Help Pepper Get Better

For those of you who know me well, you know I have a corgi named Pepper who is my best friend.  For the short story: Pepper has not been feeling well and has pneumonia, fluid on the outside of her lungs, and mega esophagus. She had blood work and an ultra sound today, but other than confirming the pneumonia, we don’t yet have answers for the problems with her esophagus or the fluid on the outside of her lungs (pneumonia is typically fluid on the inside of the lungs, and she has both right now). I have already spent $1,500 for initial tests and treatments, and they are wanting to do a CT scan for another $2,200-$2,600. After that, they will either have an answer, which could require surgery, or need to do more testing. Either way, she has a bit to go for recovery and potentially a very large vet bill. Right now, they are worried about cancer and/or a nerve disorder.

For the long story: I got Pepper when she was about 12 weeks old when I was a junior in high school. I actually worked at a turkey farm that summer to get enough money to buy her from a neighbor. She grew up on my families farm in Missouri, but has been living in Athens, OH with me for almost 2 years now. On Monday night, she woke me up in the middle of the night with a cough. Since she is 11 years old, I made a vet appointment for her as soon as I woke up on Tuesday morning. I took her in Tuesday afternoon, and they did some blood work and found that she had an infection. They gave her antibiotics and some medicine for her cough. Tuesday night she started vomiting as well, not large amounts but enough for me to be concerned. On Wednesday, the vet gave her a new antibiotic, and the vomiting seemed to get better. She seemed fine Thursday, still getting over the cold, until in the evening she started seeming a bit more lethargic. I took her back to the vet as soon as I could Friday, and they did an X-Ray on her chest. They saw she had fluid in and around her lungs. They also noticed that her esophagus was not closed like it should, which may have actually caused the vomiting. From there, they sent us to see a specialist in Columbus. As I noted above, they ran more tests, but only figured out she for sure has pneumonia. They sent her home with a bunch of med’s for both the pneumonia and her vomiting. She’s also currently on a bland diet of just rice and boiled chicken. On top of that, because of her esophagus I’m having to feed her at an elevated height, giving her only a little bit at a time so she doesn’t eat too fast. Right now she is at home and I am keeping a close eye on her (I may take her back to my local vet tomorrow morning before they close). If she gets worse, I’ll have to see if I can get her to an ER despite the weather in Ohio. While it’s mostly just suppose to rain in Athens, Columbus (where the ER we went today is) is suppose to get a large amount of snow, but there is an ER between Athens and Columbus that I may be able to get to in a worst case scenario. I am asking for any donations to help at least get her the CT scan, then possible surgery after. Any amount helps! Thank you all in advance, Pepper means a lot to me and I want her to be here as long as she can,  but also to be as comfortable as she can be as she’s aging and may have a serious illness now. Fingers crossed she gets better without too many more tests or surgeries.