Support Finneas' Medical Care

On Thursday morning, September 29, 2022, I had just finished my morning run and let our 11-month-old husky-mix outside. Once inside, I went to get into the shower and opted to leave him out of his crate. Every time we've done this, he lies on the other side of the pet gate, visible from the bathroom door. He’s a clinger, always wanting to be near or on us. This morning wasn't much different. I peeked twice, and both times he was right there, one time chewing on his bone.

I finished my shower and peeked a third time, not more than 5 minutes later. He wasn't there. I quickly dried off and went to the living room. To my immediate horror, I saw Finn lying on the floor, two bottles of my wife's pills spilled in front of him. I can't express how confused and devastated I was as I rushed to pull him away from the pills and called Sam to come out quickly.

Both prescriptions had been picked up two days earlier and were originally still full, tucked away behind other food and stuff on the kitchen counter. We didn’t know he could reach that far. But we knew we could figure out how much he had taken. The first bottle had all pills accounted for. The second bottle, the one that was most concerning was missing 40 pills. He ingested 400mg of baclofen, a muscle relaxant. To put that into perspective, Sam takes 30mg, twice a day. I thought he was going to die.

We quickly called the emergency vet and they gave us instructions which we followed quickly, though both of us were still in shock. We got Finn into the car and rushed him to the emergency vet about 20 minutes away. We could tell not only that he was fading but that he knew something was wrong as well.

Within an hour he was unable to breathe on his own and was put on a ventilator, his whole body paralyzed by the medication. He remained this way for almost two full days, while also having adverse reactions to the treatment that caused stress on his heart and several seizures.

As of now, Saturday morning, October the 1st, he is doing better and stable. His heart is looking better and the seizures have stopped. He is off of the ventilator and breathing on his own. Last we heard he was still unconscious (edit: he has recently gained some consciousness though is still mostly comatose) and dealing with an acute case of pneumonia, which we understand was caught early.

In just two days, the cost for this extensive care far exceeded anything we were prepared to handle. We will upload all invoices and relevant documents summarizing the overall costs. As of 8am on Saturday morning, October 1st, the current overall bill for care is $9,087 with the chance of going higher dependent on his condition. All we ask is for anything, literally anything, you can spare to help us cover the costs for this traumatizing event and to help bring Finn home to us again. In short, that’s all either of us really want at this point.