Trooper's Healing Fund

As many of you know, Trooper recently had a really severe medical emergency. After not eating or drinking for two days, coupled with extreme lethargy, weakness and reduced alertness, we took him to animal Urgent Care as recommended by our vet. He spent the day there with dangerously low blood sugar and a slow heartbeat that they couldn't adequately address on-site and had him transferred to an animal hospital.

He spent 3 days receiving 24 hour medical care - on the first night he experienced an extreme neurological event due to hypoglycemia. Thanks to the doctors and nurses, he survived. Every day we got to visit him for food and lots of love, but he was in real bad shape and we really weren't sure if he was going to be able to come home. Luckily, over the course of his hospital stay they were able to rule out infection and

insulinoma/liver cancer as the cause. Eventually his glucose and blood sugar stabilized with the help of a human sized IV drip and lots of other medical interventions and monitoring. He was able to recover some of the weight he had lost (frankly there's not much to spare on a usually 1.3 kilo dog) and was cleared to go home with a course of antibiotics and a prescription for a steroid that he will most likely be on for the rest of his life. While the doctors suspect a GI/bowel issue is ultimately to blame, they were unable to determine specifics without a referral to an internal medicine specialist for a CT scan, which requires anesthesia. Since he was responding positively to the steroids, the doctors agreed that it might not be necessary for the time being.

At his 2 week check-up with the internal medicine specialist, all of his tests had good outcomes and he was able to lower his steroid dosage. We will have another check up in six months, and the doctor is hopeful that by then he can step down to every other day for the steroid. And as for Trooper, his spicy personality and tyrranical demands are back in full force. He's carrying on like normal and beefing up back to his fighting weight. We know he's a senior guy, but there's still a lot of gas in the tank.

All of that care and medical intervention sure did rack up a hefty price tag though. If you can spare any funds to put towards his five figure pile of bills, we would be so appreciative.

thank you for reading and sharing,

Courtney, Roger and Trooper