Help Save Kuma

Kuma is a 5 year old Shiba Inu. He is my road trip and beer traveling companion, my hiking partner, and he means the absolute world to me.

Last week I noticed Kuma wasn't feeling quite right. He was having to take breaks to catch his breath and dry heave while running around with other dogs at the dog park. He was fine while at rest for the most part. Then his birthday came up this Saturday and I noticed he didn't have much of an appetite, which is extremely rare because I always put on a pretty nice raw meat spread for him for his birthday every year and he scarfs it right down.

The next day I noticed that he was having a visibly tough time breathing, even while at rest. You could actually see his rib cage expand on each side with every breath. I panicked and took him to my vet at Canterbury Animal Hospital. She noticed that he was breathing about 6 times the normal amount of breaths per minute than he should be at rest. While listening to his heart, she could barely hear it because it was so muffled. They sedated him, did an x-ray and were shocked to find there was so much fluid surrounding his heart and lungs they could barely make out any details.

My vet tried doing a chest tap but was unsuccessful. I took him to Upstate Veterinary Specialists to see if they had better luck. That evening, they took off about a half liter of fluid from his chest, an insane amount for a dog who only weighs 26 lbs. The x-ray without the fluid in his chest showed complications in his lung. I was able to take him home that night while we weighed our options on what to do next.

As UVS does not have a CT scanner, my next step was to make an appointment for Kuma at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine Companion Animal Hospital. It wasn't until the next morning so Kuma and I went and did what we do best: road tripping through Vermont and visiting some of our favorite breweries. No big beer hauls on this trip, just a lot of love from people up there who love to see Kuma and know how much he means to me. It was exactly what we needed to lift our spirits, but a little bittersweet because I didn't know if would be our last trip like that.

The morning after our Vermont trip, we headed out to Cornell. They kept him for most of the day and that evening they did an ultrasound to inspect the heart for disease, which they thankfully found no issues with. They kept him there overnight and the next morning, they did the CT scan and found one of his lung lobes has twisted around and was no longer receiving blood and oxygen.

As he was already under general anesthesia, they chose to operate on him then. They opened his chest through his side and found that the lobe in torsion had been twisted for a while and had fused with the two other lobes next to it. One of the lobes they were unable to separate and they removed that one as well. The other lobe they were able to separate, but it was leaking so they stapled the lobe shut. While in surgery they installed a PleuralPort so if liquid builds back up again, we can remove it much easier back here in Albany rather than heading back to Cornell.

As of this morning, Kuma is in ICU, attached to a chest tube under vacuum, which is sucking any fluid and leaked air out of his chest. He's eating and in his crate, but resting mostly. I'll be able to go out there and visit him this evening for about ten minutes.

The last I spoke to Cornell about estimated costs, Kuma's bills were totaling about $9300 including his previous two vet visits this week. That doesn't include the care he'll need after he gets out of Cornell, or even the three unplanned nights he'll be staying at the hospital this weekend.

We're going to monitor the liquid building up in his chest for another eight weeks. If removing the lobe torsion does not fix the liquid build up, first we'll have to have our local vet remove the fluid at a cost I'm not quite sure of yet. Secondly, we'll need to schedule him to go back out to Cornell for a second surgery to ligate the thoracic duct to prevent further liquid build up. That's where we're at right now. Still playing things by ear and figuring out when I can take him home, hopefully Monday, maybe Tuesday.

A lot of people have reached out asking how they can donate and help Kuma out, so I've decided to set up this GoFundMe for him. Any amount you can donate would be extremely helpful, awesome and very much appreciated.

I'm also going to use this space for two more things: Since Kuma has a lot of fans in the craft beer community, we're going to give away some kickass beer (and some whiskey) with some chances to win some bottles from my cellar, and a bunch of friends have pledged to add boxes of their own as well. If you're donating for a chance to win a box, please make sure to indicate that in your donation comment with #RallyForKuma so I know. (If you forget, you can edit your comment through your donation confirmation email.)
 Full details here: 
http://thefuj.com/

We're also going to hold a fundraiser next month. The WanderingDago has graciously offered to donate a pig roast, and Common Roots has offered to let us use their space and donate beer for the pig roast as well. We're still locking down the details for that event, but it will be a Tuesday sometime in June. I'll get more details to you everyone as soon as we can.

A huge thank you to anyone who can donate, but really to everyone for the huge outpouring of support from the past week. It means a lot to me that you all care about me and my pooch so much. ❤️