Franklin is our mutt, four (people) years young, and we adopted him two and a half years ago from the Washington Animal Rescue League , in DC. Up until last week, he'd been a bouncy, outgoing, non-stop tail-wagging fuzzy ball of energy. We've taken him to dog parks, long hikes, beaches, on a cross-country drive when we moved to Oakland, and he's always been a little charmer -- he even liked going to the vet, because he got to be held and cooed over by new people. But now, Franklin's sick at the specialty vet, they're still trying to figure out what's wrong, and when we visited him yesterday, the nurse said it was the first time his tail had wagged all day.
On Friday, January 29, Franklin started having occasional coughing attacks -- although he'd been vaccinated for kennel cough, we knew that it's like a flu shot, so there was a chance he could still catch a strain of it. Around 1am that night, he started coughing up crud and didn't stop for half an hour, so we took him to the 24-hour vet, where they agreed it was probably just kennel cough and gave him seven days' worth of antibiotics. It was a little more expensive than going to our regular vet, but we were glad we could get him treated right away.
Over the next week, Franklin's condition worsen day by day, despite the treatment he was getting. He was wheezing more, breathing faster, and his tail was droopy most of the time. By Thursday (February 4), his appetite was gone, even for his favorite treats, chicken and rice, yogurt, and peanut butter. We took him back to the vet that night, and they confirmed that the medicine he'd been taking wasn't helping. They put him in an 'oxygen cage' to help with his rapid breathing, took x-rays, and began diagnostic tests to try to figure out what was wrong.
He's been in the care of the specialty vet since that night -- following lots of different lab tests and exams, they think he has canine EBP, a fairly uncommon chronic inflammatory condition that can affect younger dogs. They aren't sure whether he has other co-morbid conditions, and we're waiting for the results of a cell culture to determine if he also has an acute fungal or bacterial infection. Either way, although he's started on steroids to combat the EBP, his progress has been slow, and he's had to spend days in the oxygen cage because he still can't breathe comfortably on his own.
We're hoping that we'll be able to take him home soon, but every update we get has pushed that time back. And with every additional day before we can bring him home, we're asked to authorize another thousand dollars or two in charges. We're up to $7650 and counting -- between the periodic x-rays, a tracheal wash and culture, medication, overnight care, and of course the hourly charge for the oxygen cage, the bills have really added up.
Under normal circumstances, we'd be the last people to ask for financial help, but Lotus lost her job last month, and we're in a tough spot. We had made a budget that accounted for her loss of income, including our routine veterinary care, but we couldn't have planned for this. We drew down most of our savings last year for the down payment on a house, in a large part so that our dogs could have a yard to play in, so we were pretty tapped out to begin with. The specialty vet helped us arrange for deferred financing for some of his care, but we have to come up with the rest of the bill now, and we're going to have to put it on a credit card and hope that we can come up with a plan before it comes due.
We're planning to share photo and video updates from Franklin as he continues to receive care, and hopefully as we reintroduce him in the coming months to walks in the woods near Oakland, our local dog parks, maybe even agility classes. We've gotten a lot of energy from his perpetually-sunny disposition, and we want to give him the best care in the world in return. We appreciate every contribution you make to his treatment, and once we can get back on our feet, we will happily pay your kindness forward in supporting our local shelters, advocating spaying/neutering and vaccinating pets, and hopefully someday fostering dogs in their time of need.
Thank you so much for listening to our story, and we hope that you'll share it with friends and family. We can't wait for Franklin to get his energy back, so that he can give you a thank-you wag, too!
- Lotus, Sam, and Samson (on behalf of Franklin)
On Friday, January 29, Franklin started having occasional coughing attacks -- although he'd been vaccinated for kennel cough, we knew that it's like a flu shot, so there was a chance he could still catch a strain of it. Around 1am that night, he started coughing up crud and didn't stop for half an hour, so we took him to the 24-hour vet, where they agreed it was probably just kennel cough and gave him seven days' worth of antibiotics. It was a little more expensive than going to our regular vet, but we were glad we could get him treated right away.
Over the next week, Franklin's condition worsen day by day, despite the treatment he was getting. He was wheezing more, breathing faster, and his tail was droopy most of the time. By Thursday (February 4), his appetite was gone, even for his favorite treats, chicken and rice, yogurt, and peanut butter. We took him back to the vet that night, and they confirmed that the medicine he'd been taking wasn't helping. They put him in an 'oxygen cage' to help with his rapid breathing, took x-rays, and began diagnostic tests to try to figure out what was wrong.
He's been in the care of the specialty vet since that night -- following lots of different lab tests and exams, they think he has canine EBP, a fairly uncommon chronic inflammatory condition that can affect younger dogs. They aren't sure whether he has other co-morbid conditions, and we're waiting for the results of a cell culture to determine if he also has an acute fungal or bacterial infection. Either way, although he's started on steroids to combat the EBP, his progress has been slow, and he's had to spend days in the oxygen cage because he still can't breathe comfortably on his own.
We're hoping that we'll be able to take him home soon, but every update we get has pushed that time back. And with every additional day before we can bring him home, we're asked to authorize another thousand dollars or two in charges. We're up to $7650 and counting -- between the periodic x-rays, a tracheal wash and culture, medication, overnight care, and of course the hourly charge for the oxygen cage, the bills have really added up.
Under normal circumstances, we'd be the last people to ask for financial help, but Lotus lost her job last month, and we're in a tough spot. We had made a budget that accounted for her loss of income, including our routine veterinary care, but we couldn't have planned for this. We drew down most of our savings last year for the down payment on a house, in a large part so that our dogs could have a yard to play in, so we were pretty tapped out to begin with. The specialty vet helped us arrange for deferred financing for some of his care, but we have to come up with the rest of the bill now, and we're going to have to put it on a credit card and hope that we can come up with a plan before it comes due.
We're planning to share photo and video updates from Franklin as he continues to receive care, and hopefully as we reintroduce him in the coming months to walks in the woods near Oakland, our local dog parks, maybe even agility classes. We've gotten a lot of energy from his perpetually-sunny disposition, and we want to give him the best care in the world in return. We appreciate every contribution you make to his treatment, and once we can get back on our feet, we will happily pay your kindness forward in supporting our local shelters, advocating spaying/neutering and vaccinating pets, and hopefully someday fostering dogs in their time of need.
Thank you so much for listening to our story, and we hope that you'll share it with friends and family. We can't wait for Franklin to get his energy back, so that he can give you a thank-you wag, too!
- Lotus, Sam, and Samson (on behalf of Franklin)