Melissa Karolak

Revised because I don’t really know what day it is and GoFundMe won’t let me edit it. Monday night Tyson took a significant turn for the worse. Based on guidance from the critical care vets and our own sense of our beloved dog, we decided on Tuesday to help him die peacefully. We hate this outcome. We can’t thank you enough for the support and love and appreciate that you held Tyson and us in your warm embrace. While we still have a significant investment to deal with — we don’t regret it even as we wish it had been different. We send our “schnauzer with golden energy” into eternity with so much love and thankfulness.

Sunday night Tyson took a significant turn for the worse. Based on guidance from the critical care vets and our own sense of our beloved dog, we decided on Monday to help him die peacefully. We hate this outcome. We can’t thank you enough for the support and love and appreciate that you held Tyson and us in your warm embrace. While we still have a significant investment to deal with — we don’t regret it even as we wish it had been different.

Tyson is home, urinary catheter and all, awaiting surgery. His surgery consult is scheduled for Tuesday with surgery tentatively planned for Weds. We are exploring options with his family vet to see if she is comfortable doing the surgery, otherwise he will return to MedVet for the surgery. They are pretty confident that there are no longer stones in his urethra — that they are all in the bladder. This makes for a simpler more routine surgery for which we are grateful. It also facilitates him waiting at home for the surgery which helps to defray some of the truly awe inspiring costs. Total bill to date is just over $9300. They estimate the surgery to be another $4500 or so. For a dog who has never been food motivated we have a gobsmacking number of pills to get in him over the next few days — one medicine alone is 3 pills twice a day. And Melissa marvels at the number of things a kid who used to hide when her mom the nurse gave a neighbor regular allergy shots has learned to do to take care of her Pack. She gets to add “take care of a urinary catheter” to the growing list. At least this time there are no needles involved. But we and he are delighted that he’s back home and sacked out in front of the TV awaiting surgery. We appreciate every dollar, every share, every text or comment of encouragement. Thank you for reminding us how large Our Pack really is.

Tyson's care is in jeopardy! He needs surgery! We need help to get it for him! Tyson, our 12 year old schnauzer --and the friendliest dog you've ever met -- found himself in the vet hospital last week with deteriorating kidney values. Turns out the culprit was bladder stones that caused a blockage in his urethra. He has spent the week on a catheter and getting fluids and his kidneys values have mostly recovered and he is a candidate for the surgery to remove the bladder stones. The vet hospital is almost $2000 a day for the therapeutic care that had allowed his kidneys to recover and make him able to have the surgery to remove the bladder stones. Our current care estimate from MedVet is for $9900, without accounting for the surgery. The surgery will be approximately another $5000. We are devastated that his health outcomes might be limited by our financial situation. It's been a rough year for us as for many, including managing one of us being unemployed due to a layoff in 2025. We've mostly managed to keep it together but just. If you can help the friendliest dog ever -- his goal has always been to meet ALL the People -- Tyson and his people would be eternally grateful. Vet estimates, bills, etc. available (hs MedVet Internal Medicine vets are Dr. Kett and Dr. Matarazzo). i