February 7, 2025

Puma lost his fight to an ugly disease.

His family said their final goodbyes today at 1:45 p.m. Because of everyones generous donations Puma got to spend the last 24 hours of his life at peace with his family at home with his fur-siblings, human siblings and his Mom, Iris, who has adored and loved Puma from the moment she saw him. Puma was the luckiest little guy. Puma was loved by so many, everyone knew Puma. ❤️

February 6, 2025

Puma was expected to come home today. Iris was anxiously waiting for the phone call that he was ready for pick up. Unfortunately the phone call she got was not the one she expected. Puma had been very quiet the evening prior which was odd because he had been upbeat and happy. Over night tests were run because Puma started to decline. To everyone's surprise his red blood cells count plummeted to 20. Normal range is 35 and by morning the red cells were clumping together which meant the auto-immune disease peered it's ugly head and is attacking Puma from the inside. There nothing more to do. Puma fought hard to stay with us but unfortunately this disease beat him.

Wednesday Feb 5th 2025

Went to visit Puma and he looked down. He wasn't as happy or interactive as he had been the last few days. I mentioned this to the nurse and expect a call from doctor soon.

Doctor called and said Pumas numbers were looking good and she expected him to come home tomorrow. She said they run more tests over night to see if anything changed and figure out why Puma was being so quiet this evening.

Edit: Treatment has stalled because Puma is refusing to eat. Doctor believes there might be an underlying condition causing him to not eat. They've done numerous tests to find out what's going on but a known cause for his lack of eating hasn't been found. This is making treating him very hard.

Puma Bear is a six-year-old Morkie. He has been with his family since he was 12 weeks old. Puma was the first puppy his family ever had, and they were over the moon in love when he came into their lives. He was a mischievous puppy and got into everything. Over the years, his mom, Iris, has done everything to keep him healthy and safe. She goes without things she needs so Puma can have the best food, healthcare, and the safest home.

In November, Iris decided to have a complete medical workup on Puma because he could not lose weight despite Iris and her family's best efforts. The results showed that Puma was a healthy boy. Nothing stood out, so there was nothing else to do. Iris continued her best efforts to keep Puma healthy.

On January 27th, Puma didn't feel well; he seemed tired and wouldn't eat lunch or dinner. He threw up twice in the evening. On Tuesday, January 28th, Puma woke up feeling worse and threw up several times. Iris rushed him to the vet. She was told he was dehydrated and it was probably a stomach bug. Iris insisted on doing blood work just in case. Puma continued to deteriorate. On January 29th, Iris took him back to the vet because he had muscle weakness and could not walk. His blood work came back, and things went downhill very quickly from there. Diagnostics were done, and his x-rays showed an enlarged liver, pancreas inflammation, and a diabetes diagnosis. It was a shock to Iris and her family because Puma had had a complete workup two months earlier, and everything was fine. Iris was told that without immediate extreme medical intervention, Puma had 48 hours to live.

Distraught and desperate, Iris drained her savings and called on people to see if they could help cover the cost of the specialist hospital Puma needed. She has applied for emergency medical funds from various organizations and has been turned down by all because they do not cover what Puma has. Puma was transferred to critical care on Saturday morning. The doctor told the family that Puma could survive this, but it would be expensive. Without funds, Iris and her family will have to make the difficult decision to euthanize Puma. No one should have to choose to lose a family member because of lack of funds.

Please help Iris and her family get Puma back home. If you know Iris, you know that her pets are her life. She loves and cares for them just like her children. There is nothing she won't do for them. Anything helps. Please don't let this family make the horrible decision to say good-bye to their boy.