Support Clark's Emergency Surgery Fund

UPDATE: Clark's mass was benign!!! ❤️❤️❤️ The surgery truly saved his life and hopefully will give him many more years with those sweet eyes and derpy tongue.

I also want to thank everyone who has contributed so far. (I'm trying to reach out to each of you individually to thank you.)

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Clark, along with his brother, was adopted out by a rescue several years ago. The rescue is now defunct, but when their owner called the head of the former rescue to say she needed to return the dogs because she was having a baby, she immediately took them both in. I agreed to foster the two while she was looking for a new home for them, but there isn’t a huge demand for 11 year old, bonded chihuahuas, so they have been hanging with me.

Fast forward to last month. Clark wasn’t his normal self and needed an urgent vet appointment. None of the regular clinics I frequent could take him in that day. However, a place I use very infrequently could squeeze him in.

The lab and imaging results were not good. His blood counts were way off, his kidney values were concerning, he showed signs of pancreatitis and a very large mass in his spleen that was hemorrhaging. The vet told me there was nothing she could do and gave him days, at most, a week, to live. I walked out of there with a bag of fluids. I would use the gabapentin that I use on another dog of mine. The bill for an urgent visit, blood work, imaging and fluids came to $1300.

That night I gave him fluids. The next days he bounced back. He was ravenously hungry. I knew this boy was not in any way ready to cross the bridge. I ordered Yunnan baiyao, a Chinese herbal concoction that is used by many veterinarians and doctors to stop bleeding, especially internal bleeding, and put him on Hills K/D (thank you, Lynda, for the food).

I waited a couple of weeks for him to respond and get stronger. However, I knew that this boy was still in need of veterinary treatment. Jayne recommended Northern Pike Veterinary Hospital.

They took him in right away on Friday afternoon. Thanks to the treatment he got, his blood work was all within or very close to normal. No kidney disease. No pancreatitis. Just the mass in his spleen that could rupture at any minute. Dr. Tyler said that Clark needed emergency surgery, but that he was a great candidate for surgery.

If you know me, I really don’t go through extreme measure for dogs with cancer, but Dr. Tyler and the literature say that there is a 33% chance that the mass is benign. With surgery, he could live a normal life. The chance of it being an aggressive cancer is less than 50%. I had to make an immediate decision and opted for surgery. Clark breezed through surgery and is now back home with me and we are waiting for the biopsy results. Dr. Tyler said that he is the toughest dog he’s seen post-splenectomy. Clark's bill from NP was less than $2500. (And a huge shout out to Dr. Tyler and Dr. Judy. They were amazing.)

But this dog is not mine – hence, the reason for this appeal. The rescue no longer exists so the usual fundraising channels aren’t available. The former head of the rescue just had a lot of vet bills for her own senior dogs, plus Clark isn’t her personal dog either. So I am reaching out to asking for help to cover Clark's vet bills. We always talk about how rescues must always take responsibility for their placements. But that promise becomes very difficult when there is a medical emergency. His total bill is about $3800.

Clark is one tough and adorable dude who is determined to hang in there, no matter what! Any help would be appreciated!!!

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