Please Help With Bilbos Urgent Medical Care

Hi Friends,

I've been doing a lot of updating through Facebook statuses but as many of you know, my dog, Bilbo is currently being hospitalized.

I think first I should tell you a little bit about Bilbo. Bilbo found me. I was not expecting to adopt a dog the day that I went with my dad for him to adopt his own. But Bilbo was the first dog to come up to me, took treats from my hand, curled up in my lap, and fell asleep. When he fell asleep on me, I knew I couldn't leave him. I think the universe knew I needed a sweet, quiet, calming presence because a few months after adopting Bilbo, my other dog Cheese's medication for this heart disease stopped working and I had to make the heart wrenching decision to put Cheese to sleep. Throughout all of that, Bilbo was a constant flow or warmth, comfort, and calm energy that I didn't even know I needed.

This past Saturday he had diarrhea that had blood in it and continued having this problem up until Sunday night. He was eating and drinking small amounts and was alert up until he collapsed Monday afternoon and was rushed to the vet where I got some terrible news. They don't know why this is happening or what the trigger may have been but Bilbos immune system is attacking him. After getting blood work done, his red blood cells were very low, his white blood cells were high, and he has zero platelets. His immune system is killing his platelets faster than his body can make them resulting in internal bleeding going into his GI tract.

Bilbo was taken to Madison Veterinary Specialists and has been there two nights so far and is expected to be there for the next 3 to 5 days.

Yesterday he got chest xrays, a blood transfusion, ultrasound, and was put on three different medications. The medications are an antibiotic, a liquid band aid for his GI tract, and something to calm down his immune system so it stops attacking him. His xrays and ultrasound came back looking clear so luckily he doesn't have any cancer which they thought may have been a trigger and he handled the blood transfusion beautifully and was bright eyed, alert, and ate a lot of food.

Now it's up to his body. The medications and his body need to work together to start making platelets again which I won't know if anything is working until Friday or Saturday.

This is the part where I am asking for help. Years ago I rescued my first senior dog, Yogi, and absolutely fell in love. Since then, I have had the ability to rescue two more senior dogs, Cheese and Bilbo. Anytime any of my dogs have needed vet care I've done what I needed to do to make ends meet whether it has been working overtime or getting a second job to make sure the vet bills were paid and they had the medication they needed. This time it's a little different.

This time, I'm drowning. He was admitted Monday night, it's Wednesday morning and his bill is already up to $3,200 and that was before the vet called and informed me he needs another blood transfusion because his red blood cell count is down again and he was looking pale and a lot more quiet than yesterday morning. The vet is hoping with him fully being on medication now that it will start working but each blood transfusion is $700. The estimate I got from the vet, on the low end was $3,883.00 which we are quickly approaching and the high end is $9,189.00.

I am going to do everything in my power to give Bilbo the fighting chance he deserves. I do not ask for help lightly, I work hard, I work a lot, and I pride myself on being able to take care of my little family on my own but I'm struggling, emotionally and financially. Bilbo is the sweetest, most easy going, friendly dog I have ever had and life turning on him like this is tragic and unfair. This came out of no where and I am not ready to let him go and he isn't ready to stop fighting. When I adopted him, he was a stray on the streets of Chicago, is missing his left eye, and is missing all of his teeth except for one snaggle tooth yet this boy meets everyday with a wagging tail and a happy go lucky attitude. I describe him as the type of dog that's just happy to be here. If any dog can get thru this, it's Bilbo.

I will be forever grateful if anyone can please donate anything to help with Bilbos current and ongoing medical bills. Literally anything at this point would help immensely.