We are Stanley and Tatiana, parents of our beloved 10-year-old Labrador Greyhound friend, Sandy.

Sandy is the most beautiful and funniest dog in the world, and we love her very much. She always wants food, loves pillows, is always up for a walk and chases little zaikas and belkas. She is obsessed with playing fetch and words like "dinner," "Chinese," and "walk-a." She sometimes runs in her sleep and has these adorable, judgmental, begging eyes and the softest and shiniest fur ever.

It's been several days since Sandy wasn't herself: limping on both front legs, falling on the floor when jumping off the couch... She has never been the healthiest dog ever; it's been several years she's been suffering from constant diarrhea and occasional vomiting, but a couple of nights ago her father had to urgently rush her to the emergency room. She was so bad she couldn't even walk; he had to carry her to the car. Poor Sandy was quietly crying and shaking inside, and a little before that she had lost interest in water and food and couldn't even go down the stairs. Our hearts were breaking watching her suffer.

At the emergency room, staff started initial triage right away. They drew her blood and did the ultrasound. They didn't want to start any treatment until they understood what was wrong with Sandy and (quite a common thing in the United States) until they collected a payment in advance.

Based on the blood test, doctors confirmed she is having a serious condition - albumin deficiency.

Albumin is a very important protein that keeps fluid from leaking out of the blood vessels and then accumulating in the abdomen or lungs. When there isn’t enough albumin to hold enough water molecules in the blood vessels, water leaks out. It accumulates around the cells, making the tissues spongy and preventing the exchange of nutrients and oxygen. The capillaries collapse from lack of water, lowering blood pressure and eventually leading to shock and death. Patients that are ill with an albumin level less than 2.0 have much lower survival rates.

Sandy has a critically low albumin level of 1.6, which means that she may die.

Doctors offered us 2 options: ethical euthanasia right away or trying to treat the low albumin with an expensive doggie plasma transfusion. We couldn't even think of putting Sandy down without a fight, so we chose the treatment no matter how expensive it was.

In the morning, after the plasma transfusion, her albumin level increased a bit, but not so much. Plus, due to the nature of this disease, the ultrasound showed that she started accumulating fluids in her chest, which, if not treated, could get to her lungs and drown her. Doctors said she would need a second plasma transfusion but still were not sure whether it'd help her fluid levels or not. If the fluid keeps building up, it will be life-threatening for the dog. Of course, we started the second blood transfusion to help our baby, and it seemed to have help! She is alive now!

As of now, Sandy is back home after spending two nights in the ER. She is weak but stable, and she is back to her tower of pillows on the couch. Unfortunately, it looks like her condition is not treatable, and we may have more emergency visits like this in the future, but we will do everything in our power to keep her alive as long as we can and as healthy as she can be because we want to give her a nice life with lots of love, treats, and pets!

We appreciate it a lot if you would like to help contribute towards Sandy's huge ER bills - we spent 7200 USD, which is tough and overwhelming given we both were recently unexpectedly laid off by our employer just right after becoming new parents to an amazing baby girl.

It's very sad that healthcare in the USA is that expensive, so that many people can't afford to treat their pets or even have a pet in the first place.

Sincerely,

Stanley and Tatiana