Support Our Dog's Urgent Vet Care

Long post alert:

My dog, Fido, who is so many people’s favorite dog has had some health complications over the last few days. Many of you know me and know my love for my dogs and specifically, Fido, I got him in college he has been with me through so many phases of my life and has watched me grow! He is kind, fun, loving not one person that comes to our home doesn’t fall in love with him. When I cry he’s right there on top of me making sure I’m okay. He loves walks, he loves to play people can’t believe he’s 10 when they see him because he acts like such a puppy. He is my soul dog, my best friend, the one thing in this world I love more than anything and god when it rains it pours.

I have not been eating, sleeping,it has truly been the worst week of my life.

Over the next fews days I will be posting some items for sale to help with the cost. If you would gladly share them it would be extremely appreciated. I honestly do say this with embarrassment. I try to work so hard as we all do, I work my full time job, reff volleyball, coach volleyball, do adult clinics, work part time at bath and body everything to try and make the life you want and yet still we all struggle during these troubling times of food cost, housing cost, health care.

Fido has a little sniffle on 1/16/25 at which time I called our vet Friday morning and got him an antibiotic because I thought he possibly picked up kennel cough at his vet check up only the day before, they proceeded to give me the antibiotic and asked if he was eating or drink which he was fine in all other aspects.

Monday 1/20/25 he started wheezing and refused to eat or drink later that evening at which point I knew we need to act.

Tuesday 1/21/25 he got right in the see our vet and we wanted a chest X-ray immediately which they proceeded with and found a large amount of air in his chest cavity. She advised she took some of the air out at which time he was breathing much better but she suggested we head to and emergency vet to get large tubes in for drainage and to address the problem, we proceeded to go to Blue Pearl emergency where the doctor there advised instead of putting tubes in him we needed to know more so she suggested a CT scan and which point it started snowing extensively. Are only options were Cornell, Pittsburgh, and Canada but with the snow storm it was very tough and are Buffalo option was Green Acres. ( I have heard horror stories of people pets dying here so I was more willing to take my chances elsewhere) but with the snow storm and him not eating or drinking to doctor suggested just taking him there to get the CT scan and fluids and go from there.

Tuesday 1/21/ 25: we went to Green acres reluctantly but we needed to do something they admitted him and advised they would do the CT scan and they also send it out and someone would call me, we went back later that night to see him and no one advised if the CT scan was done.

Wednesday 1/22/25 still no call from Green acres so we just went there and sat with him and waited, the doctor came in and told us per the CT scan he has a large lung Bullae which is air filled sacs in a dogs lung that can rupture causing a life threatening condition which leads to a pneumothorax. They suggested we go in and take out the large Bullae they could see. I wasn’t letting them touch my dog considering they weren’t board certified and the guy tried to tell me the surgeons pretty good does a lot of broken bones…. This isn’t broken bones this is cracking my 10 year old dogs chest open and preforming a massive surgery cutting off portions of his lungs so we called Orchard park emergency staff and they answered right away and said they had room and a board certified surgeon in from Long Island ready to discuss. Green acres gave us an estimate which was almost the same as his overnight visit which I thought was extremely odd considering what a massive surgery it was and especially if he had to come home with chest tubs as we were leaving they said well orchard park doesn’t have a bored certified surgeon either so….

Wednesday 1/22/25: we took him to the orchard park medical center where they looked him over and were attempting to get all the medical records from our vet and green acres and a good copy of the CT scan, we were there for hours attempting to get them the CT scan because the board certified surgeon was only there Wednesday and Thursday and if he was going to get it I wanted it to be with her. Green acres said the guy that burns the disc isn’t there so it will wait until tomorrow, Eric called them back and lost his mind and asked them to call the place that sent them the CT to just send it to OP. Finally we had confirmation they had it. They advised it was likely he was going into surgery Thursday morning but they would call me before.

Thursday 1/23/25: no call still and around 9am I gave them a call to see what was going on, they advised the doctor saw some things on the CT scan and didn’t want to proceed with the surgery just this second and wanted us to come in to discuss. We rushed in and got to see Fido and then Dr. Farrah Horowitz who had literally come from finishing up a patient still out of breath came and gave us the best explanation thus far. She sat with us over 30 mins and said she wanted to drain all the air out of the chest cavity take X-rays to make sure we got it all out and retest at night and then retest Friday morning because what happens is sometimes they will seal themselves and no surgical intervention is needed. She said in all her years this is her first Pit-Bull she checked the chart twice and went to see him and checked all his records and was just very surprised it was a Pit-bull.

We asked what caused it and she said they really have no idea so they often say genetic because they don’t know which I appreciated in all transparency.

So they tapped him at 12:00pm took X-rays and confirmed they got everything out. They drained 1 entire liter of air out of his right side and 600ml out of his left side.

We went back at 7pm for our visit and because we knew they were doing the repeat X-rays.

The vet on staff came in extremely excited saying he had not filled. Although we attempted not to be too hopeful we did cry and have a sigh of relief that finally maybe something was going to go right and he would come home tomorrow

Friday 1/24/25: he was supposed to get X-Rays at 8:00am and by 9:00am no call which I knew was not good. When I called they advised they wanted the surgeon to call me because he unfortunately had refilled. He suggested as of the weekend we put actual tubes in get everything out and hopefully with no additional air his lung pockets they would essentially seal themselves. If they got 24 hours of negative pressure so far so good he sealed, they would remove the tubes and watch another 24 hours and if still no air and negative pressure he could come home.

If that did not work by Monday we had two options:

Experimental blood treatment where they would take his blood out and spin it and put in over his lungs and the white blood cells would seal the lungs. Because it’s experimental it’s 50-65% chance rate. One of the other surgeons said the issue is because it hasn’t been studied long term they don’t know if where the white blood cells sealed the holes if scar tissue would then develop over that and hence cause more issues but they just don’t know. The other option is the surgery, which is extremely invasive and they explained they could go in find where the leak is and cut what they needed out but they could open him up and he could be lit up like a Christmas tree and then they could only seal what they could and hope for the best. They also advised if there was one or two leaking then that’s great they can seal them but there could also be several others so even if they successfully closed the leaking one the other ones could open anytime. Nothing is a guarantee which I appreciate them saying.

We currently got a call from the vet advising they successfully placed the tubes in and now we wait, but here’s the thing. When is enough enough? How much do you put your dog through? I write this post with no shame we simply cannot afford it… with his overnight stays, X- rays, CT scans everything else we are already at over $20,000 that’s not including the blood therapy or the surgery which we were quoted another $10k-$13k for.

I think regardless of the outcome Monday we will likely bring him home and let him be happy and comfortable here and then call laps of love to come.

This is also to raise awareness for your dogs! I have had over 10 plus dogs all different breeds and this disease is nothing I have ever seen. Shockley enough this is typically only a disease in Huskys, Newfoundlands, and other mountain dogs breeds. If you have one of these dogs and they are getting older they told us it’s never a bad idea to get a chest X-ray and blood work to see and be aware if this is something happening to that breed of dog. They don’t need to be put under for the X-ray and at some vets are really affordable.