Help Hugo Get the Medical Care He Needs

Dear Friends and Family,

We have been parents to Hugo since I got him in college at 3-months old back in 2009. Hugo is a standard black and tan dachshund and has been my constant companion for 16 years. After college I graduated and moved to LA to pursue my career in the film industry and Hugo and his brother Fritz, were not only my emotional support during that whole time, but my family in a place where I knew no one.

Hugo has been in incredible health all his life. However, shortly after his 16th birthday, this past spring, Hugo one morning became very despondent and lethargic. Seeing that he was not at all his usual self we took him to the ER to eventually find out that he had a tumor in his spleen that had burst and was causing internal bleeding and was putting him into shock. An overnight stay and an emergency splenectomy later, Hugo was on the mend. However, we still had to deal with the surprise of the tumor. In most cases of a tumor bursting inside of a spleen usually means it is cancerous (66.6% chance). So, after waiting several days for the results we were so happy and relieved to find out that Hugo was in the 1/3 percentile of the tumor being benign and him being cancer free!!

We thought we had dodged a bullet and even though a very pricey hospital stay and surgery maxed out all our credit cards, we were happy that he was tumor and cancer free!!

Unfortunately, since that time, Hugo’s health has been on a bit of a decline, whether it was associated with his surgery or it was just a coincidence, a few weeks after he recovered from the surgery, Hugo had a big stroke. After another hospital visit, the doctors thought it might have just been a one-off from stress from his splenectomy and sent him home for observation. Another week of Hugo recovering and again we thought he was out of the woods, and he had another huge stroke. This time it was a doozy, and we had to rush home from work to pick him up and take him to the ER. The doctors were able to stabilize him, and they scheduled him for a head MRI to see if there was some sort of tumor or neurological reason for his episodes. Shortly before they were getting ready to put him on anesthesia for the procedure, they heard gurgling coming from his lungs. Apparently, during his big stroke, he aspirated vomit/saliva into his lungs and contracted pneumonia. Because of this they couldn’t perform his MRI and instead a very costly 5 days stay in the ER including being placed on oxygen and observation happened instead. It’s been a few weeks since that very traumatic episode, but Hugo has recovered well and is on anti-seizure medication, but we still don’t know what caused those episodes, and he can’t be on this medication indefinitely without us finding out what the cause is. In short, we have a band-aid on the problem, but he still needs the MRI and further testing so we can solve his medical issues. Since his surprise health issues started in March, we have depleted our savings and maxed out our credit cards to the sum of about $40,000 in emergency vet bills. We are humbly asking anyone who has the means and capability to donate to Hugo so we can finish his testing and get him back to normal, good health. Whether you can donate $1, $5, $20, or more, we would be so appreciative of any amount you can give so we can get Hugo back to his old self. And if you can’t donate, please just share this fundraiser so all of our fellow pet parents can see Hugo’s journey.

Thank you so much for your consideration and generosity!

Ashley, Patrick, Hugo and Morris