Support Poppy's Fight for Health and Recovery

Just a quick update on Poppy

Our 8 year old pug, Poppy, is finally back home after a long week in the urgent care and then at the hospital.

Her episodes have stopped. She is back to breathing normally. And slowly, but surely, she is getting her bearings back.

Currently, she is on a ton of medications (7 meds), which is meant to help her get healthy enough for a procedure.

Just as an fyi--we have never turned to or used a gofundme, but all this caught us off guard a bit. As pet owners, we have put aside funds for pet emergencies. But as one can probably imagine, things are adding up quickly (between urgent care visits, hospital stays, follow-ups, imaging, and procedure), beyond what we have saved.

We appreciate all kind words and/or any support in the meantime that we catch up on things. In the future, we hope to be able to return the favor.

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Hello friends, family, and fellow animal lovers.

Some of you know Poppy personally. Some of you know her through our social media. And some of you will get to know a little about her through this post and the photos attached (fyi: we decided not to post any photos of her from the hospital because they are disturbing).

Poppy, our sweet girl and companion, recently fell ill on Saturday (August 10th). She is currently receiving treatment in the critical care unit. We noticed that Poppy's behavior and mood began to change on Saturday, and have since taken her to the primary care vet, urgent care, and now her current place of treatment, the emergency hospital.

What we thought was an issue with tooth pain, evolved into lethargic behavior and then transformed into what appeared as seizures (the first lasting 1 minute, the second lasting 7 minutes). We rushed her to the emergency hospital last night (August 14th), and the doctors explained that she is experiencing intense vestibular episodes (rapid and unusual eye movement and loss of body control). They also explained that she needed immediate treatment because of potential life threatening risks (infection traveling from her inner ear to her brain stem). So, we agreed with the doctors to have her stay overnight for treatment.

The plan was to get Poppy imaging scans first thing in the morning in order to get a diagnoses for a treatment plan/surgery. However, the doctor called us this morning (August 15th) to inform us that Poppy is having trouble breathing. This is preventing them from being able to safely provide Poppy with anesthesia to both run the imaging scans and/or to perform necessary procedures or surgery. She is under intensive pain, anti-biotic, and anti-inflammatory treatment to reduce the inflammation in her ear. We were able to visit with Poppy today and were informed that if she did not respond to the aggressive treatment (anti-biotics/anti-inflammatory/oxygen) we would have to weigh our "options." We are choosing the option of continuing treatment.

We are committed to getting Poppy the treatment she needs to get better. The hospital is doing what they can to make Poppy healthy enough to get a diagnosis and have surgery next week. As you can imagine, things are adding up quickly, beyond what we can afford on our own unexpectedly. So far, we have paid already just over $5k upfront. But this is on the low end, and does not include final costs of her stay, CT/MRI imaging, or procedure/surgery next week, which is why we have resorted to creating a GoFundMe account. The costs will continue to accumulate and we are doing our best to keep up, but unfortunately, we do not have unlimited funds. Without continued care, Poppy will not have a chance to come home to us again.

We are doing everything we can to get Poppy better and healthy. We are humbly asking for help till we can basically catch up on being able to provide for her once again. Every dollar makes a difference. All funds will go directly to Poppy's medical care--CT/MRI imaging, continued treatment, and procedure/surgery next week--and we will provide updates and receipts along the way. We thank everyone, from the bottom of our hearts, for reading this post and consideration.

Garcia Family