Help save our Roxie!

Hi, we are the Leverett family and unfortunately our little miniature schnauzer “Roxie” was taken ill last Saturday 13th July and admitted into hospital. She had started to vomit and pass diarrhoea but this was very few and far between. We starved her for 24hrs and she was sick again and continuing the diarrhoea. After a consultation (provided by our insurance company) they recommended we get her some gastro food from our local vet and to slowly introduce it throughout Thursday giving her little and often. She took the food well but was still having diarrhoea. I had a follow up consultation on Friday evening who recommended we take her to the vets to be assessed. This was booked for Saturday morning at our local vets. In the early hours of Saturday morning, I woke up to vomit and blood all in my living room. She went into the garden and I saw that she was passing blood out of her bottom. I contacted an emergency vet and had an emergency consultation immediately. The vet examined her, checked her stomach and temperature along with her heart rate. She vomited and passed blood quite a few times whilst she was seeing the vet. We were told that there was no need to be concerned and some drugs would be administered. She was given 3 injections (a painkiller, an anti inflammatory and an anti sickness) , some probiotic paste to replace the good bacteria she was losing through her bottom, some liquid food, a further 2 anti sickness tablets and some liquid paracetamol. Unfortunately, Roxie deteriorated during the day and became a little lethargic and was continuing to vomit and pass the blood. We immediately took her back to the vets who admitted her Saturday afternoon. They ran blood tests and did an ultrasound which detected gastrointestinal issues and pancreatitis. Roxie was put on intravenous fluids and treatment for her condition. By Sunday morning, we received a call to say she had become even more lethargic, regurgitating all the time, not responding to treatment and completely refusing any food. Her last meal by this point was given to her by us on Thursday. They suggested we visit to help lift her spirits and take some food in for her, which we did. She looked poorly when we saw her and didn’t seem bothered when we were there. Roxie completely refused to eat any food from us and just sat there. We spent some time with her and offered her lots of cuddles. We had a discussion about testing for addison's disease, inserting a feeding tube, flushing out her stomach and repeating the ultrasound to double check that they’d not missed anything. The feeding tube was inserted under anaesthetic on Monday and we were informed the procedure went well. The blood came back normal for Addison's disease and the ultrasound didn’t show anything different. On Tuesday, we were told how poorly and lethargic she was still and that she is a very sick dog. She’s continually regurgitating and has a pain score around her stomach of around 8/9. We visited her again and she looked extremely unwell. The vet suggested they perform a CT scan again under anaesthetic to completely check everything and make sure there were no intestinal blockages or masses. The results confirmed gastrointestinal inflammation, pancreatitis, an inflamed bladder, suspected esophagitis, aspiration pneumonia and that the tube placement was wrong. On Wednesday, they corrected the tube placement and she was started on a course of antibiotics and a stomach treatment to help everything get moving again as it had completely stopped. We asked them to get a second opinion regarding her diagnoses and treatment which they did via their in house specialist. They agreed on the treatment plan for Roxie but suggested they add in another treatment for lining her stomach and a second antibiotic. These are being started today. A type of steroid has been mentioned but due to Roxie having possible ulcers in her oesophagus/stomach (esophagitis) she would need a test to check for this before she could have it which their technology isn’t capable of. Roxie is having a further blood test today to check her Lactate level, red blood cell volume, electrolytes and that there’s no sepsis. A urine sample has shown possible signs of bacteria which will be treated with her current antibiotics.

We have been advised to seek a specialist for Roxie now as she is a complicated case and they’ve nearly exhausted all the options to make her better.

As you can imagine, this is a terrible time for our family and Roxie is only 4 years old. We want to do everything in our power to try and get our little girl better again. We have pet insurance but we are so close to maximising our limit of £10,000 and we know how expensive it’s going to be to get her specialist private care. We have savings we will be using but it’s nowhere near enough to cover the total cost.

We have used go fund me pages before to help other people in need and we are really hoping we can get some help now we need it. I hate to ask but please if you can donate anything to try and help us get all the help we can for Roxie we will be so grateful. She needs to come home to her mummy, daddy, her 2 brothers, Charlie and Zachary and her Auntie Layla (also a miniature schnauzer)

Any money we have left over we will ensure is gifted back to a charitable cause.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read all about Roxie, she is so young and so special. We just want her well again.