My sweet Colbie had a huge scare this week. With an array of odd symptoms, including diarrhea, a hot spot, limping, a swollen face and lack of appetite, I took her to an emergency vet. After seeing her, the vet told me she could have mass cell cancer and recommended that she get her blood work done and have a mass on her leg tested. Because she was stable, it was safe for her to come home and could get the blood work done next day at her primary vet. She was slow moving that night, but ate her dinner and was able to go outside multiple times to go potty.

The following morning she wouldn’t move. I tried to hand feed her chicken and she turned her head away. Anyone that knows Colbie will know this is a huge concern. This girl will eat anything and has absolutely no manners when it comes to food. I tried to get her up to go potty, but she wouldn’t budge. I carried her downstairs and into the yard. She sat down and hung her head low and wouldn’t move. I called into work and we immediately took her to back to the emergency vet. They took her back on a stretcher and quickly started vitals. Her blood pressure was dangerously low. They did bloodwork and the vet came in to talk to us. She said that it looked like Colbie more than likely had a mass in her stomach and that she was actively dying. She said we could do x rays and ultrasounds to confirm what she suspected, but that we would be looking at about $2,500 for the testing. She informed us that if it was a mass it would be around another $10,000 for the surgery and most dogs only have about 6 months to live if they’re lucky. She was encouraging us that it would be okay if we decided to put her to sleep. After talking it over we ultimately decided that we couldn’t in good conscious put her to sleep without knowing for sure it was a mass causing all these problems.

It took over 3 hours for us to get any answers. The whole time I’m grieving the loss of my sweet girl. The dog that has been with me the last 13 years during all the crazy ups and downs. My one constant that has been by my side for all these years- my best friend. I was devastated. After those 3 agonizing hours, the vet came in and told us she didn’t have a mass. I couldn’t believe it. There was a chance my girl would be coming home with me. She said she still couldn’t say for sure, but thought Colbie may be dealing with vasculitis and/or possibly anaphylactic shock. Then she broke the news to possibly get Colbie through the night, she would need to stay over night to continue her IV treatment, start antibiotics, medicine for the anaphylactic shock, steroids and a few other treatments. Her blood pressure hadn’t improved much so they needed to work on that as well. This was going to raise the bill to around $4,500. I couldn’t give up on her. I wanted more time to pour the love into her that she deserved. She’s full of life and deserves to be here.

I’m happy to say that she is back home as of tonight. She’s on multiple medications and still trying to get her diarrhea under control. They’re still not positive what happened, but all that matters is she’s still here. The only was it was possible for me to get this treatment is because of the kindness of my amazing boss. He allowed me to put all of this on the store credit card. The problem is, the bill for this credit card is due March 14th and needs to be paid in full. I’m willing to do whatever I need to get this paid. We are working different avenues to make it happen, but if there’s anyway you can help, I cannot tell you how much that would mean. I hate to ask for any of this. I like to handle things on my own, but this is the one time I will ask for help. I understand times are tough for everybody right now and am not expecting it. Anything helps, even if it’s just you sharing this on your page. Thank you for reading this story. Colbie means the world to me and I know she means a lot to many of you too ❤️