Basil is our son; we love him more than anything in this world and have now spent all of our money in our bank accounts and used all of our credit cards to take care of him.

We adopted him in 2016. He had been living in a cage inside of Pawstive Veterinary in Brooklyn for about two years while occasionally being allowed to roam around the clinic. We happened to visit the practice and came upon him, instantly falling in love and creating a bond unlike any other.

The vet told us that the previous owner had let him go outside during which time it is believed he was hit by a car. After undergoing emergency surgery and having his tail removed, he became incontinent. Not being able to control his bladder or bowel moments, we were told the previous owner mistreated him. He was brought to the vet to be euthanized, but the vet refused due to him being healthy otherwise. It is after living at the Vet’s clinic for about two years he came into our lives and chose us to be his family.

We have and continue to give him all of our love and he gives us so very much more in return.

Over the years his special needs issues have grown more complicated, needing extra help to express urine and fecal matter. Other than that he is healthy, happy, and loving.

On Dec 21, we took him to BluePearl’s Downtown office to aid him with some constipation when we also found out he had an extremely full bladder. As the vet expressed his bladder his health declined and became critical. Upon expressing his bladder, urine leaked into his abdomen causing his blood pressure to drop significantly.

The vet performed lifesaving measures and then told us we had to rush him to the Brooklyn’s BluePearl office to be hospitalized for several days but not before doubling the price originally quoted for his initial visit.

We were originally quoted $1,600, but after the emergency this was doubled to $3,500.

At that point we were told to rushed Basil to Brooklyn where we paid $3,500. We later found out that the Manhattan’s Downton Blue Pearl took this money leaving the Brooklyn office to charge us another $4,565. More costs could still come.

The doctors say his prognosis good if he can get through this and continue with follow-up appointments.

This is where we are at right now. Days later, crying, shaking with anxiety less than a day before Christmas on our 13-year wedding anniversary and are asking for help for our baby. The funds will go to help with the current costs, his medications, and future specialist visits to help make sure he stays healthy. Again, we love him more than anything and would do anything for him which is why we made this. Thank you for your help.

It's not Basil’s time to go, and he is fighting to stay with us. Please help him live. He has been through so much trauma in his life, and despite that he never hisses or scratches us. He is loving and gentle.

Basil's instagram: @Papa_Pamper https://www.instagram.com/papa_pamper?igsh=MTI0YTJ3MzE5YzAyMg==

UPDATE 1/6/2024

This is probably the hardest thing we’ve ever had to go through, let alone write. I’ve been asked why on 12/28 did I stop donations from incoming on Basil’s account and that is because he passed away.

Thank you to everyone who cared for our son Basil, we are beyond grateful for the support. Basil health started to decline, and we spent Christmas at the Brooklyn hospital, he could not urinate, and he was still constipated (only having slight anal leakage). He stopped eating, only leaking at poo liquid and not passing any stool.

We took Basil to see an internist, a specialist who could help us figure out how to provide medication to help use the bathroom. Every other person we have seen along the way said as long as we get him to poop and pee, he will be okay. However, the internist said that his quality of life was declining, and whatever we did would be a temporary fix (a day or two) because he was suffering from mega colon as well as a distended bladder. Both of these things were pushing his organs forward.

She said that since he had neurological damage that did not allow his brain to send a message to release bladder and poop the nerves that he always had a full bladder and full colon; however, the colon and bladder walls became thinner and deteriorated. They would manually extract poop but his chances of survival during that procedure were very small because of how damaged his colon tissue was and could suffer a rupture (much like his bladder ruptured during his first visit).

I’m going to be honest, I was not happy with what this doctor had to say, and I felt like she looked at Basil like a lost cause and everything was told to me so matter of fact, like she was reading through a textbook.

I decided to try a host of medications to see if we can get him to eat and use the bathroom. None of these things worked. It broke my heart to see him sniff at food like he was hungry (Basil was a very foodcentric baby, he loved his chicken and gray cat food.) I put out four different cans of food and couldn’t eat any of them.

I requested his medical records so I could send it all to another vet for a second opinion, this was someone who saved Basil when he first started having his constipation issue, but she worked in Stanford, Connecticut. Since I was given such a small timeframe as how to help Basil (his bladder had the potential of rupturing since he didn’t pee for over 24 hours) I implored BluePearl to give me the internist’s notes so we could send it to her. The receptionist was dismissive, and when we called again to explain that we needed it as soon as possible we were told that we were “calling too much” and would just have to wait.

The next day we got his records, which I sent over, but that night his declined so rapidly. His pupils were enlarged, he was drooling excessively, and he did not want to cuddled (Basil was always a cuddler and loved to be held). He didn’t eat, just drank, but still did not use the bathroom.

The Animal Medical Center said it takes five to ten days for an appointment to see a specialist, or 2-3 hour wait in the emergency room. We took him to see another doctor at BluePearl, someone with 20+ year’s experience and who fully read through Basil’s records. We had him examined and explained his decline overnight.

He was surprised how a clean Basil looked because apparently cats or dogs who are incontinent get urine stains over the years, but our boy was so clean because we always used hypoallergenic baby wipes and have a baby towel we use after we washed him (we only did this when he had bad poop episodes since he hated to be washed).

He said his bladder was again the size of a grapefruit, and that we’ve done everything possible, more than most would have done. However, not eating or using the bathroom was not a good way to live and we had to think of his quality of life.

I wanted to be selfish, I wanted him to be in my life forever. But his x-rays and his situation didn’t show room for improvement. So, we had to say goodbye.

I can’t describe to you the amount of pain we are feeling. Basil was the love of our life, and I feel like I’ve let him down. We wish we could have done something more. It feels like we lost our child.

I don’t understand how this rapid decline happened, one minute I’m bundling him up under my blanket and the next he is gone.

Thank you to those who donated so that we could exercise every possible medical treatment for him. If we couldn’t, we would live in regret. You all did so much, and we could never replay you.

I wish the medical system for animals were different, to have to feel like you can’t afford to save your pet, your family member is wrong.

Thank you to those who believed in him. We were able to have one last Christmas (had to celebrate a few days later) with him where we gave him his presents.

We have included all of his medical bills here (from beginning to end throughout the story) so you can see what you did for him and for us. We are deeply emotional right now but want to thank you for everything.