Support Ruby's Critical Medical Care

UPDATE 3.0 - We went to the internal medicine vet and found out that Ruby has a serious gallbladder infection. We are now doing six weeks of antibiotics to hopefully avoid a surgery.

UPDATE 2.0: We got some not so great news this morning about Ruby at the vet. Her white blood cells are sky rocketing and she is quite anemic, which is quite scary and we're basically back to square one.

We have been referred to the Animal Emergency Hospital to see an Internal Medicine Doctor because her vets have decided that we need more options for her care. We have an appointment on Monday (4/28) to hopefully get some answers and a new care plan for our girl Ruby.

With this next step in seeing a specialist, we are going to be facing some really big financial decisions. We are so grateful to everyone who has helped us with the costs so far - it really means the world to have so many people in our corner.

We will update with any news that we get!

__________

(old) UPDATE: We got a diagnosis!!

Immune Mediated Leukopenia - It’s an extremely rare disease, but we got her in early enough that they were able to help her and get her the medical care she needed. The vet has only seen 1 case in the last 15 years. The team over at Clarke Animal Hospital have been so incredible and we cant thank them enough for how compassionate they have been through all of this.

Ruby will be on steroids and have vet appointments every few weeks for next few months (6+ months) to monitor her blood cell count/overall health. Her chance of her relapsing over the next year are 40%, so we've got lots of vet appointments ahead of us.

But for now we are getting icecream and celebrating that she is on the mend.

Thank you SO much to everyone for all of the support, love, and care over the last few days! We are so grateful to all of you!

_______________

On the morning of 3/14, we noticed Ruby wasn't her normal self. She was lethargic, drooling, hot, and unable to eat. If you know Ruby, you know that this is NOTHING like who she is (she is the queen of snacks). We rushed Ruby to the vet at 8:30am and were greeted by the kindest folks ready to take care of Ruby.

They quickly realized Ruby's temperature was sitting at 106 degrees, which is not compatible with life if untreated. They immediately gave her an IV for fluids, and got her into a cooling room to try and regulate her extremely high body temperature. Within an hour, her temperature got down to 103/104, and they were able to start doing a variety of other tests. They did every single test under the sun to try and get us answers.

Through a CBC test, they found out that Ruby's white blood count is nearly 0 - which is extremely dangerous and a sign that something is really really wrong.

After ruling out tick borne illnesses, and after doing an X-ray and Ultrasound to rule out tumors, they came up with 2 possible solutions for us:

1. Ruby is having an autoimmune attack that vets don't fully understand the cause of.

2. Ruby has some sort of cancer (Lymphoma or Leukemia).

The vet sent us home with a 48 hour medicine regiment. We are required to take her temperature 3 times a day to ensure that her temp does not exceed its current 104 degrees. If it goes up to 105, we have to go back to the emergency room.

We are closely monitoring her this weekend, and she has another platelet test on Monday. If she shows improvement in her white blood count on Monday, then we are able to rule our cancer. She has a 50/50 chance of making it that far, and we want to do everything we can to give her a fighting chance.

If her white blood count comes back and hasn't improved, she most likely has cancer and will not recover.

On 3/14, we spent $1200 for the initial vet visit, with the understanding that a possible return trip to the emergency vet and follow up appointments, will easily add on.

If you've met Ruby, and know her story, you know just how special she is to everyone she meets. We love her and we just want to give her the best chance possible.