If you know Nate or I you know or have heard of Benny. Benny is our sweet almost 3 year old Australian shepherd who has brought us more joy than we could have ever imagine and we never realized how much we’d need him when we got him. We never even planned to get another dog because we had my older dog who we love so much, Stella. My brother and sister in law were looking at getting a puppy from the breeder I got Stella and what in the moment I thought was FOMO, lead me to first seeing our Benny. He was temporarily going by the name “Fabio” and I was in LOVE. I remember sending the post to Nate and him saying no. A couple weeks later I decided to look and saw that Benny was still available. I wasted no time and messaged my breeder and put down my deposit THEN told Nate lol. What seemed impulsive and an act of FOMO seems in retrospect like a gift that was sent for me before I entered the hardest season of my life. We got Benny on September 14, 2021 and my very best friend passed on October 2, 2021. The past two and a half years Benny has been exactly the secret recipe to help me heal.

Almost a week and a half ago Benny became super picky about what he was eating. This dog would cry on your chest for breakfast and dinner and all of a sudden he wanted nothing to do with it. Odd but of course Dr. Google says that it can just be anxiety if not accompanied with other symptoms, he got in a little tiff with our other dog the day before so we thought that made sense. A couple days later he vomited while still being picky about eating. We took him to the emergency vet on Tuesday in West Springfield. We sat there for 5.5 hours while we watched animal after animal come in and leave. I get it is an emergency vet and our dog didn’t look as sick but in hindsight it makes me furious. We never got seen before I finally said this is ridiculous and we left. We got Benny in at our regular vet and she was truly stumped based off of symptoms so she drew blood and we got the results back Friday. One of his liver enzymes the ALT was almost 1200. To put in perspective a high ALT that is a cause for concern is anywhere between 30-100 and his was over 10x as high. Our vet said she hasn’t seen a result this high in her entire 40+ year career. She prescribed some antibiotics and suggested we consult a specialist to get an ultrasound of the liver. The night of the results Ben was starting to decline. He was extra lethargic and he puked more than he had and just was not doing well. After calling area ER vets none were able to do an ultrasound until the next morning. So Saturday we brought him to the VCA Vet Specialists in West Hartford. The vet on duty was very concerned and that we really needed to leave him there to be monitored 24/7. The initial quote for this was $6-7k. Benny has been the ICU while they continue to figure out WHAT is happening and why and how to fix it. The initial quote did not include keeping him another night and everything that comes with it so it is going to increase dramatically. We are looking for any help on getting our boy home and figuring out what is wrong with him. Please keep our sweet boy in your prayers.