Well, it’s Monday September 29, 2025 and I never thought in a million years that on Sept 19 when we rehomed/adopted Bross, a 3.5 year old European Doberman, who is the sweetest and most gentle soul who is also the definition of “Velcro dog” would also come into our home with a KONG in him since August 23, 2025 …

We have two greats Danes, Olive and Shea and we’re looking forward to a weekend of integrating Bross into our family with pack walks, solo play and bonding overall with him. On Saturday September 20, Bross “is exploding” as I screamed out. We have never seen so much vomit come out of a doggy. When we awoke Sunday September 21, Sir Bross did not want to eat and was very lethargic. Bross also started throwing up water which we knew was a red flag.

That afternoon we decided to take him to the emergency hospital. We had been in communication with our vet and he guided us on what to do at emerg and to bring Bross in first thing Monday September 22 morning.

Little did we know, there would be a KONG toy in his small intestine, his duodenum specifically, that it would have been there for 4 weeks and cause his small intestine to perforate (tear open) leak intestinal fluid into his abdomen and be on the verge of sepsis and extreme dehydration (4L dehydrated - he weighed 88.88lbs) and have to have 10cm of his small intestine cut out / removed because it was necrotic (dead).

We chose to do whatever it takes and our vet Dr Matt at Oak Park Pet Hospital got to work. Bross has been admitted everyday since Monday September 22 for the day and we have been doing his at home over night care then bringing him back for the day to receive IV antibiotics, IV fluids and to monitor his pain as well as the anastomosis (attachment of the small intestine) to ensure it stays together and doesn’t separate/be rejected.

As a family, we have put everything we can into his healing from hourly water feedings, overnight to feedings every 3 hours, to emptying the drain he had to help flush all of the fluid from surgery bc his entire abdomen was infected, to converting my office space to his healing room by bringing our spare bedroom mattress into it so Bross does not have to go up and down any stairs and we can lay with him and make sure he doesn’t feel alone.

Right now, Bross is 7 days post surgery and his appetite is on and off, his lower abdomen is not draining fluid from surgery and the month long KONG that sat in his belly, and he is still slightly dehydrated even though we are giving him 2 cups of water hourly (including overnights).

Our vet team needs to determine why his body is not adsorbing that fluid which means potentially a second surgery which we will do because we believe he is a fighter and at the same time never imagined this is how our newest addition would be added to our pack.

as of Monday September 29, we have learned that the damage from the KONG, the perforation and the extent of surgery has caused peritonitis, inflammation of his abdominal lining, so extensive that he had 7 LITRES of fluid drained from his abdomen and is now looking at a 50/50 chance of making a full recovery of the peritonitis.

With Blood Plasma transfusions and whole blood transfusions as the next step, we are praying and showering Sir Brossy Bear in love, round the clock care and as much tenderness as his soul needs to know there is a magical life on the other side of all of this that we can’t wait to give him.

Currently, we are sitting at $7,400 in vet bills, which we have paid and will continue to pay to get Bross healthy, strong and on the other side of all of this because we love our dogs and want him to experience that love, lifestyle and what it feels like for our lives to revolve around our doggy babies!

Brossy Bear’s daddy said all we need is healing energy and thoughts for Bross because we never considered a gofundme, but the amount of people following his journey and asking for a place to support us financially and requested us to start a gofundme has blown us away.

We are not asking for a lot but whatever you feel you can give to support Bross and his recovery means the world to us.

We are holding onto the small wins we have seen over this week like pack walks together, the three of our babies sitting together, Brossy Bears personality coming out and that is what is keeping us going.

We are deeply grateful for every single person who has prayed for us, sent us healing energy, sending me prayers for Bross so I can read them all to him while he sleeps and everyone who has dropped off food, groceries, brought meals to sit and eat with us, friends popping over to stay with our girls every night when we go pick Bross back up for the night!

Thank you for your support, your prayers, your healing energy, and keeping us at the front of your mind, we are deeply grateful <3