed aspiration pneumonia and they were concerned about his respiratory rate. We went to visit him early afternoon this day and could see his energy returning despite the pneumonia. We tried to go back again later but we informed that Lenny struggled to cope after our visit earlier in the day and required sedation to calm down. The vet explained that it would be best not to stress him out and to remain hopeful as his behavior may indicate that he was starting to feel ready to go home.

On Wednesday, day 3, we received a call early morning that Lenny's pneumonia had improved over night, with a minor cough persisting, and the 48hr bloodwork had come back normal as well. He would require antibiotics for 14 days and follow-up chest x-rays, as well as continued bloodwork at the 72hr mark to confirm the kidneys were still functioning as normal. The vet prepared Lenny for discharge and we were able to pick him up to take him home later that afternoon.

Since arriving back in Nelson, Lenny has continued bloodwork and is taking antibiotics and pain medication to manage the pneumonia. Most importantly, Lenny is improving and seems more and more like his usual self with every day that passes.

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love this dog and how much of an impact he has on not only my life but so many others- we had to do everything we could to save him. Without pet insurance and being a full-time student myself, the cost of Lenny's medical care has had a significant impact financially and we appreciate any donation towards covering the costs of his care and continued recovery.