Support Vitani's Journey to Recovery

Hey everyone. This will be super long. Anyone that has seen my posts on Facebook, has seen that Vitani hasn’t been doing well at all. She received vaccines (Bordetella, parvo, and her heartworm injection) in mid December, triggering an autoimmune disease that I didn’t know she had and hasn’t been the same since.

A little bit about her. Vitani is 8 years old. She is literally the most empathetic dog, she wears her heart on her sleeve. She loves tug of war, tearing up toys, following us wherever we go, car rides in Connor’s truck, and being right by our side at all times. None of these things excite her ever since December 17th.

I’ve taken her to her primary vet so many times and the ER vet in Wilmington hoping for answers. Things will seem promising for a day (or less) and then she is right back to where she was. She lost her spark, strength, and ability to do much of anything. She is in so much constant pain. She struggles to use her back legs, getting up from sitting and lying down, she can’t jump in or out of our vehicles or on and off of our bed. I bought her stairs for the bed which has helped a lot but if we don’t guide her up them, she will sleep in her bed on the floor next to us.

This past Tuesday, she took a turn for the worst and spent the entire day vomiting all over the place. She would even vomit while laying down and continue to lay in it until we notice and move her. Which didn’t take long to notice. Well she hasn’t eaten since Monday, 1/27. I took her to her primary vet on that same Tuesday and they referred me to The NC State College of Veterinary Medicine because they couldn’t do anything more for her. Connor and I drove her to NC State and they have been so helpful in making a game plan for her vomiting, not eating, and joint issues. She has spent 2 nights in the hospital under 24 hour supervision with tests and treatments. Right now we are mostly focusing on her nausea/vomiting, lack of appetite and liver and kidney values, which are extremely high. While at NC State, we noticed sores on both sides of her lips. They took samples and will likely have to take a biopsy of it. Joint stuff will come in the next week or two.

On Friday 1/31, she FINALLY ate something and you have no idea the joy I had watching her eat at the hospital. As soon as she was in the clear, not vomiting and continuing to eat, we were able to take her home on February 1st.

As for her joints, at the Wilmington ER vet in early January she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in both of her wrists and both of her ankles or IMPA (Immune-Mediated Polyarthritis) because it’s multiple joints. She is going to get a joint tap once her steroids have worn off so we can get accurate results in a week or so. They are looking to verify that it is IMPA, check for infections and learn the cause so they can treat it appropriately. Which will be at least one more overnight at the hospital at NC State.

Needless to say, this is getting extremely expensive. Before taking her here, I already spent thousands of dollars on her primary vet visits as well as taking her to the ER vet in Wilmington. I was luckily able to cover all of those costs from my savings but I have unfortunately run dry. I’m now borrowing money to pay for the NC State visits.

I hate to do this, but if you can, please donate to help pay for her treatments so I don’t have to borrow anymore money, can pay back what I have already borrowed for her care and continue her treatments. Anything helps, really.

I have been a huge mess with all of this. She is my baby and I will do anything to help her get better. I absolutely hate to see her like this. I feel very uncomfortable asking for money, but at this point I don’t see any other options.. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to read all of this. I know it’s ridiculously long. I just wanted to explain in detail what is going on.