update: Zane became septic and we laid him to rest June 6th, 2023. He was only 8 years old. Our hearts are completely broken. We still have some left on his final bill. I updated the total to the exact amount, since we are now checked out from the hospital. Thank you so much for your continued support and love.

Hi, we’re Zane’s parents—Hilary and Nathan Brezinka. We rescued 6 wonderful dogs, most have megaesophagus a condition that requires extra care and attention. We don’t have human children but our dogs are definitely our kids. Recently one of our non-ME dogs, Zane ended up with a severe infection in his leg that has led to it needing to be amputated. We’re asking for help from our friends, family and the community. Any amount helps, it all adds up. Sometimes it takes a village.

About Zane: He’s 8 years old and very healthy. He loves to run, play fetch and is amazing at frisbee. Zane was there for me when I had a ruptured spinal disc, he took it upon himself to brace his body and help me stand. He was always a shoulder for me to cry on and a soft companion to cuddle. Now it’s my turn to be brave for him and help him regain his mobility.

Longer version of what happened: I believe what happened was about a week and half ago I was playing fetch with Zane. He decided to go lay in swamp water at the back of our yard to cool off, (that part of the yard never dried out from our super snowy/wet winter). There’s lots of sticks, weeds, reeds, etc that could’ve poked his armpit as he laid down to cool off, and that sitting water got in through the poke hole, and then what followed was an infection where the main injury had healed over forming an abscess.

At first (Thursday, May 25th) we thought Zane slowed down a bit due to his back hips which give him trouble sometimes so I increased his CBD, and we slowed down with fetch. Then it became apparent it was his front leg on Saturday (May 27th), and we figured it must be a sprain. I emailed a bunch of vets hoping to get in as soon as I could Monday if any were open but due to it being Memorial Day I figured we’d likely get an appointment Tuesday.

The next day (Sunday, May 28th) I worried it might be a dislocation or slight fracture, his leg became more swollen. Btw he’s a very furry dog and there was no leakage from his “wound” so we had no idea it was an infection. There was no bump, it was just a swollen upper/mid leg that spread to his entire leg quickly.

On Monday (memorial day, May 29th) he started licking his leg and I told Nathan we have to go in, he’s clearly uncomfortable to the point that he licked a bald spot in a matter of minutes. That’s when we brought him to Blue Pearl ER. They sedated him, opened up his leg to drain, cleaned it and put a couple staples in. We went home and I had been cleaning and caring for his leg Tuesday-Wednesday.

Wednesday (May 31st) we woke up and it seemed like an optimistic day, Zane was happy, he ate and drank a bit, went pee. Then as the day went on he ended up throwing up a small amount of partially digested food. The skin on his leg really started to fall and droop in several places. And being I have no experience with this I was scared. His leg made me think of a zombie with skin falling off.

Thursday (June 1st) we went in for our first follow up at ZimmVet. Dr. Olson said I did a good job caring for his leg. However, she wanted us to get in to see a surgeon ASAP and didn’t give up finding somewhere that could take Zane that day. Within a couple hours we were referred to the AERC (Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota). I brought Zane in right it (it’s an hour and half drive from our house). Zane had his first surgery that night to remove dead tissue so his leg could start to heal. Unfortunately the news wasn’t great. We found out he barely had any viable skin left, and that remaining skin is just a long thin strip down the length of his leg and they warned us it could end up dying as well. He also had a dead vein and a muscle with lack of blood flow which was causing his foot to turn outward.

They recommended that either we do a skin graft from his chest or amputate. We discussed both options in great detail and looked at pictures of his raw leg. The graft isn’t guaranteed to work, and comes with a long, painful recovery process not to mention exponentially more expensive. Amputating would mean he’d recover much sooner and be home feeling better quicker. It’s a very hard decision for any parent to make but we feel amputation is what’s best for him.

We’ll have some follow up appointments and our recent visit to ZimmVet wasn’t covered yet. I added a bit to the hospital bill from AERC to cover those appointments.

Thank you from the bottom of all our hearts for doing what you can to help our family out. Lots of love and appreciation, The Brezinka pack