Quentin's Diagnosis and Treatment for MUE

Please Help Quentin's treatment for MUE - he has a diagnosis and started treatment.

I’m Madison and this is my best friend Quentin. I adopted Quentin seven years ago from the toronto humane society. He had been brought to them as a stray from the streets of California. Quentin was 1 when he first came to his new home here at my apartment in the village. He finally had a family.

Until very recently, Quentin was full of energy and enthusiasm - just what you’d expect from a Chihuahua mix. We enjoyed going on hikes, going to the dog park, and living our best lives. Quentin hiked with me along the first 1000km of the Pacific Crest Trail, and he was gangbusters about it - he loved it and I kept him safe. Right after we finished retuning from hiking the mountains, Quentin had a little fall in San Diego. He seemed fine but something seemed off. I took him to two different vets and had him x-rayed and examined thoroughly - by both the vets as well as specialists. The x-rays were fine and the diagnosis was a bit of a sprain and maybe a pinched nerve. But something still seemed off to me. He appeared to recover in June and July from the sprain and pinched nerve, but he began to show troubling signs that there was a deeper issue - and not muscular or skeletal.

Quentin would seem fine, but then intermittently his back legs would abruptly appear to just not function - like half the time his legs were fine and the other signals were not getting through.

The problems were unpredictable. Then, he had started having seizures in his sleep. I don’t mean like “running” dreams - no, these are convulsions so bad that I had to catch him to stop him from falling off his dog bed. It breaks my heart.

Now, he can no longer walk and his primary care vet says he needs to see a neurologist. He has now had a diagnosis and has begun treatment for MUE. However the total vet bills spent so far (he had to get a CT scan and a spinal tap, which meant anesthetic for at least the spinal tap. Plus the hospital stay, which I tried to minimize to be just diagnosis and treatment.) The total vet bill so far has been $12,000.

The rest of the story below is from the original posting for the gofundme before we had a diagnosis. I've just included it here for posterity.

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Quentin is more than just a dog to me, he is my best friend and companion. he comes with me everywhere. Quentin has task-based training to actively assist me with my

autism, and is even registered with the city of toronto as a licensed service dog.

I feel I should admit that despite being a writer for a living, I had such a hard time preparing this text that I had to get a kind friend from our local dog park family, Krista, to help me with it. Writing novels and non-fiction is very different from being able to talk about active trauma and ask for help - I often feel like I have no friends and alienate people eventually. I have a great deal of difficulty with interpersonal communication, and from past experiences I live in perpetual anxiety of saying or doing the wrong thing. But despite my trepidation I genuinely must ask for help.

Quentin needs an MRI now, not in three months which is when I might financially be able to get one for him (or might not.) I don’t want Quentin to suffer because of my shortcomings and have faced my fears for him.

I love Quentin so much but he needs to be diagnosed properly now, and I can’t do it without your help. Although it costs $3,000 for the MRI and $300 to see the neurologist, I’ve set the gofundme to $5000.00 because I have no doubt he will need treatment, and there’s no telling how much that will cost but it needs to start now.

Please help me to save my best friend’s life. My parents will not help me, nor my ex-boyfriend (Quentin’s dad. I’m his mom.)

Please share his story as well and if you can help us to find out what is wrong with my little buddy.

Quentin is too young for these problems, and until only a few weeks ago he was so tough and energetic. Now he seems to be slowly succumbing to something horrible but we don’t even know what it is. Please do what you can to help Quentin’s gofundme. We have no other options. Quentin and I are really hoping we can count on you.

Time is of the essences and everyday he is getting worse. I don’t want to be able to help him - but only when it’s too late and he’s gone. He’s already at the point where he can only walk normally maybe 25% of the time. Please help me get Quentin diagnosed.