Losing our Robby Doodle and Pearl's Emergency Care

I am creating this GoFundMe due to Grover’s friends suggesting I do so and because we are desperate. I will also be making freshies this week on my days off in an attempt to raise funds for this as well. This is urgent.

On Saturday, April 19th, we lost our Robby Doodle. Although he had been diagnosed with cancer, he was doing very well, and we were pleased with how good he was doing. His death was unexpected. I got a call at work to come home because he had suddenly seemed to collapse, unable to breathe normally. It was a Saturday at 2 pm, Easter weekend, and our normal vet was closed. I called another vet, and they worked me in as an emergency. I got Robby there as fast as possible, but the doctor didn’t seem to want to help us. He literally stood over Robby questioning why I would ask him to save him. I had called our normal vet, but she was out of town. She agreed to speak to this vet and see if we could possibly drain fluid off of Robby because it seemed he had suddenly developed excess fluid. The vet seemed pretty evasive and unwilling to do anything more than tell me to euthanize my Robby, so we left. We took Robby to an urgent care in town, but unfortunately, all of the movement and the wasted time at the first vet was too much. Robby coded when they got him to the back of the urgent care facility. My sweet Doodle died as I stood there crying and rubbing him, telling him he was mommy’s world and that I loved him so much. This was SUCH a traumatic experience for me as I will never be able to get the image of him dying out of my mind. I’m absolutely heartbroken and grief-stricken over losing my sweet Robby. I feel awful for taking him to that first clinic where we wasted a whole hour trying to get this vet to understand the urgency we were dealing with. I wish I’d never gone there. Maybe we could’ve saved him. I’ll never know, and it’s making me physically ill to think about.

That night, baby Pearl started having labored breathing! She has CHF, and we’ve had to have fluid drained from her abdomen a few times since her diagnosis. She’s been doing really well lately, so this came out of the blue, just like Robby. I was scared to take her anywhere at all, so we just monitored her and prayed for Monday to come. Thankfully, we made it through.

Today, 4/21, we were able to get Pearl into her normal vet, Dr. Duncan. We also had to bring Robby with us so that he can be cremated. We drove to the urgent care today, picked him up, and then went to our normal vet. Dr. Duncan found that Pearl’s bloodwork was good, but the X-ray showed a decent amount of fluid. She performed a thoracocentesis on Pearl. There were issues as Pearl wasn’t very cooperative and Dr Duncan had to go in 3 different times in order to give her breaks in between - All of this has been so hard on us. Thankfully, she was able to get some fluid off of Pearl, and she increased her Lasix. We also arranged to have Robby cremated while we were there. We aren’t able to cover these bills. We weren’t prepared for Robby to pass and Pearl to have an emergency at the same time.

I’ve attached the bill from today to this, as well as the invoice from the urgent care Saturday. We had to borrow the money for the urgent care, or they wouldn’t have been able to release his body to us. The totals are $67 to the first vet, $374 for the urgent care, and $857.08 for today. The total is $1,298.00 that we just don’t have.

I understand that this is a terrible time for everyone and am so thankful for anyone who’s able to donate or even share this GoFundMe. Thank you so much.

Losing Robby has gutted me completely. I am so lost right now. I am aware that I’ve never fully grieved Grover because we found out about Robby’s cancer just 2 days after Grover passed. I’m now in a slump, grieving them both and trying to stay calm over baby Pearl’s sudden symptoms and vet bills that were unexpected. I feel like I’m losing it here. She’s my number 3 heart dog, and if something happens to her, I’m not going to be okay. I’m already totally NOT okay with losing Robby and no longer having my Grover. I cannot go through this anymore.. I feel myself about to lose it. 

Pearl will see Dr. Duncan on 4/28 for her recheck and very likely  another thoracocentesis at that time. She also said Pearl will need another xray - At this point, I’m not going to be able to do this next appointment. I’m going to spend the next week trying to sell anything I can to in order to keep that appointment. I’ve added what I am estimating will be the bill for pearls appointment on 4/28 as well which is why the amount is set at $1600.

Thank you for reading, and I am so sorry that this is all over the place. Mentally, I am not okay, and I’m not myself. Please forgive me. Thank you, friends.