Rescue Warriors: Fight for Harley

My family has been going through some pretty rough patches lately. We were searching for a missing piece to bring us joy and bring us closer together during trying times. It has been a year since we lost Taz, and the longing to know just how loyal Bear would have grown to be was so very fresh. We searched around with guarded hesitation.

Until he stopped at her cage at the S. Animal Care Center just over a month ago.

She came in as a stray. She was in her cage for a month. She was only four years old.

It was the grandest month and we were all so over the moon. She is loyal to a fault. Has no idea that she weighed 80 pounds. Accepted treats, sweet as can be. She was the most beautiful reset to the way we approach our lives.

Until last Thursday. She threw up 4 cups of food. We feared it was a side effect to medicine she was taking for bronchitis.

Most of you who know my in-laws, know that they would go to the ends of the Earth for any furry creature. Alright, the hairless ones too. They spend their weekends and every waking moment they are able, transporting rescued dogs and dogs in danger of euthanasia. This situation was no different, and they immediately stepped in and were willing to support us financially in this fight to save Harley‘s life.

Without them, she would have lost her fight on Thursday last week. Because of them, she has been given a fighting chance, at the very best veterinary hospital in the state of Florida.

We will spend the next decade working to repay them every last cent. A burden this steep was nothing anyone was ready for, so we appreciate your support in helping us to jumpstart the effort of alleviating this burden on them. Between two veterinary offices and then bringing her all the way to Gainesville to the University of Florida Small Animal Hospital, this fight has reached $17,000.

Below is a timed list of updates I was providing to family over the last several days that better explain her current critical condition.

5/30, 10:41 AM:

Threw up entire food bowl yesterday morning, last night and this morning very lethargic, David tried to pick her up and put her on the bed and she cried in pain, laid in the bathroom all night. She’s been on meds for bronchitis for a week, wondering if she’s having a reaction to the meds. He is at the vet with her now.

5/30, 12:23 PM:

Her stomach is the size of a dog that ate three full food bowls. She gets 4 cups of food a day (decreased to 3.5 last week when the vet said she was losing the definition in her hips.) doesn’t look like it is related to the medicine she is on now for bronchitis. They think she has an obstruction, but regular X-rays came back clear. She’s is by our side 24/7, so no freaking clue how she could have gotten a hold of anything at all. They are going to keep her until the end of the day and do a barium test with X-rays to see if they can highlight any blockage area, $1,500 later. If not positive news that can resolve on its own, emergency vet for surgery.

5/30, 4:26 PM:

Barium hasn’t moved in 2 hours and is supposed to be in intestines in 30 minutes, they said to take her to emergency

5/30, 8:19 PM:

They are keeping her overnight and pumping her with fluids all night long hoping it will pass on its own, if not, they will call us in the morning when they do an ultrasound and then surgery and will keep her for a couple days.

5/31, 7:50 AM:

She is comfortable and they were able to press on her stomach without much discomfort. They did ultrasound and all the barium is still in her stomach so she does need surgery. They will call us when they start and finish. There was fluid in her abdomen which could just be a result of inflammation and hopefully not a perforation. She said based on her vital signs it was unlikely because she would have sepsis symptoms very quickly if that were the case. In older dogs it could be a result of a mass, but they were confident it was not based on her age and just wanted to lay out all the scenarios. Keep you updated.

5/31, 1:04 PM:

Proceeding with surgery now. They tried doing an endoscopy first. There is no blockage, no foreign body, there are ulcers in her stomach, and the barium is still in there. They are concerned there is a perforation in her stomach because of the fluid they saw earlier in her abdomen, now that they have done the endoscopy, there is now air in her abdomen as well. They will explore and repair the hole or determine what they need to do once they get in there.

5/31, 4:56 PM:

Well shit isn’t good. She has two perforations, one in small intestine and one in her stomach near where the previous owners had it tacked to prevent bloat. They tried to close up the small intestine one and the one in stomach is right where bile is funnelling so it is very difficult to close. All most likely made worse because we had her on prednisone for the bronchitis which aggravated it. They did the best they could and said they could put a drain in and see how much fluid continues to leak over a few days, and hope that her body heals itself, but nothing is certain that she would recover and not become septic from the leaking fluid. Or we can take her to UF Small Animal Hospital in Gainesville. Steven is going to take the kids and we are going to pick her up and take her to Gainesville soon. Previous owners had to have known all these issues and thought leaving her out on the street was easier.

6/1, 12:40 AM:

They are stabilizing her now and then we will meet with the doctors. The drain was nearly full by the time we got here. Only had to pull over once, thank God.

6/1, 11:58 AM:

Harley update, she is doing well, much better now that she has pain meds again. They did a short ultrasound and couldn’t see much due to all the gas that typically gets in there when a surgery is performed. They are going to give her a blood transfusion because her platelets are a little low. They are also going to do a culture today of the fluid that is draining and will call us later this evening with an update on that. They are going to do a full ultrasound tomorrow in the hopes that they can see more.

6/2, 11:43 AM:

They just called, she is regurgitating a lot so they will do a chest xray to make sure none of that has gone into her lungs. She is stable and not much change since yesterday other than that. She is in ultrasound now, and that’s will be what guides the next steps.

6/2, 4:43 PM: So the vet did not see a whole lot of fluid leaking from the surgery that the ER vet performed. They are contacting them to see what exactly they did during surgery to gauge whether a second surgery would be necessary. They want to be sure that they identify the root cause. They are going to talk to the soft tissue surgery team to get their recommendations as well. She does have fluid in her lungs from regurgitating and they are putting her on a medication that should help that and make her more comfortable. They will most likely call with one more update today and then again tomorrow.

6/2, 6:20 PM:

Well just got off the phone and they said they recommend surgery.

They could do another endoscopy, but they are pretty confident in something needing repair based on her regurgitating so much.

They tested the fluid coming from her drain, and there wasn’t any bacteria, but they said her body could be overcompensating and masking the signs in her lab results.

Basically three different scenarios with surgery, could just be further repair needed to the ulcers, may need to connect her stomach directly to her intestines again and remove a bad portion in between. Worst case, they need to remove a large portion of her intestine and in this case, they normally recommend euthanasia because of how taxing it is for the dog and long term quality of life. They have her in ICU tonight to ensure 24/7 monitoring.

They’ll transfer her case to the surgery team and they will be in constant contact with us going forward.

6/3, 9:43 AM: Surgery will begin between 2-3pm today. She was optimistic.

6/3, 6:01 PM:

Basically it is 50/50 whether she will make it or not. It went well. The doctor did everything they could to remove the tissue obstructions, they did not have to take out any of her intestine. She had pancreatitis as well. Everything was very inflamed and irritated. Before the surgery her vital signs weren’t great, during surgery/after they showed improvement, but it is all just a matter of how she reacts to the antibiotics and if she can fight through it all and heal. Right now she is critical and tonight will be crucial to seeing if she can recover. She wants us to come visit because if she didn’t ask us to and something happened she wouldn’t forgive herself. She said she thought we could wait til morning but I don’t want to.