Hello,

My name is Samantha, Sassy Pants' momma. For those of you who do not know, Sassy is an English Bulldog and she's our little baby. She has the best personality and always brings smiles to everyone's faces. She loves to give paw and kisses but absolutely hates going for walks. Nature is not her best friend lol. Now, we are not ones to normally ask for help, but we are putting our pride to the side and reaching out to anyone who is in the position to assist in any way they can. Whether that be a donation or even just sharing with your friends and family. This has been a crazy week and it's all catching up to us pretty fast.

On Saturday May 3rd, Sassy was presenting with blindness. She was bumping into everything at home and missing steps. We called her primary vet to get the earliest appointment we could, which was Tuesday May 6th. We were making her as comfortable as we could and helped her navigate around the house and outside.

On Sunday May 4th, she was still having trouble, and we were getting nervous that waiting until Tuesday would be too long and cause bigger issues, so we rushed her into VSC Bannockburn to get her looked at right away. They ran some tests and thought that she was suffering from acute blindness. But that wasn't all they found. Sassy has had a rough life of fighting off pneumonia more times than any animal or even human should. She also suffers from severe environmental allergies and dry eye in both eyes. Her primary vet has had these under control for a long time, or so we thought. The ER was able to determine that Sassy would most likely require ear surgery due to her ear canals closing from ear infections. They recommended we see an eye doctor and a surgeon to have her eyes and ears checked ASAP. So, we started what turned into a weeklong process.

Monday May 5th, the eye specialist was able to get her in same day to take a look at her eyes. They determined that she was not blind (thank goodness) but that she had a severe case of dry eye going on. The eye meds that she has been on for a few years was no longer strong enough, so they prescribed her two new ointments for her eyes that she requires 3 times a day for the rest of her life. This was the best news for us, our baby girl was not blind. Her eyes have since cleared up just after being on the meds after 2 days.

Tuesday May 6th, Sassy had her appointment with the surgeon who was looking more into her ears. The surgeon needed to do an ultrasound on her abdomen as well as a CT scan on her head so she can get a better view of everything that was going on, this mean that Sassy had to be put under anesthesia, which is risky with an English Bulldog, let alone one who has had chronic episodes of pneumonia throughout her life. The determination was not good. Sassy requires a TECA (Total Ear Canal Ablation) procedure. This is a surgical procedure to remove the entire ear canal, which means she will need to be put under again and they would go in and scrape the infections on of her ears and remove the ear canals and sew the ear shut, which in result she would be deaf. We decided we wanted to think over it for a few days because it's a big risk putting her under as well as the possible complication during and after surgery.

Wednesday May 7th, Sassy was having issues breathing most of the night throughout the day. She would have these rough coughing fits which in return was making it harder for her to breathe. Around 4:30pm I decided it was time to get her back into the ER to be checked as I was afraid her throat was swelling too much from the intubation the day prior (from the CT Scan). The ER agreed she was not breathing very well and prescribed her some meds to help with the swelling, the GI tract so she doesn't throw up and the coughing fits.

Thursday May 8th, Sassy had a dermatology appointment to get a second opinion on her ears in case there was any possible way to avoid surgery. We were also getting this bald spot on her side checked out. The dermatologist advised that the infection she had in her ears that caused her ear canals to close spread through her skin and paws. They also confirmed our two options for her ears. Option 1 was to manage her discomfort/pain until we can't anymore and have to make the decision to let her go. The risk of this is an abscess forming in her ear and rupturing and either causing facial paralysis or it leaking into her brain causing seizures. Our second option was to move forward with the TECA surgery. They were able to get her back onto some allergy meds to help keep her comfortable for now so she's not itching.

Friday May 9th, Sassy had another rough night of breathing and coughing. Around 7am i made the decision to bring her back to the ER because her coughing was making me even more concerned and she had no appetite and didn't even want water. The ER took her in right away and after some xrays it was determined that sassy had a severe case of bilateral pneumonia. They ended up keeping her in the ICU overnight in an oxygen chamber to help her breathe better and monitor fluids and meds through IV.

Saturday May 10th, Sassy was still in the ICU. They were able to reduce her oxygen from 50% to 40% but she still did not want to eat or drink. They were going to continue to monitor her and provide her with the necessary meds. We got a call later that night that they were able to drop her oxygen from 40% to 30% and the next step was room air, which is 20%. The goal was for her to get off oxygen in the middle of the night.

Sunday May 11th, Sassy was brought out of the oxygen chamber throughout the night and was breathing in room air. We thought with that update and the fact that she was starting to eat and drink water that we would be able to bring her home, however, her breathing was still not where she should have been. I was able to go up there and visit her and give her loves but we had to leave her for at least one more day to get some more meds in her to help reduce the pneumonia.

What we thought was going to be a smaller ER bill has turned into a huge ICU bill. We do have insurance on Sassy and at this time we do not know what they are going to cover. We are reaching out for help on our portion of the bill in the even that her insurance covers their 80%. Right now, I owe a little over $4,000 on my care credit card and had to put $1,096.24 on a different card. The appointment for Tuesdays visit with the CT Scan was $3,479.05. We don't have the invoice for the ICU visit yet since she's still there, however, our estimate is between $11,000 and $14,000. If we only have to pay the low end for the ICU our grand total would be roughly $19,000. If her insurance covers their 80%, we are responsible for $3,800 plus her $1,000 deductible.

We appreciate every share and donation.