Hello. We are a family of three: I’m Eunsol, my husband is Egan and my fur baby is Simba. Simba is an 8 year old Border Collie who thinks he’s still a puppy with very high energy. On 10/3, my baby Simba and I were playing fetch when he got a stick lodged in his throat. My husband and I took him to the vet and after a few hours, he was able to come back home. However, a more dire situation came up. He wasn’t acting like himself and after taking him to the ER we found out a piece of the stick is still lodged in his throat. To make things worse, he developed pneumonia with a fever of 105 degrees. Doctors suspect that when the stick got caught in his throat, it caused a mild hemorrhage and saliva went through his trachea which resulted in fluid in his lungs. This developed into pneumonia. He will have to have surgery to remove the stick, but Simba will need to spend more time to recover from the pneumonia first before they can operate. Now it’s Day 3 at the ER and his temperature has gone down to 103 degrees and he is relatively stable. So far he’s had a couple of X-rays and one CT scan taken. He is still hooked up to antibiotics, IV, and oxygen. 

It seemed pretty promising up until I wrote the last sentence. I just got a call from the ER, after they had told me that no news is good news. The doctor told me that last night Simba had to have about a half liter of fluid removed from his lungs. The fluid was a red color so it is suspected that a mild hemorrhage is present in his trachea. The doctor suspects the fluid accumulation is due to either the traumatic event or an immune reaction to the lung infection. Since the source of infection (a piece of wood) is still present, the doctor believes we have to remove the piece from his throat in order for Simba to fully recover from pneumonia. Simba's vitals are thankfully stable; however, they may not be so tomorrow morning when he has to go through the removal surgery. If Simba is stable tomorrow, they will be able to go ahead with the surgery as planned. If not, I'm not sure what will happen at this point… We just have to hope he doesn't need any more lung fluid removal tonight. It's been like riding a roller coaster.


So far three payments have been made: $1,825 on 10/3. $2,482.09 on 10/4, $3,000 on 10/5, borrowed from families and friends. We still have remaining a low estimated balance of $4,519.65 or a high estimated balance of $5,775.65. This was before removing the lung fluid so I am not sure what the new estimated cost will be.

We had never thought of asking for donations as it may be uncomfortable for people but I’m currently 6 months pregnant with high risk prelabor and my husband is a full time 4th year student in a different city. Being diagnosed with high risk prelabor and Simba’s injury all happened within a week. This is putting a huge strain on our finances and is happening at a difficult time for our family but we want to do everything we can to save him. I am so mad that all I can do at this point is selling stuff online which isn’t worth much. I feel so guilty even being hungry when my boy has been on IV for 4 days without real food..

Any donations that exceed what we intend to raise will be donated to a shelter or the current hospital he is at for animals who can’t get immediate attention. Simba is my family and anything you can give to help my family through this will be greatly appreciated. Please help us help our big-hearted Simba come back home safely.


Please don’t play with sticks!!!