Help To Save Max’s Life

Hi everyone,

This is a really hard post to write, and my heart is aching reliving this. I'm sorry if this is how you're finding out about our situation, but it's been an incredibly difficult week for us and our poor little Max. To be honest we've barely been sleeping or eating throughout this ordeal, and it's one of the hardest things we've been through.

We try to be very private people when it comes to things like this, and it is hard for us to ask for help. We have such a great sphere of people around us who also love Max, and he's such a good boy that we figured the least we could do for him is to ask for help so he can get the best possible care we can offer him. We know this is a hard time for many people, so please know that we do not expect anything and if you can even send a thought and prayer for Max's recovery it would mean the world to us.

Many of you know Max, but at home he has many names - Maxers, Maxwell, Maximus Prime, Long Boy, Smacks, Meex, Lazy Legs, Baby Dog, Guillermo, Little Guy, Le Sauseege, and of course Good Boy. Max's favourite things in the world are: Cheese, treats, new toys, lying on the couch in the sun all day, and his people. He never likes to be alone, and if he's snuggling in your lap all day he's the happiest dog in the world.

Last week Max was brought into the vet and after an x-ray and ultrasound we found out that he had two large kidney stones that needed surgery, scheduled for this next week. While this worried us, we were assured it shouldn't be too hard on him and he would need a change in food moving forward. We had a beautiful weekend at the Toronto Island visiting his niece and nephew with Max acting his lively jumpy normal self. And then the unthinkable happened.

On Monday April 7, Max started to exhibit odd behaviour and was toppling over. His symptoms quickly developed and by Tuesday he was loosing the ability to walk or function on the left side of his body. We raced him into the vet where after a full check up and blood work, they were stumped and sent us home to wait for results. The next day his condition worsened immensely, and he was falling over on hills, had no balance, could not lift his head and his paws and left eye were unresponsive. After perfectly normal bloodwork, our vet was able to get us in to the neurology team at the Veterinary Emergency Clinic who I'm positive saved his life. Our only option was to pay $8,500 to diagnose what was hurting Max, or most likely put him down without knowing what was wrong. The later option was unthinkable to us.

Poor Max then underwent anesthesia, an MRI, a spinal tap, and a 2 night stay with the neurology team. Needless to say we were loosing our minds and poor max had the worst week of his life. After being poked and prodded, the vet's best guess is that Max is suffering from a rare auto-immune disease called MUO with no known cause, and his body was attacking his own brain. He is currently undergoing chemotherapy mixed with steroids over the next 6 months to get him into remission and hopefully get more of his reflexes back, after which he will still need his bladder stone surgery when it is safe. There is still a lot that is uncertain and many questions that we have, which will hopefully be answered in the near future.

With having no pet insurance and having a surprise $10,000 bill overnight to get this diagnosed, we believe that it will be at least another $9,000 to treat Max's condition, which may require treatment for the rest of his life as well as his bladder surgery, an additional $3,500. We're going to try to pay for his care as long as we possibly can and keep our baby here with us. With a 33% chance of remission and a 33% chance of re-occurrence, any help will be appreciate at this time.

The thought that we may not be able to cover his care on our own is heartbreaking and it feels like we're failing him. We always imagine Max meeting our future children and being the best brother. We love our community, our family and friends, and appreciate you all so much. Thank you in advance for listening, for your kind words, and anything you can do to help us in this situation which seems so impossible. You all know how much we love Max, and he really is our little baby. He's been with us since we moved into our first apartment when we were 24, and we simply can't imagine saying good bye to him, especially so close to his 8th birthday.

Max has been home for 2 days sporting his patches, and we are already seeing improvements with his first treatment. He is still very slow and wobbly, but we're just so happy he is home. We will be making updates to Max's care here and how he's improving. We also want to provide education and our experience with MUO so that others are aware of it and know what signs to look out for, and what to expect.

Thank you all so much,

Kate & Dustin & Max