Help Ryder get life-saving veterinary care

Meet Ryder.  He is an 11 year old Vizsla.  Ryder loves to hunt squirrels in his back yard, snuggle under thick blankets in his warm bed, and generally enjoy his life of luxury worry-free.

Ryder's story took a sharp downturn June 2019 when he ventured down to Charleston, SC for a photoshoot.  While there, he contracted an illness overnight that would change his, and our lives forever.

March 09, 2019

June 24, 2019

The Photoshoot

Ryder was chosen to model for a photoshoot in Charleston and so me and my wife booked an airbnb, loaded the car with blankets and headed South on I-95.  Ryder had made the journey from Raleigh, NC a few times previously for moving and visiting so he was used to the road.

After arriving, Ryder and I chilled out in the airbnb room and watched TV.  He ate his normal dinner at 6pm Sunday, June 16th before we went out for pizza at a local restaurant with an old friend.

June 16, 2019

Back at the room that night, Ryder tucked in to bed between my wife and I, in a strange room yet perfectly at home.

At 1:30am we were awakened when Ryder woke up to hurl his undigested food from dinner off the foot of the bed.  We kept a watchful eye on him as we cleaned up the mess.  Afterward he seemed normal so we tried to go back to sleep before the big day Monday.  But he wasn't able to get comfortable so fearing the worst, we rushed him to the emergency hospital at 3:30am.

After xrays and a check up, the doctor confirmed that his health was fine and his stomach was in a good position.  No bloat.  Ryder received an anti-nausea shot and was sent home with a clean bill of health.

June 17, 2019

He rested well that morning as we packed up our belongings and loaded the car.  Off to the photoshoot.  Once we arrived at the old abandoned warehouse the photographer had selected, Ryder began to drool heavily and hurled as soon as he got out of the car, leaving a puddle of yellow bile on the driveway.

Not half an hour later he hurled again, this time nothing but thick bile with the vile stench of rotten flesh.  We knew something was very wrong and called off the remainder of the photoshoot.  I lifted him into the car and placed him in his bed for the trip back home.

Every thirty minutes during the 4 hour drive back to Raleigh he was regurgitating bile in the back of the car.  I drove as fast as I safely could as I changed course from home to the Veterinary Specialty Hospital (VSH) in Cary, NC.  Ryder needed urgent medical attention.

Once we arrived he was so weak he couldn't even walk on his own.  I carried him in and set him on the examination table.  The nurse took his vitals and immediately carried him into the ER/ICU which would be his home for the next two weeks.

The Hospital

The doctors ran the gamut of diagnostic tests, checks and xrays in an attempt to find out why his gastrointestinal tract had stalled out.  Bile would uncontrollably pool in his stomach until it could no longer be contained and involuntarily regurgitated.

Two days into his treatment he regurgitated while laying down and breathed it in, causing secondary aspiration pneumonia on top of the GI issue.

June 24 2019

A nasogastric (NG) tube was inserted to his stomach and stitched to his head so the doctors could drain the accumulated fluids and replace them with small amounts of liquid nutrients at regular intervals to try to get his digestive system moving.

He was put on oxygen to help ease his labored breathing as they continued to try to find out what caused all of this.

Another day during his treatment, he was scheduled for a throat swab for a bacteria culture test but during the swab he had another aspiration event leading to double pneumonia.

June 23 2019

He had shown signs of improvement Monday the 24th and was scheduled to be released Wednesday.  Within one hour of them telling us of his impending release, we received another phone call saying his condition had relapsed and he was regurgitating bile again.

We scheduled an endoscopy to try to find more answers and replaced his NG tube with a G tube for easier feeding and draining of his stomach.  The endoscopy did not find anything more than intense inflammation throughout his GI tract.  He can recover from this, he just needs more time and medical support to heal.

June 29, 2019

Ryder has tested negative for 20-30 different diseases and we have ruled out Addison's, pancreatitis, Chron's, Cushing's, and many more.

He has been in the hospital now for two weeks.  The cause is still unknown but his gastritis is bacterial and though it was nearly fatal it appears he is going to pull through.  He has improved once again and his digestive system is showing motility.  He simply needs more time for his body to heal.

We are hoping to bring him home in the next few days as long as his condition continues to improve.

The Request

During his first week in the hospital, we feared the worst for our pup.  He was struggling to breathe or walk, showing no interest in food and barely mustering a tail wag when we would visit him, a far cry from his usual wiggly energetic self.  We told the doctors to do whatever it took - a costly decision I do not regret.  He is our world.

I work in construction and my wife works retail.  As soon as we saw how expensive this was going to be, she started to pick up extra shifts and I got a part time job in the evenings in addition to my demanding construction job working 60 hours for a total of 84 hours a week trying to make ends meet.  I am stretched so thin right now I don't even have time to mow the grass.

We need help.  We are extremely grateful for every dollar donated.  If you can only give one dollar that's an extra dollar towards Ryder's medical care.  Even if you can't give at all, please share this in the hopes that a kind generous soul might see it and help.

And if you can't give or share, thank you for at least taking the time to read Ryder's story.

June 30, 2019