Charlotte "Charlie" Darwin Barrett is the sweetest of girls. Rescued at 9 as a lumpy sausage, she has been on a health journey for the last 3.5 years, including getting to a healthy weight, surprise surgeries for cancer, and other maladies. And because that journey started so immediately upon her rescue, pet insurance was never really an option.

Now, she's having a very hard time. At the end of May, she started getting unexplained fevers and accompanying pain and lethargy which have been recurring roughly every five days since then. This has resulted in several trips to the ER, two hospitalizations, loads of tests, extra meds, at-home equipment, and we don't really have an end in sight. We know she has a systemic E. Coli infection, though its exact source is unknown, and there's still a possibility that it may not even be the root cause of the fevers -- it might be something else entirely! This journey is not over, but we will do whatever we need to for Charlie to be healthy and happy for as long as we can.

However, all of this has become a large financial burden on us, especially as it's happened so quickly. We have some savings, but at over $10,000 in just the last six weeks, this is getting to be more than we can handle, especially since we don't know how much more is still to come. We don't want to give up on our girl because of money; she deserves better than that. So we're swallowing some pride and asking the internet for help.

We are not trying to fundraise the full cost of Charlie's care -- she's our dog, and she's our responsibility, and we take that seriously. But if you can help, even a little, then we can continue her treatments and get her back to her cheerful, hungry self (we don't starve her; she's just a beagle).

Update: July 7, 2025.

Another rough day for Charlie. It's been roughly six days since her last flare-up, so we're sadly right on schedule. She's got a slight fever so far and that same lethargy/malaise/thousand-yard stare. So far she's still eating and drinking, but only if we bring it to her -- she can't walk across the room to her bowls. We've got her on some meds, and we'll be starting some fluids soon; that usually helps her fight it off.

Her vet also called and thinks that she will benefit from a different antibiotic -- the issue seems to be within a degenerated disk in her spine, so hopefully this new drug will be able to target that more specifically. We may be closer to identifying a root cause and hitting a real solution.

Of course, new meds mean more money, so we cannot thank you enough to all of you who have contributed so far. The whole thing has me very emotional, but your support is far beyond monetary; it's really nice seeing how many people are with Charlie in this fight. Thank you thank you thank you.

Assuming she gets through this one just fine, the next predicted flare is on Friday/Saturday, so hopefully I'll have some no-news-is-good-news good news then.